Siem Reap: Highlights Reel

Best Experiences: Anna

1. Birding in Prek Toal: I felt like I’d been dropped into a nature documentary 
2. Exploring Beng Mealea with Aaron for hours on Valentine’s Day
3. Playing “I Spy” with the remarkable bas-reliefs of Bayon

Best Experiences: Aaron

1. I’ve never seen so many birds as we saw in Prek Toal; really wish I hadn’t forgotten my Pokeballs
2. Watching the Phare Cambodian Circus troupe tumble, tightrope, juggle, jump, dance, dab, and flip both their genders and their bodies; it was a real party and I’m glad I was invited
3. Picking out bits of lore from the carved reliefs at Bayon, including an 800-year-old circus of its own, complete with a man carrying three smaller men, a tightrope walker, and a man balancing a wheel on his feet

Best Meals: Anna

1. Salmon en papillote and goat cheese bisquette salad at Le Malraux: one of the best meals I’ve had on the whole trip
2. Snow peas and asparagus bagel at Little Red Fox: so fresh and so cream, cream (cheese)
3. Cauliflower “wings” and “not-tuna” sandwich at Vibe: I could go vegan if all vegan food was this good

Honorable mention goes to Asana Wooden House’s Khmer Cocktail Sampler, which was disqualified for not technically being a meal

Best Meals: Aaron

1. Cauliflower wings at Vibe
2. Breakfast Bagel at Little Red Fox: tasted so nice I ate it twice
3. Beef Lasagna at La Pasta

Blooper Reel

1. The night we got tipsy and Aaron came back from the bathroom looking bewildered. He made Anna promise to go to the “bathroom with a fountain.” She found a bathroom, but it didn’t have a fountain, and she ended up in the kitchen just looking for it. She gave up and used the only bathroom she could find. When she returned, she told Aaron he was crazy and an oil diffuser was not a fountain. Aaron marched her to the correct bathroom (on the complete opposite side of the bar) where, sure enough, there was a giant fountain with a statue of a man fishing directly in front of the toilet. This was your standard restaurant one-stall kind of bathroom. A giant fountain with a man fishing did not belong in front of the toilet.
2. When we got pulled into the orbit of the Oriental Wrestling Association. A shirtless white man, microphone in hand, stood on a 2nd story balcony shouting to all who would listen that he had just arrived from Hollywood, California where he had been shooting a movie, but that tonight, he would be the first American to ever fight MMA on Cambodian soil. We listened to him rally for a shamefully long time.
3. The first time we walked the six flights of stairs to the rooftop pool, just to discover that the only bar was on the first floor OR the fact that we spent more time on the phone with Visa than we did enjoying our trip.