The time has come for another trip, this time I’m sticking to my continent.

Tomorrow Las Vegas, Sunday New York, next Saturday Montreal, the following Thursday Quebec City, then D.C. to finish it off with sweltering heat and humidity.

This trip is all over the place, really.

One our last day in Siem Reap we decided to check out the Old Market. WOW. You can find anything here, especially in terms of food. It’s essentially one huge single story building, like a warehouse. There are different vendor stalls around the perimeter selling clothing, souvenirs, household needs, watches, jewelry, barbershops, etc. Then when you actually enter the market you are instantly thrown into a loud, bustling, crowded food market with exotic fruits and veggies, butchers with fish and meat on display, and congee and other porridge bars. Its a feast for your eyes, ears, nose, mouth, brain, and otherwise culture absorbing orifices.

my new hat

PUB STREET

Pub street is a small block where most bars are located. Naturally there are tons of tourists and vendors and debauchery. Did I mention that beers in Siem Reap are FIFTY CENTS?!?!?

temple power study

First I’d like to share my absolute love and devotion to mangos. The jello’ish kind, not at a bit stringy, only yummy and gummy.

mangolicious

TEMPLE POWER

trick stone, something indiana jones would know to never step on. duh.

our new friends, who definitely got dollars for cuteness

thats the jungle.

jungle dance

HIGHLIGHTS!

seth: the pied piper of postcard children

tuk TUK!

mark, i mean johnny, showing us how palm sugar is made

sugar

drink sugar

scarves!

cambodian scarecrow

big bike small child

temple power study

temple happy love

temple dance party, for one

high tech meets low tech

things that grow in temples

temple sunset

anyone can be a cambodian police officer ... for a price

just a little side temple, like a guesthouse, no big deal

just a pony

just ancient perfect, no biggie

there it is

think this is nice?

how about a huge wall of it?

just tarik's tubing bracelets from Laos

tool shed?

absolute order

just some steep temple stairs and a borrowed sarong

we're in a temple!

he's in a temple!

he's in front of a temple!

angkor what?

Angkor Wat Monkey Friend Time

monkey hate total chaos

monkey tolerate total chaos for noms

MONKEYS IN ACTION!

After our day in Sentosa (the theme park in Singapore), we slept for 4 hours before our 6 am flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Siem Reap is where Angkor Wat is located, along with TONS of other ancient temples.

The difference between Singapore and Siem Reap is HUGE. We are in the countryside, with dirt roads and tuk-tuks and huts. I LOVE IT. There is a lot of poverty though, and it’s sad to see so many land-mine victims and children trying to sell you things in the street. But everyone is so friendly and funny, it’s a great place.

Cambodia has it’s own currency, but US dollars are used everywhere. Thats what you get from ATM’s, and everything it listed in US dollar prices.

GET THIS: A beer in cambodia is 50 CENTS. Want dinner? 4 BUCKS. How about a tuk-tuk to show you all around the temples for the entire day? $20. Need a clean and highly rated hotel for 4 nights? $80. WE LOVE IT HERE.

DAY ONE

Some friends we made back on Koh Lipe gave us some recommendations on how to go about the temples without dealing with all the crowds. So this morning we hired Johnny, our tuk-tuk driver, to take us to the temples surrounding Angkor Wat. We started at 6:30 am and went strong until 1. Johnny, who looks exactly like my dear friend Mark, took us to 5 temples, including the temple where they filmed Tomb Raider. The first 2 temples we pretty much to ourselves, especially the first one. I think I saw 4 people total at that temple.

Personal Note: Being in these temples, especially with no one around seriously makes you feel like Indiana Jones, like really. Ever been to the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland? It’s just like, except it’s REAL! This is for sure the coolest place I’ve ever been. EVER. EVERRRRRRRR.

TEMPLE TIME

tomb raider!

temple dance break

getting in touch with my ROOTS

my new instrument, just adding to the collection

the tiniest temple frogs!

our tuk tuk driver/guide: Johnny! (or Mark's long lost twin?!)

these bananas are like jello on the inside. jello heaven.

