In travel, you mostly only hear about amazing sights or thrilling activities. But I assure you – our everyday is not that glamorous! A Day in the Life is where I capture the small moments that make up a typical day and give you a peek at what life really looks like in pictorial snippets, as well as some of my recommendations and idea for cost.
In Siem Reap, we wake up late in the mornings after several good decent hours of sleep, but still with a tiredness that just refuses to go away. Despite the wooden blinds that block out the sun and the solid curtains, it’s impossible to get a good night’s sleep here.
It’s because of the damn chickens next door. I swear I’m about to commit a mass fowl homicide.
Let’s rewind a bit: it was late at night and dark when we arrived in Siem Reap. On our very first night, we crawled into bed looking forward to a long good nights sleep. That lasted approximately… 5 hours, when the next morning, practically before the crack of dawn, we were awoken by a rooster crowing. We opened the window to face, in horror, a yard with not one, but DOZENS of roosters. After that, we quickly learned that it’s a myth that roosters only crow at dawn. If so, then these roosters have a severely broken internal clock.
But even with the unfortunate placement of being right next to a yard of roosters, we love our Airbnb rental. We’re renting one room inside a gorgeous villa owned by a Cambodian family. It’s located a bit further from the bustling town center, and provides a peaceful retreat from the rowdy bars.
And the best part? They have three dogs! It’s so nice to have dogs to play with once again!
all the dogs are named Lucky
Because it’s away from the town center, we need to ride a tuk-tuk into town. For a ride, there is only one person to call.
Sah-buah (I’m probably totally butchering the phonetic spelling) is one of the drivers for our villa. We got to know him when we spent three full days with him while he shuttled us around to different temples. He’s 37, hard working, and always has a smile on his face.
“Hel-lo! Anh-na!” he answers the phone in that loud laughing voice of his. To this day, we both claim that he thinks our own name is Anna. He does this no matter which one of us is calling.
Five minutes later, he’s outside. Here’s a tip for you: if you’re staying for longer, the best thing to do is to find a tuk-tuk driver you trust, get his number and call whenever you need to go somewhere. Sah-buah already knows where we live and we feel happy supporting his business.
11:30 am: riding in Sah-buah’s tuk tuk into town
For lunch, we ride to a little restaurant just out of the town center. We were first introduced to this eatery during the Siem Reap food tour we took on our 2nd night here (full post coming soon!) . The food was so delicious that we’ve since dubbed it “our restaurant” (as in, “wanna go to our restaurant today?”) and we’ve been back on a regular basis.
We sit at the table. A horde of persistent flies buzz around us and we continuously swap them away. This is a very local joint and unfortunately, eating here means having to battle flies. But the food is the best out of all the places we’ve tried and at the most affordable prices. We feast on rice, prahak, lok-lak, and leek flowers with pork.
11:45 am: lunch at a local Khmer joint – US$9
Because it costs us $4 in transportation to get to and back from town, we like to make the most out of it… meaning that it’s now time for an extended afternoon tea/dessert break. There’s only one place to go: Glasshouse at the Park Hyatt Hotel.
Glasshouse is posh, cherry little cafe/bakery that looks extremely out of place in rural Siem Reap, but would fit right in in Paris. I mean, it’s attached to a luxury 5-star hotel where rooms get upwards of US$500 a night (we looked). But what I love about it (aside from the giant cookies they make) is that even though we wander in with our fatigued faces and same clothes everyday, the staff still treats us like royalty. For a couple of hours, we make ourselves comfortable in Glasshouse, working on our phones. Hey, this girl needs a bit of luxury (and cookies) in her life every now and then. :)
12:30 pm: tea and desserts at Glasshouse – US$10
Afterwards, we take the short walk into town. Siem Reap has only one town center where the main action happens. Sometimes, it seems like that there are more tourists in the town center than there are locals! Pub Street is crammed with dozens of bars and restaurants (and guesthouses on the upper levels). They look cute, but in all our time here, we’ve never eaten here because we’re afraid it’ll be the typical overpriced sub-par food.
