Who are the nicest people in Asia?

Straight up, it's the Cambodians. Now this is pretty bad but I'm about to update you on my trip to Cambodia, which I took about 3 months ago. Actually right now, I'm sitting in cold and rainy London, England and I've already started working in my new position in external affairs at a charity..... but, I have lots of backtracking to do before I expand more on that.

So, why did I go to Cambodia?

Very often, I'm prompted to travel somewhere because I've heard loving stories told on a particular country, detailing it's culture, quirks, sites, sounds and food and I become totally jealous as I begin to draw pictures of myself in my head exploring the foreign land. This feeling of longing begins to develop inside of me and it grows and grows until it completely fills me up and the intensity of my desire to travel begins to make my heart hurt.

I never felt this way about Cambodia.

No one had told me life-changing stories from their trip to Siem Reap and no one had described Cambodian culture to me in a way that made me say - "I gotta see this!". Truth be told, I didn't even desire to see the world-famous Angkor Wat and I had basically convinced myself that it was over-rated.

But then a weird thing happened.....

As I neared the end of my stint in Asia, I was forced to deal with the reality that if I didn't venture off to the countries surrounding Malaysia, there's a possibility that I would never see that country. Ever. I started to experience FOMO and asked myself - would I regret not seeing arguable the WORLDS MOST FAMOUS TEMPLE and getting to decide myself, if I liked Cambodia or not? I feared not having this experience and so a mad race against time ensued to get myself to Siem Reap. Luckily my dear Mother had plans to come to Asia to see her own mother in Singapore as so I deemed her my travel buddy and started planning my trip.

Pre-Trip
My mom and I started our trip to Siem Reap in typical Malaysian style - it was super, super frustrating. For some reason, Air Asia opened only ONE of their international terminal gates and forced every flight to leaveout of there, one plane after the next. To make matters worse, the gate its self could only hold the people boarding the particular flight.

This meant that we had to stand outside the passport check in a massive line (that was slowly turning into a massive blob) of people crowding to get in until the officer at the front of the line checked each individual's boarding pass and directed them either to stay at the front of the line waiting for the flight to board (hence the growth of a blob) or to enter into the holding area.

The inefficiency of the whole process was just amazing. At this point, I was well accustomed to the Malaysian logic and this didn't even phase me..........okay, it phased me a little and I was ALSO strangely and weirdly happy that my Mom finally saw what I was dealing with on a daily basis in KL. Misery loves company, as they say, and I was not holding back. I should work on that.

We eventually made it to Siem Reap and got to see all of the little town fairly quickly - our 3 days there were more than enough :) For anyone looking to travel to Siem Reap, I've put together a list of my thoughts and feelings and tips on traveling to the Land of Angkor.


Firstly - the Cambodian people are extremely, extremely lovely. They were so friendly and nice - from the Tuk Tuk drivers to the tour guides to the random people you met in the stores and on the road. They had a genuine interest in helping you get to your destination. You can definitely rely on the locals to point you in the right direction.

Secondly - Cambodia does have a lot of Khmer culture - you experience it when you do things like seeing an Apsara dance show or learning how to cook Khmer cuisine in the many cooking schools available. My Mom and I took a class at a restaurant called Le Tigre de Papier and for the first time in my life, I made fresh curry paste from scratch after buying the ingredients in one of the craziest wet markets I've never seen in my life.

The raw ingredients.....

...turned into real food!

Khmer Cuisine, by Sheena

Thirdly, if you like passion fruit, I strongly recommend that you go to the Hyatt Hotel cafe called The Glass House and eat their passion fruit ice cream. It's the yummiest I've had. ever.

Fourth - Get a foot massage at the Siem Reap night market. My Mom and I found ourselves on some pink sofas, watching men in drag perform hits from the 90s. If you go to the night market there is no chance that you will miss this spectacle.

Fifth - Visit the Temples of Angkor (duh). These are beautiful beautiful temples. From the the temple where tomb raider was shot (with the overgrown trees and everything) to Angkor Wat, each temple was a stunning work of architecture which truly leaves you in awe.

The temple of Bayon ... now spot the faces

Bayon Temple Selfie

Here are my tips on visiting the temples of Angkor Wat:

- Be very choosey about the time of year and even the time of day that you go to visit the temples. There are LOTS of tourists that come to these sites and it's hard to feel like you're in a special place, a secluded temple from the past, when there are 1 million people around you yelling, posing for pictures everywhere and pushing past you. Go to Angkor Wat dring lunch time so that you have the temple all to yourself, just like we did.

- Hire a tour guide - You honestly have no idea what you're missing if you decide to walk through the temple without someone to explain the history and meaning behind the structure and carvings. Get one.

- Bring lots of water, wear comfy shoes, and bring a hat. It's extremely hot and the sun is very powerful.

- Travel by bike if you want to see the lesser known temples (that's also where it's much less crowded).

Tuk Tuk traffic jam

Sixth - Make sure you stay right in the 'city' center. There's no reason to stay on airport road 2-5 tuk tuk minutes away. Choose to be walking distance from everything as there's alot of fun stuff going on at night.

One thing to be weary of:
2 dollar american bills. They use American dollars in Cambodia and at a few points, the Cambodians gave us change with included a 2 dollar US bill. My mum and I were a bit skeptical since we had never seen one before, but just went with it. And then, we called my Dad to tell him about it and he laughed in our faces, telling us that there was no such thing and we'd been given fake money.

Overall, I'm happy I visited Siem Reap. I truly would have been sad to leave Asia without seeing this hugely important piece of heritage and meeting the lovely Cambodian people. But, I still prefer Vietnam and Thailand to Cambodia because these countries gave me more of an immersive experience, culturally speaking, where as in Siem Reap, I was recognized and treated like a tourist the entire time. Hopefully, my stories and tips have given you some reason to check it out!

Happy travels!