#11 - Cambodia..Who knew?? AND

#11 - Cambodia..Who knew?? AND - belated WTF #1

We are having a fantastic time here in Cambodia.

I am staying at a hi-style retro-mid-50s boutique hotel. ( https://viroth-hotel.com/)

I have had the best restaurant meal of the trip - better even than Nahm in Bangkok, and for $27 per person....All the food has been fantastic, the people just as warm and welcoming as in Laos, and the weather has turned - but be careful what you wish for, because I wanted it warmer, and the last two days here have been in the 90s, and very humid - like 85% humid. You just have to surrender to the humidity and not care that you are dripping water all over your body.

Steve & Sok....Sok surprised me with a beer for a hot day

But Sok, our driver, always has almost-

frozen washcloths ready to hand us every time we return to the car, rolled up really tight just like a spring roll, smelling like mint or eucalyptus , and it just might be the most refreshing thing ever created ....Marci already has decided these will be standard issue at our house in Santa Fe for guests.

We have toured 5 Cambodian temples over these last 2 days, including Angkor Wat - one of the 7 wonders of the modern world.....I will not be attempting to share this history; go google it yourself if you are unfamiliar with this site. I will be posting soon a mess of pictures of these temples, as they are a photographers dream. For today, just one of us at Angkor Wat -

Almost 900 year old Angkor Wat temple.....how was this constructed..???

NEW CONTEST *****WTF #1

For those new to the blog, I run a contest when I don’t feel like writing, or have no time to do it.....I post a photo of something I think is weird or unusual, and there is a prize for the first correct answer.....you are only allowed one guess per game (looking at you, KP...), and first is decided by the time stamp on your email.

RESPOND TO MY EMAIL ADDRESS: sjs123sjs@gmail.com

Prize for WTF #1 is a bottle of Cambodian rice wine.

OK - here goes...the clue is this picture below, something seen in Cambodia:

Good Luck!

PS - when we are traveling away this long we always like to get personal messages...it makes us think you haven’t forgotten all about us....

Steve...sjs123sjs@gmail.com

Marci.....mac.schwartz@gmail.com

Comments

August 3. West, East or Central??? Where the Hell is Vienna?

West, East or Central??? Where the Hell is Vienna? Aside from the fact that it is approximately three hours and fifteen minutes from Cesky Krumlov, Vienna, it turns out, is technically in Western Europe, even though Austria makes its appearance in Rick Steve's Eastern European book and people who live in Czech, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia are Central European. In fact, it is almost offensive to call them or their country Eastern European, as that is clearly only for the old Soviet bloc. We made a few stops along the way, taking the scenic way past a magnificent very long lake, and over beautiful mountains with rolling fields of crop and grain, not quite the Sound of Music Austria, but not too far off. Crossing from Czech to Austria in the EU of today entailed no more than driving past the old vacant border patrol building. We checked into our hotel, just a couple blocks outside the busy Ringstrasse and next to the Rathaus, and sank into our air conditioned room,...

#118 - It’s Sunny and HOT in Paree

Dinner last night was just a ten minute walk, following the Marci school of city touring which says : “run around all day, anywhere you want, take public transit everywhere, but once you are back at your hotel, be it 6 or 7 or even 8pm, just walk close by for dinner”. I always pick the neighborhood to stay in first and then I pick my hotel. I don’t mind running all day, but once the day is done I want to be near lots of good places to eat dinner. Astier, a bistro in the 11th, qualified on the location and the Good Eats. Again, the food sounded simple, like my beet gaspacho with crunchy veggies. The deep purple was rich looking and the flavors layered and fresh. Steve started with the pickled herring and I think he was quite surprised when the waiter delivered and LEFT on the table a quite large glazed terracotta container of herring, a serving spoon and fork, a bowl of small potatoes and a basket of bread. Then he left. Clearly this was an all-you-can-...

A Beer Primer, Brewery to Baths

A Beer Primer, Brewery to Baths In Czech, beer is king. It is the breakfast of champions, the lunchtime liquid, the afternoon aperitif, the dinner drink and evening bar crawl beverage. There is dark and light and everything in between. You can order normal, at 10% alcohol, or 11 or 12 for a faster buzz. It can be smooth or bitter, yellow, brown or red. It goes with dumplings, and pork knee, and pickled sausages and apple strudel. It fills you up and always makes you need the WC. And so, although we are not beer aficionados, and I am not even a beer fan, we picked Plzen, CZ as the first stop on our 15 day road trip through Eastern Europe (or Central Europe to those who live there according to a Czech acquaintance). It was close to Prague so even if we got lost, the day would not be lost. The morning's challenges would be getting to the rental car place in town by metro, finding our way back to the apartment in our Skoda, the largest produced Czech car, and navigating ou...

Marci and Steve Go Back to Europe

Search This Blog