But, one thing I do love: the fresh fruit shakes on the street carts. There’s one of these carts practically every few steps and I can’t resist the one dollar shakes! D doesn’t share this enthusiasm as he’s paranoid about the questionable ice.
2:40 pm: dragon fruit shake – US$1
With shake in hand, we aimlessly wander through the Old Market (or Psah Char), a maze of colorful stalls in the heart of the town center. There is a wet market section with fresh product, meat, fish, etc. for sale. Otherwise, it’s mostly a tourist souvenir market with each stall selling almost the exact same stuff. Nevertheless, it’s fun to just get lost in the aisles. I think Cambodia produces some of the best handicrafts and even D, who usually has zero patience stuff like this, likes browsing the stalls!
2:50 pm: wandering through Old Market
Afterwards, we ride back to our villa. We return to a cleaned room and fresh flowers on the bed. Everyday, the owners cut fresh flowers from their garden and lovingly place them on their guests’ beds. Best welcome ever!
3:30 pm: Teddy and fresh flowers greet us in our room
The weather in Siem Reap is beautiful in December. The days are warm and breezy and we take advantage of this by taking our laptops out to the large patio to work.
3:45 pm: setting up shop on the 2nd floor patio
When we get hungry again, we head back out for dinner. Because we already took an excursion into town earlier, we stay close for dinner. There are not a lot of food places within walking distance from our villa, so we really only have three options: the pho restaurant down the street, the street noodle stall next to it, or the Khmer BBQ stand across the street. Tonight, we choose the BBQ.
7:00 pm: Khmer BBQ – US$10
With the day considered over for us, we do a quick review of our spendings. The total for today: US$34. Hmmm… I’ve noticed that Cambodia isn’t the cheapest country for eating (not when compared to their Thai neighbors), but this is still kinda high. Those Glasshouse splurges are really killing our budget.
The rest of the evening passes uneventfully as we both work on our laptops, this time inside our room. But progress is slow as my head is cloudy with exhaustion and my body feels sluggish. These restless nights are catching up with me.
When we finally turn off the lights, pull up the covers, and drift off into dreamland…. what do you know, there goes those damn roosters again.
Sigh.
Have you been to Siem Reap? What did you like the most about the city?
This post is linked up to Travel Tuesday with adventurings.
What a lovely idea for a post; it’s great to hear about all the smaller details of a travelling day and through such beautiful photos! My favourite parts of Siem Reap were wandering the market, and the night market, and I really loved all of the shops that sold items that had been locally produced… so much so that I went home with too many things in my backpack ;) I also loved the small, family owned B&B that I stayed in. I spent a lot of time chatting with the family and playing with the children, and cooling off in their luscious pool. I have such fond memories of Siem Reap!
I really loved all the handicrafts in Cambodia too. It’s a good thing we have like zero room to spare in our luggage, or else I’d have stuffed it to the brim! I love that you also stayed with a family while there! It was our first time staying with a family and it was such a good experience. We felt so welcomed everyday!
I’m going to have to go back through all your posts when I get to Cambodia. Those shakes look amazing. I love dragonfruit.
Those shakes are so good! I miss them! I’ve never seen pink dragonfruit like that until I got to Siem Reap. They’re much sweeter than the white ones.
I haven’t done too many Cambodia posts yet, but if I can get my blogging ass into gear, I’ll eventually catch up!
I love this post and the glimpse you give into your daily life in Cambodia. It’s so neat to see all of your local hang-outs and the people who have become a part of your life there. (And I love that all the dogs are named Lucky at your airbnb!)
Thanks Sara! I think just capturing the normal daily moments is just as important as talking about sights or activities. These moments are my favorite things about travel too. :)
It’s nice to get to read a daily breakdown of a place like this. It gives a better picture of it to those of us who haven’t traveled there and to those who are interested in going in the future! x
Exactly! Because traveling to a place is not always just about seeing the top 10 sights or whatever. I think these glimpses give us a much better idea of a traveler’s life!
Holy cow $34 for all that! You’ve convinced me to hop on the next plane to Cambodia (I wish). What a fun “day in the life.”
Thanks Marianne! Oh boy, if you think $34 a day for 2 people is good, then you should check out my day in the life in Chiang Mai, Thailand. we spent like $16 a day and ate wayyy more than this! And now in Vietnam, we’re pigging out for like $15 a day!
