ASHLEY ANNYEONG

Cambodia: Angkor Wat

For most people visiting the temples at Angkor Wat are the main - if not only - reason for visiting Cambodia. Being a UNESCO World Heritage and one of the world's wonders, going to Angkor Wat can be a little intimidating. Note: Angkor Wat is located just outside of the city Siem Reap.

For our first day of touring the famous temples we opted to do a tour with Grasshopper Adventures. Our tour started at 7:30 and included lunch, water, snacks, mountain bikes, and a great tour guide. If you are looking to do a tour of Angkor Wat (which is a good idea!), I recommend doing something like this instead of sitting awkwardly in a tuk-tuk all day with your tour guide. ;) On our first day we visited Angkor Wat, Bayon, and Ta Phrom temples - the main loop and a solid Day 1 intinerary.

Biking through one of the seven wonders of the world - so cool!

Rockin' the elephant pants^^

Our tour guide spoke English and Spanish fluently without ever having left Cambodia - inspiring.

Wild monkeys!

For our second day, we rented $1 lady bikes from a local shop on the streets and biked our way back to the Angkor Wat grounds. We headed to some lesser known temples and explored Bayon Temple one more time but the heat soon became overwhelming and we stopped for lunch.

Recovering from heat exhaustion and templeitis with a passion fruit smoothie!

Koreans make up the largest percentage of tourists in Cambodia and I even spotted some Korean on signs around the main Angkor Wat temples.

Angkor Wat, and Cambodia in general,was a nice reminder of how accessible travel really is. We stayed at 4-star hotels for what would be a 1-star hotel in North America and for $1 a day biked our way to one of the wonders of the world. Travel doesn't have to be expensive and the logistics are often much simpler than you would think.

Map of the roads from Siem Reap to the temples - so straightforward!

Angkor Wat and Taj Mahal in one year - EPIC!

Thanks Siem Reap for many nice memories <3

Cambodia: Phnom Penh

During my week-long trip in Cambodia, we divided our time pretty equally between Siem Reap, home to the famous Angkor Wat temples, and Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city. I found PP to be a rather enjoyable SE Asian city - interesting architecture, cheap eats and thrills, extremely kind local people, and far less motorbikes on the road than in Vietnam. ;)

We stayed at Blue Lime hotel, a stylish budget boutique hotel located in a great area near major sights. I can definitely recommend it to anyone going to PP.

1) The first thing we did in PP was actually visiting the Killing Fields outside the city. We traveled by tuk-tuk for 45 minutes and toured the grounds where approximately 3 million Cambodian people were massacred during the Khmer Rouge regime. Admission to the Killing Fields includes headphones, an audio guide, and a map of the area for you to walk around and listen to the history and events that occurred in each area. We also checked out the museum on the premises, which dealt primarily with U.N involvement in Cambodia post-Pol Pot regime and the charging of certain individuals with crimes against humanity.

2) After the Killing Fields, we headed back into town to check out the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a high school-turned-prison where 20,000 people were executed. The grounds are open for casual strolling through the cells and certain rooms showed pictures taken of people by the executioners before their death. I did not take any pictures here because it was too sad and didn't feel right.

3) On our next day we visited the National Museum of Cambodia, which was just a block away from our hotel. The museum was full of ethnographic art pieces from Cambodian history - from primitive Cambodian life up to French colonization.

4) On our last full day in PP, we finally made our way to the Royal Palace. We had tried to visit on a previous day but I wasn't dressed properly (no shorts, no tank tops). The Royal Palace is actually a big group of buildings for Cambodian kings and other royalty. Tourists are able to see only a portion of the buildings.

Other noteable things:

Drink: tried absinthe at L'Abstinthe, went to the club Pontoon 2 nights, enjoyed a gin & tonic at Eclipse Sky Bar on the highest building in Cambodia, drank pitchers of beer in local restaurants for dirt cheap

Eat: had lunch at Daughters - an NGO helping sex-trafficking victims, dinner and lunch at Alley Cat Cafe - a dive Mexican-American bar/restaurant, appetizers and smoothies at Friends - an NGO training restaurant run by former street youth.

