Bo And Miguel In Phnom Penh

We're off to Phnom Penh via Mekong Bus. Loven joined us because he was going there for a project he is doing. We left Siem Reap around 8:30 in the morning.

We arrived in Phnom Penh around 2:30 in the afternoon. I can't seem to remember the name of the guest house we took but it's at the back of the royal palace, close to Street 240. Apres freshening ourselves, we had late lunch at The Shop. I forgot my phone in our room so I wasn't able to document the food we ate.

In the evening we decided to eat at Yumi.

We ordered several dishes including pumpkin gyoza, agedashi tofu, and soft shell crab tempura. The guys were underwhelmed of the food, based on the rave reviews of our friends, but it wasn't bad at all. Actually, it's quite good except we all agreed it didn't match the hype given to it. I've dined in Yumi before and I enjoyed it as much.

What we would rave about was their honeycomb ice cream. Sublime. A must-try!

It was rather a sedate, "no plan" plan for our stay in Phnom Penh. Basically, we just dined and met up with friends. It wasn't hard for Miguel to meet people. One instance we were pestered by this overly friendly Burmese guy, which resulted to a funny incident I will leave you to ask Miguel.

Alex and Bo hit it off good, too.

We visited Cheung Ek Genocide Memorial because Miguel needed to 'feed his soul' when he read about it in a guide book.

Cheung Ek is one of the many killing fields during the reign of Polpot in the Khmer Rouge regime. Many people were brought to this area to be killed.

Look closely at the picture above because you can see a bone with teeth. I didn't realize it but I was standing on that spot.

This was an example of the uniforms of the Khmer Rouge. The sandals were made of rubber tires.

Thousands of skulls bear witness to the atrocity that happened that time. It seems unreal.

A visit to the Russian Market is a must if you're in Phnom Penh. It's the place for cheap surplus. While Bo was shopping I let Miguel try some Cambodian snacks.

We also ate at Sam Doo.

We also had dinner at Metro with Nod, Eng, Toefi and Karen.

Fashion Passion is a must-try!

Well, let's just say we ordered a lot of food.

Before returning back to Siem Reap we had brunch at Brown with Franco. I really enjoyed this Spanish Omelette.

I'm happy that Miguel and Bo got to meet my friends in Phnom Penh.

While here in Cambodia, Miguel got addicted to Numpang Pate, a Khmer sandwich. See that plastic bag he is holding? That's 16 pieces of it for baon, hehehe!

The bus ride was fun because it was all chika and laughter. I think we annoyed the rest of the passengers with our noise. But who cares! LOL! We were having fun.

Miguel treated us for dinner at Il Forno. The next day they went back to Bangkok for their flight back to the Philippines.

Bo and Miguel enjoyed their trip so much that they are planning to come back soon.

Bo And Miguel In Siem Reap

Our group took the land route from Bangkok to Siem Reap. Except for moi, Tita Jaki and Bo, it was the first time for everyone. At Poipet we had to ride a tuktuk from the immigration rotunda to the office of my travel agent. We had to board the van there to avoid police corruption asking money from the drivers. Such a waste of time but sadly that's how it is.

After freshening up we had a very late lunch at Khmer Kitchen. It's tradition to order Amok fish, of course.

Miguel brought me some Labahita con Oliva, salted dried fish in olive oil and spices. It goes very well with malasado style scrambled eggs. And heaps of rice! Let's just say I expected my diet to be ruined the moment this visit was planned.

Later in the evening we had dinner at 1961. Loven and Faith hosted it.

As to be expected we had a wonderful visual extravaganza of yummy treats.

We talked about the latest news and gossips happening in Iloilo. Tired from the trip we decided to tuck in a bit early and not explore town anymore.

The next day I had lunch with Miguel and Bo at Moloppor. Tita Jaki explored the local market so we were left on our own. Still feeling the effects of our Bangkok adventure we decided to just chill out and experience my usual Siem Reap pace.

From Moloppor we transferred to Blue Pumpkin because they wanted to chill-out in an airconditioned place. BP is a haven in the afternoon when the Siem Reap sun can be so unforgiving.

I asked Miguel to take a picture of me smiling and honestly I'm scaring myself when I see this. Anyhoot, we just vegged out in BP talking about Bo's love life and the sudden crises that happened because of some funny circumstances happening back home.