I was going to say, cut back on those afternoon tea breaks in the hotel!
I noticed in every place that you’ve been to, there is always one restaurant that you go back over and over again. And they were always the best from early food tours. I’m not sure, but I think you can probably do better on the taste and cost if you are more adventurous. I know Malaysian food tours are 90% hoax (at least in the eyes of locals), they bring you to passable places, but not the best and cheapest places. I always laugh when I read blogs about people coming to Malaysia, joining a food tour, going to places where locals would normally avoid, and then write about how that food tour is wonderful. I’m not sure if the rest of Southeast Asia is the same, but I guess they should be. Our tourism is pretty much in the same shape.
If you can believe it, this is the first food tour we’ve ever been on! I’ve sooo terribly behind on blogging but I’ll write about it soon! I do admit that we are the “tried and true” kind of people and like to go to the same places over and over. :D We’ll try a few different places, and then just stick with the one we like best. There’s just been to many instances where we tried somewhere new and were disappointed that it wasn’t as good as a place we already like. And I like building a rapport with a place!
If we get to Penang (and we will someday!), we’ll ask you to show us around on a food tour for the best places. :DD
Oh my goodness what great photos! You have an amazing camera! So glad I found your blog on the Tuesday linkup! :)
Thanks so much for stopping by Sara and leaving a comment so I can discover your blog as well! It’s awesome and you’ve got a new reader! :)
You have amazing photography skills! I use the Cannon G1X Mark II and I only know how to use it very basically, hehe.
Wow I would have thought that Cambodia would be cheaper than Thailand! Is that $34 for both of you?
Yep, $34 for both. :) I had no idea that food in Cambodia would be more than Thailand too! But like in Thailand, one day for both of us would cost $15 and we would eat very well on that (same for Vietnam). A dish at a street food stall and small eateries in Thailand would cost US$1-1.5, but in Cambodia, even cheaper eateries would be $3 a dish!
It’s funny how our perceptions of costs change isn’t it depending on where we last travelled – when we were in Bali, the food was SO cheap even at great restaurants so when we flew over to Koh Lanta after that, even a massive plate of noodles for 4 British pounds (which would barely buy you a coffee or a piece of cake in London) seemed so expensive after Bali!! I love this post, really got a feel for your day in Siem Reap – I’m not a morning person and I think the chickens would drive me up the wall! But love the idea of the midday dessert break as a little treat to splurge on :)
Wow, I didn’t know Bali was that cheap, and compared to Thailand too (which is the cheapest country I’ve experienced so far)! But then again, maybe the island is more expensive, because we usually paid US$1.5 a plate on the mainland. Cambodia seemed so expensive after Thailand! And now, Vietnam seems cheap again. :D
I love that the dogs are all named Lucky. Also, the villa looks amazing! You lucked out (hah) with a great spot!
The villa was beautiful, and it was so fun to stay with a family! We loved it enough that I know we’ll stay there again next time we go, but in another room that doesn’t face the roosters, hehe. Thanks so much for stopping by, Natalye!
“I swear I’m about to commit a mass fowl homicide.” LOVE IT. I really hope you brought ear plugs… I can’t travel without them! I “ohhhhh”ed at those flowers and the teddy on the bed. Well, if that ain’t the sweetest thing.
Maybe I just didn’t notice up until now that you mentioned you two would work. Do you have jobs where you can work remotely or were you working on writing, online stuff, etc? That patio looked like an excellent place to do any sort of work at all. I can dig a nice clean table with no distractions!
D bought earplugs and ended up using them, but I didn’t. The fresh flowers were such a nice touch! I almost wanted to tell them to stop cutting their beautiful flowers for us everyday. But I liked it too, hehe.
D actually does work because he has an online business. It’s how this whole travel thing started because he realized one day that he can work from anywhere, and decided that’s exactly what he wants to do and asked if I’ll come. :) So here in SEA, we’re usually up until 2 am in order to match up with US time for his work. As for me, by “work”, I just mean my unpaid blog, heh.