AMOK: cambodian curry yum sauce

true love in sentosa

CLARK QUAY

One of the main areas of Singapore for late-night drinks, dancing, whatever is Clark Quay. Everyone recommended this to us, but honestly it reminded me a lot of Universal CityWalk and although we had a good time, it wasn’t really up our alley. Especially the $50 cocktails, more like SINGAPOOR!

one of the bars is hospital themed, this was my seat haaaa

we loved our wheelchairs

you drink from an IV!!!! OMG!

BOAT QUAY

Boat Quay, pretty close to Clark Quay, was more pubs and small bars, less clubs. A little more our style.

ice bar!

mr. cool

no one was there.

FOOD HAWKERS

An alley where every stand is selling the exact same thing, satay. And each stand has a hawker standing in front trying to get you to eat at their place, claiming it to be the best, which is funny since they are all the same. Same same, but different?

food hawkers!

SENTOSAAAAA!

Ok, Sentosa is a theme park island built in the bay of Singapore. It has beaches and rides and a LUGE. We were pretty excited about going, but once we got there we realized the beaches were gross, the rides were in 3D (not actually rides) and we weren’t really sure if it was even worth the price of admission. That was until we rode down the Luge. And then did it again. And again. I think we luged 5 times, it was the best part of Sentosa for sure.

SENTOSA: adventure and ... industry?

uh oh

so refined

post sentosa re-charge in our food court hotel

coolest pool ever? quite possibly!

One of the bigger malls in Singapore is the ION. We spent most of our time on the entire floor dedicated to food. HAPPY TIMES!

the directory, food opera is an entire area of food world

hahaha

red bean fish pastry

steam foods yay!

my yummy oyster omelette

the food opera

tarik's favorite fluffy bread

The Marina Bay Sands!
The Marina Bay Sands are a hotel and casino, and of course a mall is included.
The hotel is huge and has a giant skypark on the roof with amazing views of the city.
I made 50 bucks at the casino, so I love the Marina Bay Sands, ha!

mini sands

oh my god this a tiny escalade.

wooooow

giant crazy casino, too intense must leave....after a few games

singapore sky

shopping!

The chinatown of Singapore rocks my socks off and i got some awesome stuff! LOVED IT!

chinatown wursters!

damn good wurster

TEMPLE TIME!

one of many buddhas

lots and lots of buddhas

majong time

SHOPPING

solar powered fan visor, what's not to love?

someone took my brand new glasses

YUM

Din Tai Fung is a very popular restaurant in Asia, there’s even one in Monterey Park back home. BUT, still it was very exciting to eat at one in Singapore, which was conveniently located in the mall under our hotel. We ate there 3 times. And tried for a fourth but they were closed.

FIRST MEAL

YES!

food factory

pork & crab soup dumpling of flavor explosion

gold prawn pancake

spicy cucumber

made in singapore, enjoyed in singapore

pork bun on joy

SECOND MEAL

total delicious

fragrant peanut with seaweed

spinach with garlic

my favorite: century egg with garlic

hands down my favorite thing i've eaten in asia...so far

THIRD MEAL
not photographed, but all repeats anyway.

these chicken flavored nuts came to the rescue on our long journey from island to metropolis

To get from Koh Lipe, Thailand to Singapore was quite a journey. We started at 9am taking a quick longboat to a platform in the bay. On the platform we boarded a speedboat that took us to Pak Barra, a 2 hour trip. From Pak Barra we hired a car to take us to the airport in Hat Yai, another 2 hour trip. From there we took a 1 ½ flight to Singapore. WOW. Checking into our nice hotel felt amazing.

Singapore is a great city. We spent four nights at the Fairmont Hotel directly above a huge mall (that had a Din Tai Fung!). Actually, no matter where you go there is a huge mall.

the jacket, sandals and sweatpants speak for themselves

a REAL christmas tree in our lobby

During our stay here we were able to check out
Chinatown (loved it)
ION Orchard (with entire food mall)
Four Floors of Whores (red light mall)
Marina Bay Sands (crazy hotel with casino and roof-boat)
SENTOSA (theme park world!!!).
Clark Quay (universal city walk for drinking)
Boat Quay (better than Clark Quay, more Hindu Dance Clab)

My only complaint about Singapore is that it is very hard to find food after 10pm. This was a recurring problem for us, especially since we are so used to eating late. Also, some places cost $50 Singapore dollars for a cocktail, that’s about $38 bucks!

PHOTO BOMB coming soon!
Enjoy!

Next: CAMBODIA