Cambodia!!! (Chuseok Vacation Part 1)

Chuseok (추석), or Korean Thanksgiving, happens every year in September or October. This is a holiday when families visit their ancestors and make certain foods, such as Songpyeon (Korean rice cakes). It's one of the biggest holidays in Korea, along with Seollal (Korean New Year's), and is another time when it is popular to give gift sets to friends, family and coworkers. This year my principal gave me a set of toothpaste and shampoo. Even though I will probably never use all of the 12 tubes of non-fluoride, 'bamboo salt' toothpaste, I greatly appreciate not being given the set I received last year-- 6 cans of processed meat. Thanks Mr. Bong!

Anyway, Chuseok meant one thing to us this year: VACATION! We got a full week off of school and decided to go to Cambodia and Laos. Here's the story!

We arrived to Phnom Penh about midnight and easily found a taxi to drive us to an inexpensive hotel. We woke up early to take a 6 hour bus ride to Siem Reap. From the bus station we took a short tuk tuk ride to our guest house, the Golden Mango. How lovely it was! The staff was probably the most friendly I've ever encountered, the rooms were super clean and cute... we couldn't have asked for more.
We ate lunch-- the hotel has a wonderful, delicious restaurant-- before heading to see Phnom Bakheng to watch the sunset.
The next morning we got an early start to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.
We joined the other tourists in front of a pond and the sight was spectacular. Angkor Wat reflected in the pond as the sun rose, creating a serene beauty unlike anything else. We spent the next 6 hours exploring all of the temples in the area, finishing with the grand finale: Ta Phrom, the temple Tomb Raider was filmed at.
After a nap we headed to Pub Street for dinner and drinks. After eating Indian, we spent most of our time at a bar called, "Angkor What?" We danced all night.... it was so fun!
Our next day we walked through Old Market and bought some clothes and souvenirs. We had a snack at the "Red Piano" which is famous for being Angelina Jolie's hang out spot while filming Tomb Raider. In the evening we walked around the Siem Reap night market.
Then we relaxed in preparation for our morning flight to Laos!