An Asian Goes to Asia: 2013

Hello friends.. I know I haven't been blogging much.. I just haven't had a lot to say I suppose. I'm off to Hawaii tomorrow, so it's likely that the blog will be quiet while I'm gone. I'm hoping to do a recap post similar to last year during a layover or something, but in the meantime, here is a quick peek at what I've been up to lately...

I've been really into Korea, including Korean food. I recently read a this book about North Korea, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Also, the things in the press lately are just so intriguing!

I am still enamored with Japan! I recently discovered a sushi place near my house that brings fresh fish in from Japan almost daily... but I think I still prefer my "regular" sushi spot.

I love dumplings!! Din Tai Fung on Christmas Eve :)

Lucky to have friends to celebrate the holidays with!

This bar is called "Ice Cold Beer".. creative huh?

On Christmas, we were serenaded by a band while we ate brunch

This was my first plate.. I stopped photographing and just focused on eating after this.. it was an epic spread!

Merry Christmas!!

We had a white elephant gift exchange.. this was the most popular prize

We are so festive haha

Huddle shot on the beach!

I went to my first Boxing Day celebration! We had ham, brussels sprouts, roasted carrots and parsnips, roasted potatoes, and meatloaf!! And cupcakes and mince pies :)

So this past weekend, I went to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Going to see Angkor Wat has been on my Singapore Bucket List since I moved here, so I was very excited to cross another one off the list!

Cambodia is a place that I think a lot of Americans don't know much about. I mean, maybe you have heard of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, or maybe you know that Cambodia is a hotbed of human trafficking, but more than likely, you might only know that Angelina Jolie adopted a kid from Cambodia. Certainly, I didn't know very much about Cambodia at all before I moved to Asia, but I found it to be a great place to visit.

Siem Reap, which translates to "Siam Defeated", is a short flight from Singapore, so we flew up Friday evening. The airport was really quick and easy to navigate, and we checked into our hotel before heading down to the Pub Street area for dinner.

We stayed in a fancy hotel.. it would've cost a ton in the US, but it was pretty reasonable in Cambodia!

Christmas lights on the lawn!

Tuk tuk ride!

The most instantly noticeable things about Siem Reap were the things that were missing - namely, humidity and traffic! Quite different from Singapore and many of the other places I've been to in SE Asia!

We settled on Cambodian BBQ for dinner and had a feast of grilled squid and Anchor beers before heading back to the hotel. Four o'clock came too soon, and once again, we were awake before sun. We filled our Camelbaks with water (a long day ahead!) and met our driver and we all headed out to see the famed Angkor Wat.

In short, Angkor Wat was incredible. We had great weather and the view was incredible. Sorry if my pictures don't do it justice, but trust me when I tell you it was awesome. It really is crazy to think about how some of these structures got built in the first place!!

What was not incredible was some of the other tourists around us. There was a large crowd that gathered at the edge of the moat to watch the sunrise, so everyone stands pretty closely together. Fine. But in a tight crowd, people who are just smoking all over the place and being loud is a bit obnoxious. Especially in something that can be so serene and evocative as Angkor Wat.

The crowd wasn't all terrible though. At one point, we saw a woman who was videotaping the sunrise on a camcorder. Honestly, I don't even know the last time I saw a camcorder! Then, she pulled out her gigantic smartphone to take photos, and she was videotaping herself taking photos of the sunrise! Hilarious.

Gratuitous shot. See this post for more.

We had a quick breakfast and then headed off to see more temples

Unlike in Yogyakarta, we hired a guide this time, and I have to say that it really made a difference! Even though the temples are all incredible, after a while, you can kind of start to get tired of looking at them. But with a guide to explain a lot of the significance and symbolism of things, I found it to be way more interesting! (Also I think the fact that we had a guide with us helped keep some of the vendors away from us.)

Smiling face!

As I learned at the Jim Thompson house in Bangkok, you can tell if a Buddha is a Thai style Buddha or a Chinese style Buddha from the shape of the eyes. This temple looks all Thai to me :)

Do you see the elephants in the wall?

Three headed elephant - a Hindu symbol

Since moving to Asia, there are a million new things that I've learned about, but one of the things that I've really come to enjoy is seeing the different temples. I think it's really cool to learn about the history of them, particularly in this area. Siem Reap was alternately held by Buddhist and Hindu kings, so there is quite a mix of religious elements.

We also went to the temple shown in the Lara Croft movie.. it has a tree growing through it!

Notice the third from the bottom.. it's a dinosaur!

And then we returned back to Angkor Wat. We left after sunrise to avoid some of the crowds, and it was cool to see the temple in full daylight.. but it was hot!!

This is the backside of the temple.. we sat on the front side at dawn

The stairways were actually really steep!

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxed - naps, massages, and Pub Street. Cambodia was great - I really loved the time we spent in Siem Reap. It was great to come for just the weekend, but I definitely would like to come back, and I would especially like to go to Phnom Penh as well. There seems to be so much to see and learn about. Plus, the Batman tuk tuk is pretty cool, right?