Siem Reap is flooded.

Although we were warned about floods in Siem Reap, we were confident that we wouldn't encounter any problems because of it. It didn't work out as perfectly as we had anticipated, but there have been worse situations. It was raining, and we had to barter a bit with a tuk-tuk driver to get a reasonable rate for taking us to a guesthouse through the floods. The whole city was flooded, so pretty much anywhere we decided on staying would be a challenge to get to, especially for these little carriages attached to motorbikes.

After the flood-levels had gone down quite a bit...

We settled for a very sub-par guesthouse for about $13 per night - not so cheap for Cambodia, especially considering the dirty shower water that smelled of mold and rust and the broken air-con, which loudly dripped like Chinese-water-torture all night long. We were out of there first thing in the morning and found a gem - Bun Kao Guesthouse. The owner, Bun Kao, was arguably the sweetest local man I've met on my travels yet. The rooms were spacious, clean, had cozy beds, air-con and hot water - except when we blew a fuse. My luck with the hot showers isn't so great. In the six nights that we stayed there, I think I got through one shower without blowing a fuse. Every night, I'd be mid-shampoo when the lights and water heater turned off. I'd have to feel around for a towel and waddle down to the end of the hallway to flip the switch - unfortunate, yet still hilarious every time.

The four of us (Amy, Joyce, Niall, myself) met another quartet of Chinese-English guys - Jimmy Jason, Jeremy and Louis; they were a ton of fun and responsible for several nights of laughter; the Brits say some weird things. In our six days in Siem Reap, we spent three of them at Angkor Wat. Amy and I got bikes from Bun Kao and went all the way out there and all over the grounds.

Joyce bought a book and became our free tourguide.

This is the the photo Niall took for us when asked to take a picture of us at Angkor Wat.

Bun Kao arranged for us to do some volunteering for a couple days at a local English school as well as at a village outside of the city. I taught computer class, which was a nice break from all the English I've taught over the last year, others taught English and took BMI tests.

We had to fit a lot of people in one truck.

My computer class.

This was his favorite toy.  It was alive.

The children are stunning.

Little girl outside Angkor Wat.

On a hangover day, Joyce and I took an awesome cooking class for $12 while the others lazied around. We had a stroll through the market with our instructor and returned to make one of the most satisfying meals. I got stuck dicing veggies for days while Joyce was posted at the deep-frying pan. We made the local tofu amok (similar to green curry but lighter), chicken breast with homemade sweet potato fries, banana flower salad (which I can never have enough of) and fried vegetarian spring rolls - fresh mango and sticky rice followed for dessert.

Like I said, I did a lot of dicing.

Clockwise from the top: Banana Flower Salad, Vegetarian Spring Rolls, Chicken Amok, Grilled Chicken Breast.

It got hot in Siem Reap. As the flood-levels got lower and higher and lower and higher, we took a day to lounge at a nice hotel pool nearby. It was well worth the $5 for a pool, a tan and a chilled out day with a great group of people.

At this point, after three days at Angkor, too many nights out on Pub St, too many Temple Club t-shirts (free with bucket purchase) and too many buckets of alcohol, we were all anxious to move on to the next city yet again. A week with Bun Kao, the Brits, Joyce, Niall and Amy was awesome, but onto the next one! As a sendoff to Cambodia, Amy and I went out for a few drinks and found Ryan, Dillon and their newly acquired Aussie, Craig, on Pub St. We talked and danced until our night was cut short for us to catch our overnight bus to Bangkok.

Pub St.

After all the rushing to be ready for 1:30am, the bus didn't end up leaving until 4:30am. Luckily, we got a few zzz's while waiting because Amy and I had no seat on the bus and ended up spooning each other at the feet of two Cambodian ladies at the front of the bus - thank you, Asia. By the time we crossed the Thai border, found our ride into Bangkok and made it to Khao San Rd, it was about 2pm.