left to right: ciara, me, mr. sam so’s wife, aleth, el2, our tuk-tuk driver

my sister and i, we travel cheap. and we like to stay in a place that is as authentic as the city or country we’re visiting. and because we’re cheap, we don’t do hotels. we don’t do any of those fancy stuffs. not anymore because we’re cheap, but because we can’t afford it. lol.

in siem reap, we stayed at sam so guesthouse. it’s not as ancient or as historically significant as the heritage station hotel in malaysia but with the number of hotels and guesthouses in siem reap owned by foreign entities, we had to go for a local guesthouse that is at least owned by a cambodian as a way of giving back to the community. =)

it’s not grand. i have learned not to expect too much when it comes to budget hotels. all i need is a comfortable bed with blankets thick enough to counter the air conditioner when it gets too cold at night, and a clean bathroom. when you travel on a budget, you can’t ask for too much.

all in all, sam so guesthouse was a good enough place to stay while we weren’t out exploring the city outside. i’d probably give it a 9.

oh, and this picture here was taken on our last night after the angkor tour. before we went out to dine at cambodian BBQ at pub street — where we dared each other to try and eat something exotic, the shabu shabu way. among the “exotic” choices were kangaroo, crocodile, snake, ostrich, and frog. we stared at the menu for about 10 minutes (because the prices were crazy expensive!) and then my sister asked:

el2: what kind of exotic meat are you having?
me: pork?

to be honest, i’m not really that adventurous when it comes to sampling new food. but we were in a different country so everyone was like, “what the heck?!” (except that there’s no way i was ever gonna eat snake!) the french guy at the other table urged us to try the crocodile so we did. it tasted, uh, chewy. but it wasn’t porky. it wasn’t chicken-y either. just chewy. (gawd, i make a lousy food critique! lol.) now, the ostrich was delicious, though. two thumbs up!