#24: Relaxing in Cambodia

08.02.2020

After yesterday's twelve-hour trip, we're taking it easy today. The plan is as follows: breakfast, a few hours by the pool, watch a parade, visit the Made in Cambodia Market, and then have dinner. Sounds good.

For breakfast, we have pancakes with honey and bananas, and a serving of fried rice. Seasonal fruits are also served, in this case watermelon and bananas. After breakfast, we spend the next 3-4 hours at the pool, swimming and lounging on the sun beds. Our reliable tour guide Rufus tells us about the prisoners who escaped from Askaban and why. We spontaneously take the opportunity to get our first sunburn of the season.

To avoid sinking completely into relaxation, we go to the bustling city and visit the Made in Cambodia Market. Here, you can find all sorts of handmade products from Cambodia. This includes mainly carvings and woven crafts, as well as all kinds of souvenirs. We also realize the importance of bargaining, as otherwise clueless foreigners end up paying 2-10 times the normal price.

On the way, we come across an endless parade of students and monks playing music and waving flags, celebrating the Buddhist holiday of Meak Bochea. This holiday, which falls on the full moon of the third lunar month, commemorates a spontaneous gathering of 1,250 students with Buddha.

On our way back, we buy some snacks for tomorrow and some drinking water from our trusted beverage seller. We have noticed that we have never seen another guest in our 4-star hotel bringing outside food. Meanwhile, we often stroll through the hotel with a backpack full of supermarket food and palettes of a dozen bottles of water. Oh well.

After the shopping tour, we just go out to eat. Like in all the previous stops, we have already found a nice local restaurant here in Siem Reap. With the reasonably priced dishes, they also serve a bottle of water, a portion of rice, and a bowl of (sweet!!) peanuts for free. Cocktails are only $1. Even noodle dishes come with a free portion of rice. Since we enjoy the food there and it also saves us money, we don't question their very cheap pricing policy. Today, we try some local specialties: Vanessa has a rice dish with cashews and pineapple, served in a half pineapple, while Martin has Lok Lak, a kind of Khmer stir-fry beef, and we both have a refreshing cocktail.

Afterwards, we fall asleep content.