After a few days in Ho Chi Minh City we were ready to visit some of the more rural areas of South East Asia. Up first on our list, the Angkor temple complex in Siem Reap. On our travel day we did not visit the temple complex, but we did explore the local area with a guided bicycle tour from our hostel through the lotus fields and to nearby Buddhist temple.

Our first full day in Siem Reap we did the morning Ankor tour through our hostel. This hit the main attractions like Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Prohm, and Banteay Kdei. It really feels like you are Indiana Jones exploring these temples, absolutely stunning. We finished off our day with a double-dinner of wood-fired fresh pineapple pizza and a Khmer curry on Pub Street.

After getting a taste of the adventure with the morning tour, we decided to book the afternoon tour and hit most of the rest of the temples. We also had a nice night on pub street with the $0.50 drafts and live music!

After a few exhausting days exploring the temple complex we decided to take a day off. Today we got the scattered downpours typical of the region, so we explored around town for some food and otherwise took the opportunity to work on our posts and books.

Today was our travel day to Phnom Penh, and our first non-plane travel day of the trip. We took a bus cross-country from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh and got to soak in the sights of the Cambodian countryside. Altogether it was a really nice bus trip, with a couple stops but nothing too egregious and tourist trappy. When we arrived in Phnom Penh we checked out the rooftop pool on our hotel (super cool!) and had one of the best meals of the trip, David's Homemade Noodles.

Today we decided to learn about Khmer Rouge, an important period in Cambodian history. Unfortunately, also an extremely dark period of genocide. After visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum we hit some of the other major attractions in town a long the riverside and made our way to the famous Friends Restauraunt, where Steph ATE BUGS! We spent the afternoon fully enjoying the rooftop pool at the hotel, from sunbathing to the light show on the city skyline at night.