Angkor Wat - Siem Riep 1

I promise myself that I would take my mother to one country in South East Asia every year and I have been doing it for the last 3 years. My brothers and sisters also contribute some money for the trip and I'm more than happy to take my mum with me. She has been to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and this year I took her to Angkor Wat - Cambodia. As with other trips, Minh, my sister joined us along with my nephew, Phong.

We arrived in Saigon from Nha Trang at 5.30 am and we took a taxi directly to Tan Son Nhat International Airport as we were leaving Saigon at 9.45 am and my family were so worried about missing our flight. Anyway, we didn't, and arrived in Siem Reap after about an hour flight. I could see from their eyes that my family were very excited about being there to discover one of the most famous world heritage sites in the world.

We got picked up by the Central Boutique Resort staff. The very warm welcome and big smiles from the staff made all of our tiredness disappear. The hotel is centrally located, about 7 minutes walk to the night market and pub street which is very convenient. I loved the resort's pool and the welcome drink of tea, the sweet staff and the strong free wifi. My nephew and I decided to jump into the pool after checking in to refresh ourselves. So cool!

We had lunch at the hotel and I was very impressed with the presentation of the food. I never saw a sour face from any of the hotel staff either - the whole time we were there. No wonder the hotel is busy most of the time!!! I felt bad that I didn't use their tour services but I had already booked a tour guide whose services I had used last year, Mr Sopheara Pheav. He is one of the best tour guides in town, charges a very reasonable price, speaks good English, and has good knowledge about his great home town.

My family loved travelling around by tuk tuk especially since my mother and my sister get car sickwhen they go by regular car.The tuk tuk also allowed us to have a really good look at the surrounding scenery as we went along. Anyway, Pheav met us on the first afternoon as we planned by email to discuss our tours the next few days. I didn't really want to do a tour everyday because my mother is over 70 now. I wanted to see her enjoy the amazing temples slowly and feel it instead of rushing around like other tourists. Pheav and I negotiated a suitable plan and he recommended that we bought a 3 day pass which cost $40 per person and is valid for a week. We started out journey the next day to see the sunrise and my favorite Bayon temple.
To be continued .....