Siem Reap is the base camp to explore the nearby Temples of Angkor. This was a massive captial city for the Khmer Empire around 1000 years ago and the area is dotted with temples that were built in a stretch of about 500 years. Siem Reap is a 30 minute ride from the temples and is pretty cool town to chill out in. It has some awesome night markets and bars to cater to the tourists at night, while they explore temples by day. We spent three days hanging around the town and visiting the amazing temple ruins in Angkor.

We debated for a long time on how to plan our itinerary after Vietnam. Thankfully we spoke with many travelers along the way and heard recommendations. Because we flew twice and skipped a few cities, we moved through Vietnam in 10 days rather than our planned two weeks. Since we had some extra time we decided we needed to visit the beaches of Cambodia. We also contemplated on scuba diving while there. We heard mixed reviews on the diving conditions, as some of the waters have been damaged from dynamite fishing and over fishing. But Cambodia is also one of the cheapest places to dive, so after visiting a dive office in Phnom Penh we decided to go for it. From Phnom Penh, we booked a five hour Mekong Express van to Sihanoukville, the main town on the southern coast.

​Our day in Phnom Penh was by far the most emotional of our trip. It is very difficult to explain the mix of emotions we felt after spending half a day visiting the Killing Fields and Choeung Ek Prison. We rented a tuk tuk for a couple hours to visit both sites. I had read a few books on the Cambodian Genocide, but Chris knew a very limited amount (only what I had mentioned while reading).