Siem Reap with my Sister

After leaving Malaysia we flew to Siem Reap so my sister could see the temples. I had a surprise for her :) That night when we went to watch the sunset I paid for us to take an Elephant ride up the hill to the temple. It was a lot of fun! Neither of us had ever ridden an elephant before. Here are some of the pictures we took on the ride up:

Ready to ride!

Coming down

On the Elephant

At the top we had someone take a picture of us...which you can see was from far away.

The next day was looking at temples and exploring them almost entirely people free. I loved not having to move around tour groups!

Michelle

Me





After the temples we had a snack and some lunch. We ate great food and I have included a picture of a fun T-shirt. Notice it says Wat (not Walt) Disney. And the picture is not the castle but of Angkor Wat. I thought it was very clever.

After lunch we tried finding different things to do for free in the town. The first stop was a pottery place where you can make your own, but we didn't have time to get them fired. The shop they had was cool and then our tuk tuk driver told us about a free silk worm farm tour. We were slightly skeptical but decided to check it out. The drive out was very relaxing and the farm was amazing! I never knew how they collected the silk before. They use the cocoons of the worms to get the silk. The first time they collect it, that is raw silk and when they do it a second time to the cocoons then you get the refined silk. They even use a type of tie dye method to make the patters in the material.

Collecting the silk



Getting ready for the tie dye

On the way back into town we stopped at a bath and body type place. It is their factory where they make their soaps, tea's, curries, body scrubs, and bath salts (that's the short list). It was amazing to see how they make everything and even got free tea. I bought some of the bath salts and a body scrub. They all smelled amazing!

Our driver Tom

One of our nights we ate at a place that is only $1 for yummy fried noodles. It started to rain so we pulled on our .50 cent rain ponchos. The next day we headed back to Phnom Penh.