Siem Reap- Day 2

Due to our late start today, we had a very low key day. We all woke up hungover, tired and not wanting to do anything-- but that's what we get for staying up until 3am :P



We were able to check into our original guesthouse(the Jasmine Lodge) at around noon, and were upgraded to a bigger room because of our troubles and because we were so nice and understanding!! Which was super awesome. It's located relatively close to the downtown area; only a $1 tuk-tuk ride or a 10 minute walk. We have 3 beds, A/C, a swimming pool and best of all HOT WATER (which doesn't seem super exciting, but we haven't had hot water since we left the states)! It's owned by a Khmer family, is super clean and has a very relaxed, welcoming atmosphere. We're paying $25/night and breakfast is included. Not a bad deal!



We also made an extremely frustrating trip to our Cambodian bank to withdraw some money...apparently they have very strict signature-matching rules(?). Sam's signature didn't EXACTLY match the one she signed when we opened our account, so it took them almost an hour and 3 calls to our home branch to finally give us our money. When we signed up, they told us that unless we had a valid job contract, we could only get a savings account which means no debit card :( We always say that the only reason we're looking forward to getting jobs is so that we don't have to deal with going into the bank during business hours just to take out $$$.



We ate lunch at an amazing Indian food restaurant called MaharaJah in downtown Siem Reap. Over a delicious spread of cheese naan, butter chicken, and rice we decided that we're going to go to India and Nepal next month before we're tied down with jobs and while the hot season is in full swing in Phnom Penh (Samnang warned us that during March and April there will be rolling blackouts around the city because the infrastructure cannot support the increase in demand). So currently we are all researching places to go in India and Nepal, flights and sorting out all the visa details! We're so excited!!

Unfortunately our friend Pope couldn't make it over here to meet us, which we're all super bummed about :( BUT our trip to India will take us through Bangkok so we will see him as soon as we arrange our visa's into India!



Tomorrow we will tour the temple complex of Angkor and then in the evening head downtown to watch the annual 'puppet parade' (a parade put on by an organization that helps get street kids off the street by giving them the opportunity to gain confidence and self-esteem by building giant Chinese puppets and parading them through the streets of Siem Reap once a year). Life is so good, we're all so happy and everyday we wake up excited for the future!



Cheers!