Day 14 - Phnom Penh

Another tour day.  We started off with a buffet breakfast at the Patio hotel.  After breakfast, we met our driver.  The same service that drove us from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh, would also be driving us around today.  The first stop was the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.  The second was the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek Genocidal Center.  We spent three and half hours at Tuol Sleng.  I didn't have the attention span for the Killing Fields so I went back to the hotel.

I got a 90 minute massage back at the hotel.  After which I took a walk around the block.  There is a lot squeezed into this block:  Hotels, bars, restaurants, stores, apartments, etc.  I wonder how many of them do business because they're so hidden away.

I stopped at a restaurant in a hostel, across from our hotel, for lunch.  (I always try to check out restaurants outside of where I am staying.)  It was called Feliz.  It was nice.  Good food and drink.  Reasonable prices.  Good service.  I finished just in time to meet kumi returning from her tour.  Of course, she was hungry, so we went to Feliz...  I had another drink.

Day 12 - Siem Reap

War museum and Buddhist temple/mini killing fields

Day 8 - Siem Reap

This was supposed to be a mellow day.  We started out with the Anantara breakfast buffet.  While at breakfast, the Anantara Angkor social media representative stopped by our table and introduced himself.  He also gave us recommendations for things to do and places to eat.  One of the places he recommended was APOPO.

The APOPO Visitor Center in Siem Reap is an information center highlighting the recent history of conflict in Cambodia, the impact of landmines on local communities, and it gives the opportunity to meet and see the HeroRATs in action...  Yes, rats.  They use well trained rats (trained to the cost of 6000 euros each) to find landmines.  These are big rats, but they don't weigh enough to set off landmines. It was actually very interesting.

After APOPO, we went to the Angkor National Museum.  As far as museums go, this one is very nice.  The layout is well organized with a defined path of which way to go through the museum.  The combination of ancient artifacts displayed with current technology worked well together.  The optional audio tour added a very nice touch.

We decided to have an early dinner after the museum.  We got a Tuk Tuk outside the museum and had the driver take us to Jungle Burger.  I normally never eat burgers while traveling because there is so much other stuff to eat.  But this place was recommended by Anantara social media guy, so we went.  It was great.  Gourmet burger, fries or potato wedges, and a beer (I don't drink beer so I opted for something else) for around $7.00.  I had the Mushroom and Creamy Black Pepper Sauce Burger.  kumi had the Blue Cheese and Bacon Burger.  BTW, the Bob Marley Burger is no longer on the menu.

Our Tuk Tuk driver was waiting for us when we were done.  We had him take us back to Anantara just in time to get my complimentary happy hour drink.

Day 9 - Malaysia

Day trip to Melaka, or is Malacca? I’m not too sure. Anyway, 0900 departure, 2 hour drive to our destination, and (yay) the annoying couple didn’t come with us. This was an enjoyable trip. We saw a few museums, several monuments, and a lot of temples.

Lunch was also included. We ate at Siew Tin’s Nyonya Kitchen. We had steamed rice, cabbage, fish, omelette, and an awesome drink. My description isn’t doing the food justice because the seasonings added made for a very good meal.

After lunch we walked around the area a bit before beginning the 2 hour return to the resort. We made a couple of detours along the way. kumi wanted ice cream. We also stopped by a “bee” place and a reptile park. The bee place was interesting. We didn’t go into the reptile place because there was a charge. We returned to the resort from there.