What’s so memorable about Cambodia? There are 2 things – the food and the massage.

Traveling uplifts me. I get that energetic vibe when I know for a fact that I’ll be traveling and bring my taste-buds to another side of the world. My Cambodian trip allowed me to take my inner foodie in me to a mouthwatering adventure.

In Cambodia, they call their cuisine as “Khmer cuisine”. I didn’t have any clue what Khmer food is before I landed Siem Reap, Cambodia. According to research, Khmer food or Cambodian cuisine is one of the world’s oldest living cuisines. It isn’t the popular cuisine you see in the mainstream. I define Khmer food as a mixture of Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese and Indian. No doubt it had the influence of Thai and Vietnamese as these countries are both neighbors of Cambodia where they share their common denominator, which is food.

After our Angkor Wat adventure, we wanted to see the nightlife at night, specifically the Night market. I had the chance to stop by at one Khmer restaurant near the Night Market area called Khmer Chef.

One of the popular Khmer dishes is called Amok. This dish is cooked by steaming curry in banana leaves. Its thick coconut cream makes the dish look very Thai, added by galangal leaves, used in Vietnamese and Thai recipes.

A fresh breath of thai cuisine with this Green Mango Salad. A mixture of shredded green mango, lime juice, sugar, salt, shallot with Cambodian herbs. It wasn’t the type of green mango salad I expected. Although I found it interesting when I got to try this salad mixture with Cambodian herbs and lime juice. Freshening to the palate!

Marinated lamb with garlic, pepper and lime juice. The hint of lime juice adjusts the recipe gently on the sour side. Lamb was sliced in small pieces, quite gummy as you chew them. Its sauce built more flavor to my rice. I couldn’t stop saucing up my cup of white rice.

This is like their shrimp paste a.k.a. bagoong and fish sauce mixed in one sauce plate.

Beer was cheap as San Miguel Beer in the Philippines.

Khmer Chef welcomes vegetarians by providing a number of vegetarian choices for them.

Searched for a nearby convenience store. 7-Eleven was nowhere to be found. 🙁

But look who caught our eyes, a 24-hour convenience store named 6-Eleven!!

You can’t go wrong with Siem Reap’s Night Market. This is the kind of night life they have – shopping!!!

Night Market is just a short distance walk to Pub Street. So if you plan to get a hotel, choose the ones near this area.

What else to do?

This is what you do!!! Massage for as low as $1!!! Awesome right?!?

In our entire Cambodian trip, I think we tried around 7 massage places. Rather than drink and party at night, we opt to keep our feet up and be relaxed. A wiser thing to do! And a wiser expense for our trip.

Enter the Night Market and you’ll find a horde of massage places. Look to your left, look to your right, massage is just right in front of wherever you face.

If there’s one thing I’ll miss about Cambodia, aside from the food that I couldn’t get off that from my system, it’s their Massage! When I sit on the massage chair, I feel so rich and pampered in their land. The skill they’ve got in massaging foreigners entices every foreigner to spend their dollar on it. Massage is also their source of living, including their Tuk-Tuk services. It’s a way to help their tourism in Cambodia.

Reminiscing on these photos makes me want to call home massage service.

Oh, I wanna go back just for the massage! 🙁

Cheers,