Siem Reap

It's been 8 years since I last set foot in Siem Reap....and wow, has it changed. I actually booked us at the same hotel I stayed at in 2010 because it had a stone bathtub on the balcony that I loved and was in a good location to the markets and restaurants. I can't even believe the drastic change in what I remember as a charming city with a small town feel....it's somehow turned into Bourbon Street.

In what was a quiet neighborhood that my hotel was in, is now 2 blocks from a Hard Rock Cafe blaring music until 4am and what used to be a lively street with great restaurants is now the equivalent of Bourbon Street with bar after bar blaring dance music and drunk people in the streets. It's really sad.

We still had some great meals and I had some epic massages at$6/hr! We even tried the hilariously tickley feet fish spa. Best $3 I ever spent!

We ate a yummy Cambodian barbecue place....it was like soup meets fondue meets Korean BBQ. The bowl under had hot coals, the outside had boiling broth that cooked the veggies and the top cooked the meet with the fire from the coals. It was amazing! We had chicken, beef, shark, fish, squid, alligator and pork.

We also had the most amazing Japanese shave ice drowning in passion fruit sauce!!

I've been to the Angkor Wat temples but Scott hadn't and they are so good I came back to make sure he got to experience them as well.

It was fun to retake some pictures of be 8 years later in the same spot.

2018

2010

Siem Reap does not disappoint even with a second viewing! Great temples, great city, and great food.
We bought some art here to bring home and a few souvenirs too...our bags are slowly getting heavier!

Today we are off to the final island of our journey...Koh Rong Samloem, just about 45min speedboat ride south of the southern most part of Cambodia. There we will celebrate my 42nd birthday and soak up some final sun before heading home to winter.

Ko Lipe

Koh Lipe is the most Southern island in Thailand, located just 60 km from mainland Thailand in the Andaman Sea. It is part of the Adang Archipelago, which is a cluster of about 10 uninhabited islands in which Koh Lipe is the only inhabited one.

We stayed in a very simple beach bungalow here but what we lacked in creature comforts we made up for by staying on one of the most beautiful beaches I've every seen! It was worth sacrificing AC and a comfy mattress for! The price was right too at $125/night to wake up on this paradise.

View from our balcony.

The little beach in front of our hotel, white sand and aqua water!

Our beach bungalow.

Koh Lipe has 3 main beaches and a handful of smaller beaches. The main street in Koh Lipe is called “Walking Street” but motorbikes & motorbike taxi’s do drive on Walking Street.There are no cars on the island at all.....which is exactly how I like my little islands and super small and totally walkable at only 3.6km by 2.5km.

walking street

Our hotel was off the main beach and we had to actually reach it on a bamboo walkway built into the rocks.

This island it pretty developed....borderline too over developed but we had a plethora of things to eat and entertain us with. Good restaurants, cheap massages, slurpee stations, even a 7-11.

Morning coffee on the beach!

Next up we head to Siem Reap....a long travel day involving a ferry, bus, 2 planes and finally a tuk tuk ride. We'll leave here at 11:30am and get to our hotel around 10pm.