I loved Siam Reap – we also chose to stay out of the main centre and the surroundings were beautiful. I do love Roosters and don’t mind them in the morning/night at all, so would have been a tad upset if you did end up committing that homicide… ;-)
You must be the only one, haha! Actually, when we were looking at them, we commented on how yummy they look :P. But yeah, I loved stayed out of the center! It was so much more peaceful and felt like coming back home to a little retreat. :)
ohhh interesting photos and experience! when i visit siem reap, i travel with my family so we visit West Baray Lake (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g297390-d2252245-Reviews-West_Baray_Lake-Siem_Reap_Siem_Reap_Province.html) where we eat seafood and fruit while chillin’ on hammocks. =) It’s a great way to cool off after site seeing the temples.
Food in Cambodia is not that cheap, but honestly it all depends on where you eat. If you eat at places that cater to tourists and expats (or wealthier Khmers) then it’s expensive.
When I was in Phnom Penh in 2006, my cousin used to own a rice porridge shop and she sold a bowl for only 800 riel… that’s just 20 cents. But on my last trip to Cambodia a few years ago, on average we spent $3-4 for lunch.
Hi Soapie! Thank you so much for stopping by and commenting! It really makes my day! :)
Chilling on hammocks by the lake sounds like SUCH a fun day! One thing I loved about Cambodia is how everyone seemed to spend their days just hanging out in hammocks. I could so get used to that!
We avoided touristy restaurants the best we could. I would agree that $3-$4 a person sounds about right. It was a surprise after coming from 2 months in Thailand, when each dish cost about $1.5! I wonder if your cousin raised prices on her porridge since 2006. :)
well the real estate in phnom penh (and probably siem reap as well) has really skyrocketed over the last few years, so it’s actually expensive to live there. which is crazy because the vast majority are the urban poor, then they have a small but growing middle class, and then the upper class are the minority.
when i asked my family about why the food is expensive for Khmer standards, they merely reply that locals usually eat at home and rarely go out to eat.
i haven’t visited Thailand yet so i wouldn’t know… hopefully one day i’ll visit! =D
Yeah I can’t imagine eating out to be affordable for the average Khmer family. :( I was soooo surprised that food cost that much, given the average income. I wish it was more affordable for people to enjoy a meal out.
I didn’t go to Phnom Penh this visit, but for sure next time!
Everything about this is beautiful! The photos, the descriptions, the food porn… I felt like I was right there with you!
Thanks Courtney! That was my wish for this post… to take you guys along with me on a typical day! :)
Great idea for a post. How long were you in Siem Reap? You had a relatively relaxing day that wasn’t crammed with sightseeing. All the food looks so yummy. Since we’re a family of 5, our expenses tend to be much higher, especially now that one of my kids is a 6-footer who can eat quite a lot. As for the chickens, I was so surprised to find out that we had roosters next door to our very urban condo in Penang. Imagine hearing all that noise on a permanent basis instead of just while on vacation. You get used to it after a while.
Oh man, I thought I had replied to this a long time ago, but I can’t find where it went!
We were in Siem Reap for 17 days, and only did sightseeing for 3 days, so we had plenty of time to just lounge around! It was the best! I can imagine the it not being terribly cheap to feed a family of 5. And I can’t believe your son is now 6 foot!! He doesn’t look that tall in the pictures!
Having dogs at the rental would be such a nice treat, although not so much the chickens!
I love whenever there are pets at our rentals. I really really miss having pets!!
Thanks so much for stopping by, Kaelene! :)
Oh man, I miss Siem Reap! I visited about a year and a half ago and fell in love. I’d kill for a fruit shake right about now!
Those were SO good! And only a dollar too for fresh fruit shake! I loved them, even though D was all paranoid about the ice they use, haha!
Hi do you remember which tour you booked for the day in the life? I am trying to reach Sa boua
Hi Jane! This wasn’t a tour… just a typical day when I stayed in Siem Reap for 2 weeks :). Our driver was the driver for the Airbnb housing we stayed in, so not an official tour. I don’t think you should have any problems getting a driver to take you around to all the temples (or anywhere else in the town!) though. All guesthouses/hotels have their own drivers. Best of luck!