Apres, we moved to Art Deli. We had an early cocktails, more tsika and got hungry. This salmon carpaccio from Trattoria Italiana was a wonderful revelation. We totally enjoyed it so much.

It's like back in Iloilo where we hang-out at Miguel's restaurants, either at Esca's or Afrique's. I'm smiling again at this picture, urgh!

For dinner we decided to go to Shabu House for some suki soup style dining and eat-all-you-can sushi. Let's just say I became obese instantly after dinner.

The guys wanted to chill-out so we I brought them to Miss Wong. They have delish concoction there so I wanted Miguel to try it.

We met-up with Soap and Franco who was in town for a photoshoot for F Magazine. It was a slow night and they wanted to have a massage so we didn't stay up late.

On the third day, Tita Jaki and her family headed back to Bangkok for their flight to Manila the next day. Bo and Miguel stayed and we met up at AHA for lunch with Franco.

There's a lot of new dishes to try and I was so excited to try it. In the end, it was the Honeycomb Ice Cream that emerged as the winner among the stuff we ordered. Miguel was so enamored with it so it means it's that good. Miguel is one of the best chef I know and I'm not saying that just because we're friends.

Miguel and Bo were not really into cultural stuff and all, so we had a very 'edited' tour of Angkor Wat. It's probably the fastest tour of Angkor Wat I've taken, which I'm not complaining. Hehehe! Apres, we checked out Amansara courtesy of Faith. Don't we love it there? I really consider it my home. Or rather I'd like to think it's my home, hahaha! I'll never get tired of coming to Amansara. Faith showed the rooms and we had drinks and cake.

Miguel wanted some street food so we had dinner at the Pub Street area.

It reminded me of Dinagyang where we eat streetside.

Grilled meat and seafoods! It feels like Boracay, too, minus the beach.

For desserts, we decided to try the ice cream thingy of these Japanese students who were selling those stuff to raise money for charity.

Eat ice cream and help the kids of the Cambodia, how can you beat that?

The next day we were off to Phnom Penh.

Last Day In Bangkok

DAY 3

We just wanted to chill out after all the retail therapy and partying. We basically parked ourselves at Dean&Deluca, which was quite near Miguel and Bo's hotel. We were there for brunch until mid afternoon.

There was a time when Mario Maurer was all over Bangkok and that is not the case anymore. Meet Nadech, the new 'it-boy' of Thailand. He was on the cover of Bangkok Post's 'The Magazine' and several more glossies. All over the city you are bound to see the many billboard of products he is endorsing.

When I was there he had a movie showing, too.

We literally stuffed ourselves silly with food at Dean&Deluca. One of my fave is this strawberry layer cake made of thin pancakes. So yummy!

I'm wishing they will open in Cambodia.

We had a bit of shopping at Siam because Rey wanted to buy a dress for her niece. He ended up getting a nice lacy number at Theater. I didn't realize it's very nicely priced and I'm eyeing a waistcoat piece there.

We had drinks at Greyhound Cafe. I always love it there. Look at that lovely grafitti on the wall. It would be a nice print on a tee. With Bo, Kawadjan and Rey. Julius had class that day (his last day) but he caught up with us.

It's so nice to have Bo and Miguel meet my friends in Bangkok and San Francisco. Now I can't wait for the meet-up next year! Here's me, Miguel and Ace.

When I saw this it reminded me of my friend Toxic who influenced me to love K-Pop. SHInee is one of my favorites. I'm happy they released their new teaser for their new mini-album called Sherlock. Such talented and fashionable chaps.

Later in the evening we had dinner at this Thai restaurant in Silom. It was nice but I still love the food at Somtam or Hai. We had more chats and drinks, apres. We also checked out this place Julius wanted us to see but we didn't stay long. Then somehow we ended up at this coffee shop near Soi 1. It was more catching up and laughter.

I was so thrilled because Ace gave me a Y-3 sneakers! I was just admiring it on him when he asked if I like to have it. Who am I to refuse, right?!

The next day I travelled back to Cambodia with Miguel, Bo, Tita Jaki and her family. Ace and Rey stayed in Bangkok for a couple more days before they continued their vacation in Iloilo.