Caitlin’s flight got in at 9:30 this morning, and I went along with the hotel tuk-tuk driver to pick her up.

Once she’d settled into the hotel, we took a trip into the city to check out the Old Market. This was a covered market selling everything from clothes to souvenirs to food to kitchen products, but it didn’t have a very exciting vibe, so we didn’t stay long. Instead, we took another tuk-tuk to the Angkor National Museum, which was worth the trip. This museum gave a history of Angkor and its myths and architecture, presenting beautiful artifacts from the nearby Angkor Archaeological Park from the 9th through as late at the 17th centuries.

Just down the street from the museum is the Royal Residence and gardens, so we walked over to check them out. We couldn’t see much of the Residence from the street, and the gardens were more than a little underwhelming, but we saw trees full of bats and a temple that made this park worth the quick walk.

I am consistently amazed at how different the temples I’ve been visiting have been from country to country, and even sometimes city to city.

After this, we figured we’d squeeze all of Siem Reap’s museums into one day and journeyed over to the Cambodia War Museum. This was more a field full of rusted weapons and vehicles than a full museum, but it did tell the story of the Cambodian Genocide and the huge number of lives lost, along with the continuing effects of the war. There was a building dedicated to discussing the many land mines around Cambodia that still have not been discovered, and the people who have lost their limbs and lives due to stepping on these.

We spent a good chunk of the afternoon swimming in the hotel’s pool, and then we went for an amazing dinner at a restaurant called Mie Cafe that was within walking distance from the hotel. We each had a 3-course meal; I started with grilled beef la app with red ants, continued with traditional Khmer chicken amok, and we finished by splitting molten chocolate cake and panna cotta wild sticky rice. We would definitely return here for a second (or third or fourth) meal!