This city can evoke the feeling of "love at first sight" the moment the tuk tuk driver turns onto main street. It is quite a bit slower paced then Phnom Penh and not as many motorbike dodging in and out of traffic. The French influence is evident at every turn from the architecture to the little crepe stores and carts at every corner.
We got in and found a most reasonable priced guesthouse and quickly made our way to the main street to check it out as dusk was upon us and the town became alive. We chose to eat at the Red Piano...an amazing place with great food and where Dan and I and the "Tomb Raider"; a drink named after Angelina Jolie since she was here to film that movie and ate at the Red Piano. It was Contreau, lime juice and tonic and it was delightful. We had a perfect place to sit on the balcony that overooked the street and we could just get caught up in the enchantment of this little town. Another noteworthy place is one we frequented quite a lot called the Blue Pumpkin. It had amazing food, but the real attraction is the gelato they served! Our weakness was the cinnamon flavor with Dutch cookies in it! It was amazing!
Other than the amazing food we tried in this town (Indian, Mexican and Italian) we also spent a great deal of time in the markets. It was incredible the amount of stalls that were filled with handmade goods, dvds and clothes. We became bonified shoppers in this city and came out with numerous amounts of merchandise for birthday and christmas gifts for our friends and family back home. Our bartering became exceptional and we got the best deals for such amazing stuff! I won't go into detail since these gifts have yet to be given but just you wait! We also all bought another singlet...our staple clothing attire for SE Asia...and I think it is my favorite one so far!
In the night markets we also met our lovely Swedish friends to all try out a fish massage. We met this girls on the bus to Siem Reap and had taken up the habit of meeting for supper and decided to try this little fish massage together! They are absolutely lovely girls with the sweetest disposition and talked amazing english so we didn't have any problems trying to speak swedish! Back to the fish pool. This is a pool that is filled with hundreds of little fish that eat your dead skin. It's like a pedicure from fish! They are everywhere and curiosity was killing me whether it worked or not. So together, we five girls, paid the $3 dollars for 20 minutes to stick our feet in the pool. I was actually scared at the beginning to put my feet in, nerves or something...not sure. But finally I lowered them and instantly the fish nibbled on my feet. To describe the feeling as interesting is putting it mildly. The little bits tickled and felt so uncomfortable. It didn't hurt yet no where near relaxing...we are glad we tried it and won't do it again...our feet weren't perfect from the greedy little fish...we must need more than 20 minutes!
It was a sad day to leave this city, I'm sure we all could have stayed many more days and explore the temples, eat more amazing food and shop until all our money was spent but Thailand was calling three Canadian girls to the islands and we have to listen! Love you! B
