I love history, theology and mythology. As a child growing up, I would pick books that are specifically dedicated to fallen heroes of the world. Romanticising fallen empires to an extent that I am an imaginative thespian in the overall setting.

However many years later, here I am checking off one of the biggest bucket list items of my life.

The country is sleepy, at first it seems a little despondent. But as you sift through the initial sleepiness, you realise that things are working at a very different pace. Everything is relaxed. The air and water and people are purer and simpler. Food is tastier and life more meaningful.

before departure

• Cambodia is a very small South Asian country, visa for Indians is on arrival against a small fee and show of basic vaccination, return tickets and booking, our visa took less than 20 minutes, however some people were asked for additional documents. Please check on the official website.
• In Siem Reap, AirBnbs and hostels are aplenty with very good prices. We booked The - on AirBnb - here is the link.

upon arrival

• The city of Siem Reap, the second largest city in Cambodia has only over 200,000 people. The roads are wide, clean and extremely open. Our stay was made better by DayDay inn which happens to be a very well to do establishment with lagoon style el fresco and tree house like rooms to accommodate people.
• We took tuk-tuk rides to the city centre, which happens to be a very popular street - Bia Hoi. Almost all the eateries big or small are here.
• Ate Street side - beef fry in basil and galangal Sauce.
• Vietnamese Coffee & Cambodia beer

• A lot of international cuisine places and street carts selling cocktails and bubble teas, apparently there are a lot of speakeasy bars on the bia-hoi, however, we could only find beer bars, cheap and extremely interracially open.

• Khmer cuisine is flavourful. Eat flower salad.
• Walk, everything is at the walking distance.
• Get up at 4:30 in the morning with your hired tuk tuk to go to Angkor Wat and Angkor-Thom, these are 400 hectares of heritage and biodiversity parks with temples of buddhist and hindu importance.
• It can take days for one to see all the temples, understand the architecture, read the base reliefs on the walls of the temple if unguided. Thankfully, we already knew everything about Buddhist and Hindu mythology which appears in a repeated pattern. Temples of Baylon were personal favourites.
• The lost city - aka AngkorWat can take weeks, if not a month easy to understand the entire plan. We bought 2 days worth tickets and stuck to the temples and reliefs that we wanted to see.
• Amok Curry and Nam Manh Chok - rice noodles are a must.

For starters, Cambodia for me is definitely a revisit, in all fair honesty, it was a touch and go but the kind of ambition that I carry when it comes to exploring, I think we did a pretty good job at that. However, I would like to take it slow, make a lot more conversations with locals. and probably would also see more of the beautiful landscape.

Love, Shiva

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