My husband and I travelled to Singapore and Cambodia over after Christmas to bring in the New Year with some friends in Sihanoukville.
We departed Canberra with Singapore Airlines and travelled direct to Singapore for a night at the ‘Marina Bay Sands’. We spent the morning swimming on the Rooftop Pool overlooking the city then decided to look for a restaurant for lunch – ‘Song Fa Bak Kut’ was recommended to us as this is where the locals go, it is a tiny restaurant on a busy street and the food here was authentic and delicious. Later that day we spend more time swimming and having Singapore Slings served to us in the pool – it was a relaxing afternoon after our busy Christmas! We walked through the Gardens by the Bay at sunset admiring this beautiful area before heading to Clarke Quay for the night. This is a great area – the live music, busy restaurants and bars gave it quite a fun atmosphere – we enjoyed a drink here then had a lovely dinner overlooking the water.
The following day we flew into Siam Reap to meet a few friends. We walked through the markets, had a look (not taste) of their traditional street food, things like cooked baby snakes and tarantulas – we then came across ‘Khmer Restaurant’ which was a two story Asian Restaurant, the décor here was fun and the staff and food were lovely, we sat on the second floor balcony with a great view of the busy Pub Street!
Angkor Wat (below)
The next morning, we had a private tour to some of the most religious monuments in Cambodia. We arrived in the dark to admire the sunrise over Angkor Wat, this was truly stunning and well worth the early start! Angkor Wat is a temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world, it is absolutely fascinating! After a walk through and around this temple we visited Ta Prohn and Angkor Thom – these were all just as incredible to see. After our early start we spent the afternoon relaxing by the pool of our resort and finished off our day with a delicious dinner at ‘Spoons’.
We flew out the next morning to meet the rest of our friends in the coastal town of Sihanoukville. We stayed at the ‘White Boutique Resort’ which is located on Otres Beach 2 – this is a small boutique resort which is perfect! The staff here were absolutely amazing, nothing was ever too much trouble for them, and any meal or snack we ordered from the hotel was delicious – not to mention the amazing cocktails which they were able to serve to us at the beach, pool or even to our rooms! We tried so many Cambodian dishes and ate countless spring rolls but one of my favourite dishes was Morning Glory!
We spend most of our time relaxing on the beach at our resort, walking to other bars and restaurants along Otres Beach 2 as well as spoiling ourselves with more than one massage as there were so many options along the beach! We decided one day to travel to some smaller islands and check out their beaches, we had a local take us on his boat with a packed lunch – we enjoyed some snorkeling and swimming, cliff jumping was available for those keen, then our last stop was on a secluded beach for our packed lunch – the water here was warm, calm and clear, just beautiful!!
This trip was great fun – we had a mix of two completely different busy cities as well as relaxing on the beach and the best part was being able to bring in the New Year on the beach all together!
