Life in Siem Reap

During the course of my two months in Siem Reap, I produced dozens of pages of blog notes – quite possibly the most I’ve ever written in one place. Somehow, I just couldn’t stop writing.

Yet in favor of moving forward, I’m once again going to cut a bit short. Rather than attempting to polish a small novel’s worth of observations, I’ll post just a representative set of photos & notes to give you a glimpse of what life was like – and why I stayed for so long. Hopefully, it’ll be just enough to motivate you to go experience Cambodia for yourselves 🙂

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I guess my “home” would be as good a place to start as ...

So for convenience, I made a reservation for just a few...

And during my first week or so there, I did spend sever...

…And here’s a $12 room.

Ultimately though, I ended up staying right where I sta...

Terang, the manager, along with his wife, child, and st...

I watched as their little toddler learned how to walk a...

(If you didn’t know, it’s very common for SouthEast Asi...

And even beyond the wonderful staff, the value at Tropi...

Once I’d settled in, my day-to-day life in Siem Reap be...

Let’s start off with the “eats.”

Cambodian food is absolutely fantastic. If you like Th...

Every day I spoiled myself with huge portions of Amok f...

(One of my favorite activities was trying every flavor ...

And with Cambodia’s bargain-basement prices, eating eve...

Plus, if you ever feel like you miss home, Siem Reap ha...

OK, food’s covered; next up are gyms. Despite being su...

And of course, let’s not forget the ever-present cute C...

One minute I’m working out, the next I’ve got three lit...

As for cardio, my regular jogs provided a great way to ...

Because while there are plenty of nice routes within Si...

…With more than enough unusual sights to see…

The runs were an obvious opportunity to stray a bit far...

Many of these jogs offered my first glimpses of rural C...

So that covers food, gym, and cardio – now we come to w...

As it turns out, SR was an almost perfect spot to catch...

Unlike nearby Bangkok, with its nonstop wild nightlife,...

The few nightspots it does have – mostly clustered arou...

This worked fine for me: there was always a spot to hav...

In fact, during my entire time there, I only went out o...

One day while having lunch at my favorite restaurant, K...

Other than that, I generally kept to myself and did my ...

Now, while the above offers a peek at my life in SR – a...

But rather than go too deep into the issues of a countr...

The first is burning garbage. Because it’s such a poor...

Second: barking dogs. Virtually everyone seems to have...

Third: weddings. When Cambodians get married, they hav...

I guess those are the only things that really bothered ...

So other than those three (four?) things, I guess I’d s...

Note: These posts are behind realtime; the above took place in February & March of 2012.