I always, always call Cambodia by its Vietnamese name, Campuchia.

Last month, my friend Spencer asked me if I wanted to join him on a trip to Cambodia. I realized that since I’d been in Vietnam, I hadn’t taken advantage of my multiple entry visa. So, after a spontaneous yes, I soon found myself on a 12 hour bus-ride from Saigon to Siem Reap.

I happened upon this during our one hour stopover in Phnom Penh. I really hope that man knows how famous his ad is...

My trip to Siem Reap can and should be separated into two parts. The beautiful temple structures of Angkor Wat is definitely one, but the other could be described as the complete opposite: a 5-star accommodation and a glorious food vacation like no other. What do you think about when you see/hear the word “Cambodia?” Well, I’ll start with the 2nd part of my trip just to illustrate how your expectations will be shot down almost instantly.

So, we’ll begin with the hotel, which Spencer got free with his American Express/Starwood Preferred Guest Points. It was called the Le Meridien Angkor, and I think it was the first 5-star I’ve ever stayed at, actually. Just a tiiiiny bit different from my life this year at the shelter.

This was the first thing in our suite that caught my attention.

Oh, the weather for tomorrow. How nice.

And then walk outside, and here’s [the empty] Khmer-themed pool, surrounded by cascading water falls and tropical gardens. There was even atmospheric music playing softly around the whole pool area. It was kind of too insane.

We also ordered lunch there.

Crab Mango Salad.

Cold Gazpacho soup with garlic bread.

The best damn club sandwich I've had in Asia.

The best *** club sandwich I've had in Asia.

A fish/chicken/beef mini-burger sampler.

and back inside.

just some lounge.

I think I did something similar once, only it had glow-in-the-dark creepy crawlers between the rocks.

Oh, and can’t forget about room service breakfast. What?

some tastey eggs benedict.

Oddly enough, the actual city of Siem Reap doesn’t look that much different. A few points:

-It’s obsessive-compulsively clean and I was shocked when I couldn’t use piles of trash as landmarks.

-Because it’s a tourist city, everyone speaks English extremely well- even little children. One little girl actually came up to Spencer and I and said, “If you don’t buy from me, then you are bad tourists.” Haha wow.

-Every cafe/bar I went to had pillows, couches, or beds and the friendliest customer service. I actually didn’t think outdoor bars with beds existed outside of television.

-Everything was in USD, and it was actually kind of frightening to throw dollar bills here and there (considering I’ve been living on a dollar or less pretty much everyday in Vietnam.)

-The Khmer food was a delicious fusion of Thai/Vietnamese food, but the city also had amazing Mexican/Indian/Italian food. I had my first worthy burrito since Chipotle last summer in NY. Who would have thought?

-We went to Siem Reap’s night market a couple times, and the experience was the complete opposite to that of Ben Thanh Market in Saigon. As I would walk by sellers, they would say in nice, polite voices, “Hello, would you like something?” Then, I’d say, “No, thank you!” and I would literally wait for further pestering, yelling, or bad-mouthing, but it never happened. It was so care/stress free, and people never raised their voices at me. It was so disorienting to have a pleasant, relaxing market experience in Asia. I can say that because this past year I’ve been slapped by a giant, wet fish that a running woman was carrying, had chicken guts fly onto my lips, and was pushed by an old grandmother because I was unknowingly blocking her stall from the customers’ view. And you wonder why I always shop at the supermarket down my street.

At first, we were terrible at bargaining tuk tuk rides.

Some more weird, clean streets.

At the night market, we got a “fish massage.”

They call them “Doctor fish” and they supposedly love to eat dead skin off of your feet. At first, the tickling was unbearable and nobody could keep their feet in for longer than 5 seconds at a time. Also, it’s just weird having fish attack/peck your feet- not exactly something you get used to right away. But, after a while, the tickling became sort of addicting. (First thought that comes to mind is a Cambodian “drug addict” who locks himself in the bathroom and passes out with his feet in a bucket of Dr. Fish.)

Maybe they just never feed them anything and they’ve gotten accustomed to eating whatever they can get… makes me think about a Dr. Fish with a facebook who put down “Whatever I can get” with the intention to find delicious human feet skin cells. Now that’s real love.