Photo Courtesy of TripAdvisor.com
I was staying with my friend Donna at the Popular Guesthouse in Siem Reap, Cambodia, for $5 per night (for more information, contact the guesthouse at chom@camnet.com.kh or see the link below). The room was spacious, with enough room for me to empty the contents of my entire backpack on the floor and shovel through them at will. We’d arrived just that morning, and due to exhaustion from an extremely long night (we’d spent the previous night in the tiny library of a hostel in Vientiane, Laos, so we could catch our 4:30am flight), the two of us promptly collapsed in bed and ‘napped’ for a good seven hours. In the interest of saving money, we’d been getting rooms with just one bed and sharing it. Fortunately, neither of us snored and even I, a restless bed hog, was able to share nicely.
Photo Courtesy of Worldisround.com
When we woke up, we changed into our evening wear, which I’m sorry to say wouldn’t allow us entrance in anything swankier than a dive, and headed out to forage for food. It was pouring rain, so we decided to venture no further than our own hotel. One of the reasons the Popular Guesthouse is so, well, popular, is their rooftop restaurant. The food is tasty and cheap, there are usually other backpackers lounging about so it’s easy to make friends, and the waiters there are fast and friendly. Donna fell in love with the pumpkin soup, which smelled amazing. I had the feeling it was the start of a long and delicious relationship. After dinner, we intrepid adventurers set out to explore.
Photo Courtesy of Donna Knoesen
It was a beautiful night, and we waved and exchanged a few pleasantries with several local people as we made the short trek into town. It was bustling, especially the main streets. People were out and about, anxious to get some fresh (albeit thick and muggy) air. After prowling the streets under the guise of people watching, Donna and I stopped at Temple Bar, one of the bars along ‘Bar Street’. Temple Bar has a club downstairs and a large balcony area upstairs with a great view of the rest of Bar Street. Their menu features Khmer, Western and Thai food, and they offer cocktails and cheap beer. Informed that it was happy hour with buy two, get one free specials (apparently happy hour turns into hours at this fun place, and is from 4-9pm), we decided on a bucket of mojitos, which might be one of the most delicious drinks ever invented. Several hours later, after a lazy night of drinks and chitchat, we retired to our guesthouse to prepare for the next day.
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