Exploring Siem Reap on Our Own
On Monday, Feb 24, 2020 we had no scheduled trips until the evening when we did a trip called Khmer Bites after Dark on Tuk Tuk. Our guide Thara picked us up at 5:00 pm for a 3 hour tour.
Our first stop was a restaurant where we tasted four types of local beers. Then off we went to our wine tasting experience...it was rice wine. The fellow there took us upstairs to the fermentation room where we viewed various wines at different stages of fermentation. There were 11 different types and some examples were - sweetgrass and pineapple, one that tasted like black licorice plus many more that we cannot remember.
The good thing was the samples were very small...some were good and some not so much for our western tastes. The experience itself was great as the location of the wine business was off the beaten track. We had alot of fun joking with our guide Thara and the host at the wine shop.
Once done then back into our Tuk Tuk and off to a night market near where we bought tickets the day before for Angkor Wat. What a transformation to the area! We did not bring our cameras that night which is disappointing looking back.
The pictures we wish we could share included Thara eating a 21 day old fertilized duck egg...you could see the duck was developed but had no feathers. Thara added a little lime juice plus a sauce of some sort and throughly enjoyed his snack....we queezly declined his offer to share.
Thank goodness because the next stop was at what Bob called the "Bug Booth". Here you could order from a selection of fried tadpoles, grubs, black beetles and meal worms. You might be getting a sense that it was not too bad to have left the cameras at the hotel....we will have the pictures in our minds forever. The locals rented mat space on a wooden platform covered by tarps and enjoyed this fare on their night out.
Our final stop was at a local restaurant where Thara ordered us some local cuisine....then back to our room.
Before the night tour we explored Siem Reap on our own. Enjoy the pictures.
Before we left Siem Reap we decided to lighten our load by mailing home some things that we obviously no longer needed...Naomi's cane (she is so glad to be rid of it), coats that we needed in Halong Bay (nothing but hot weather now) and some of our purchases. We grabbed a Tuk tuk and mailed 10.6 kgs for $85.00 USD.....delivery date anywhere from 2 to 4 months (lol). We will certainly beat our stuff home!
Stay tuned - next stop Saigon ( Ho Chi Min City)
Our first stop was a restaurant where we tasted four types of local beers. Then off we went to our wine tasting experience...it was rice wine. The fellow there took us upstairs to the fermentation room where we viewed various wines at different stages of fermentation. There were 11 different types and some examples were - sweetgrass and pineapple, one that tasted like black licorice plus many more that we cannot remember.
The good thing was the samples were very small...some were good and some not so much for our western tastes. The experience itself was great as the location of the wine business was off the beaten track. We had alot of fun joking with our guide Thara and the host at the wine shop.
Once done then back into our Tuk Tuk and off to a night market near where we bought tickets the day before for Angkor Wat. What a transformation to the area! We did not bring our cameras that night which is disappointing looking back.
The pictures we wish we could share included Thara eating a 21 day old fertilized duck egg...you could see the duck was developed but had no feathers. Thara added a little lime juice plus a sauce of some sort and throughly enjoyed his snack....we queezly declined his offer to share.
Thank goodness because the next stop was at what Bob called the "Bug Booth". Here you could order from a selection of fried tadpoles, grubs, black beetles and meal worms. You might be getting a sense that it was not too bad to have left the cameras at the hotel....we will have the pictures in our minds forever. The locals rented mat space on a wooden platform covered by tarps and enjoyed this fare on their night out.
Our final stop was at a local restaurant where Thara ordered us some local cuisine....then back to our room.
Before the night tour we explored Siem Reap on our own. Enjoy the pictures.
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| Demons on the left. |
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| Gods on the right. This is the same story that we told on our Angkor Wat tour. They call this battle between Good and Evil - The Churning of the Milk, a celestial battle of epic proportions. |
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| Taking the scenic short cut back to our hotel. Even the local Tuk Tuk drivers are very knowledgable...they do make great impromptu tour guides |
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| I maybe wrong but I think this temple honors the fallen warriors, past to present times. |
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| The snake is a big part of the Gods versus Demons. |
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| Hard to see in this shot but the tree top is full of large fruit bats that roost in this tree (the only one in the area) and fly out to the rural fruit orchards to feed at night. Some one referred to them as Flying Foxes...they are quite large |
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| A local market by the "Bat Tree", where I purchased several beautiful scarves. |
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| The president of Cambodia's residence when he stays in Seim Reap. |
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| Our Tuk tuk driver stopped to pick up his daughter from primary school....thought we would be in the traffic jam for a while but he turned the tuk tuk on a dime and off we went to drop his daughter at the shop where his wife worked. |
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| Our Tuk Tuk driver needed to make a detour to pick up his 5 yrs old daughter from school...bit of a traffic jam but that's normal for every country we have been in so far on this trip. |
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| Everywhere a temple, and many of them in need of some form of restoration. It really shows how much their religion is a huge part of their daily lives |
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| These structures are called stupa and contain the remains of successive generations of family. Here they contain ashes of monks. The bigger and more ornate they are signifys the family's wealth |
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| Yet another temple and Bob is in deep discussion with our driver. |
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| Bob and our Tuk Tuk driver planning some skulduggery? Awful lot of gold about |
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| Moving on to another street market and Bob just had to stop and take a few shots of one of his two favorite subjects...meat and gold |
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| Naomi prefers to take pics of fruit and flowers....boring! |
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| Naomi has not bought any more gold....where could she fit it in her collection?? |
Before we left Siem Reap we decided to lighten our load by mailing home some things that we obviously no longer needed...Naomi's cane (she is so glad to be rid of it), coats that we needed in Halong Bay (nothing but hot weather now) and some of our purchases. We grabbed a Tuk tuk and mailed 10.6 kgs for $85.00 USD.....delivery date anywhere from 2 to 4 months (lol). We will certainly beat our stuff home!
Stay tuned - next stop Saigon ( Ho Chi Min City)
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