Do: watched two movies at The Flicks - a community film house founded by a man who backpacked the world with no money for 2 years!

Phnom Penh, I loved your Asian-boho vibe and all the wonderful social entrepreneurship and community events around the city. Wonderful city/people with a very recent and terrible tragedy.

Naru(mi) in Seoul: Round II

My best friend from Japan came to Seoul this past weekend to hang-out together. I have the coolest friends!

Narumi was only in town for 48 hours due to her work schedule. Every year since we have met, one of us has traveled to see the other and for next year Narumi wants to meet in Singapore. I suggested NYC so only time will tell.^^

Narumi and her friend Chinami stayed at my apartment for two nights. As is tradition when a Japanese person visits someone when traveling, they bought me many presents from Japan. Thanks Narumi and Narumi's mom^^

I picked up Narumi at the airport around noon on Sunday. I was starving so I wanted to grab some food before getting on a train. After I finishing ordering Narumi was already Skyping her parents to tell her she had arrived and I got to say hello to her family, who I've met a few times over the years. Narumi's brother is really into break dancing these days and he is really good. I think I need to go back to Japan and see one of his performances!

Note: because I have the longest arms I was the default cellphone photographer.....

Fresh off the (air) runway!

After meeting up with Chinami (she arrived a day earlier) and bringing their luggage to my place in the pouring rain, we hopped in a cab to Myeongdong. We were supposed to meet up with some other girls but plans changed so we shopped, ate dinner, and took Japanese-style Polaroids.

After Myeongdong we took the subway to Ewha, made a reservation at a princess-themed cafe, and explored around the area.

At Ewha Women's University, the first university in Korea { was founded by American missionaries}

Eventually we made our way to the Princess Diary cafe. At this special kind of cafe, you pay for a drink and then you pay an additional $10-30 to try on a dress and use the props/backgrounds to take pictures for up to one hour.

First you order something and eat/drink it. Then you change into dresses and you're not allowed to eat or drink anything while you are in the dresses.

Enjoying our peach tea. We all ordered the same thing because it was the cheapest. kkk

Narumi fixing her tiara. :)

No need to get married now...

After our rather exhausting photoshoot, we agreed on getting drinks somewhere. The girls really wanted to go clubbing but on Sunday nights nowhere good was open. I suggested going to Itaewon {an expat neighborhood} and trying an American-style pub, to which Narumi responded "Let's find you an American boyfriend." HAHA.

So we hopped back on the subway to Noksapyeong and sat out on a patio testing out some new craft beers.

We were all pretty worn out from all the neighborhood-hopping we did. Being that the Noksapyeong/Itaewon area is a very international neighborhood, practically all the couples walking on the street are mixed {Asian/Western} couples. Narumi asked me if I was going to marry a white guy or an Asian guy... We headed back to my place, got some food to-go from 김밥 전국, and kept the party going for another hour before we all passed out from fatigue.

I made green smoothies for breakfast each day. They really liked them and were taking pictures of all the ingredients as I was putting them into a blender - haha. They said they are gonna make them in Japan!

Then on Monday after I finished work we walked to a standing BBQ restaurant. I had never heard of this place before but it's very popular among Japanese tourists so we decided to check it out.

Waiting in line outside the restaurant.

서서갈비!

No seats was an interesting concept. Definitely a local hotspot but we were the only non-Korean people.

Then we decided to wanted to eat bingsu so I took them to busy cafe street in Hapjeong and told them to pick a cafe. We ended up at one of my favorites. :)

patbingsu!

The girls were going to go clubbing so I pre-gamed with them making some drinks outside of a convenience store. In Korea they have free tables and chairs for you to sit outside at - it's awesome! I saw a Korean newspaper article a while back about fun mixed drinks to make at a convenience store so I finally attempted one.