DAY 5 - SIEM REAPWe woke up in last night's clothes and since we've been waking up early since day 1 we decided to bum out a little on our last day. We stayed in bed until past 10 while talking about the crazy moments of the night before and the whole trip. After that we got up, prepared and checked-out of the hotel. The hotel staffs were very kind - they kept our luggages for the day and arranged our tuktuk in going to the airport. First, we had lunch at a Cambodian restaurant, it was really delicious. By this time, I was already craving of inasal Hahahaha I had too much mint leaves and curry the whole trip. Our last itinerary of the trip was to eat at the famous Bugs Cafe, we decided to go to the restaurant, but it turns out, it opens at 5 PM. So we walked back to the old market and went shopping for pasalubongs. We had a great deal on this cutiepatootie coin purse. It was super hot (we were already sweating hard) so after buying all the stuff we need, we looked for a cafe or just some place nice where we can chill until 5PM. We looked at our map and asked the locals for a good place to stay, right when we were about to cross the street I saw this big ice cream sign! Viola! It was heaven sent. Blue PumpkinWhen we entered the cafe, it was like entering Narnia. Hahaha. Kidding. But I was just so happy to find a really nice place with air con plus ice cream plus cakes plus good couches plus wifi = happy me. Blue Pumpkin is a really nice place to just hang out and talk, if there's a place like this in Makati, I'm one happy customer. Paolo had coffee + cake, I had chocolate cake and Yiezza had ice cream. Paolo said it's really yummy to have black coffee and cake or ice cream, I was like "Reallyyyyy" because I don't drink coffee and I find it really weird. (I thought Paolo was the only weirdo who loves this combination, only to learn that in the movie The Love Affair, the character of Richard and Dawn loves coffee and ice cream together. Haha. Sorry, Pao!) Since Pao celebrated his birthday and I'm celebrating my birthday days after the trip, we had a mini-birthday moment. Yaay! What I like most about this afternoon was our conversation. It is rare to find people who you talk about really serious matters to crazy shit :) Funny when we start being quiet, we are all focused on our phones and afterwards, we start talking again. We had like an unconscious routine and habit that we developed during the trip. Hahaha. Bugs CafeBefore we head out to the airport, we had an interesting dinner at Bugs Cafe. We ordered the small "Discovery platter" with different insects and bugs. The owner even explained and introduced the menu, and he happily answered our (thousand) questions. What I like about the meal was the cooking and preparation was well thought of, it was not just fried or grilled. The bugs and insects were served as real dishes. It was a very creative way of putting it to a cuisine. For me, this is the haute cuisine version for bugs and insects. Hehe :P What we had for dinner : Wild Spring Rolls with Ants - the most "normal" among all, you'll barely taste the ants not unless you'll see it. Grilled skewer with two grasshoppers, a tarantula and a waterbug - They taste like lechon. Hahaha. Except the waterbug (the one that looks like a cockroach) the body is really crispy while the inside tastes different, it's an exciting taste, I don't know if you'll get what I mean but it tastes different - the good kind. Tarantula Donut - The taste of the tarantula donut is debatable. It's very crispy, it feels like eating crunchy chicken skin, but a bit hairy. You can feel the texture of the hairy legs of the tarantula. Tarantula Samosa- Tarantula again, but with a middle eastern take. It tastes like a chicken samosa but a little crispier. Crickets and Bamboo Worms Wok - another normal dish, it tastes like the Camaro dish of Kapampangan but with a twist. I love the Parmesan cheese on it! Also, the crickets and worms are very juicy, you'll feel the sudden rush of taste the moment you bite it. Aside from the fact it's an adventurous thing to do, I also love the dining experience :) It's one-of-a-kind moment to eat exciting dishes like this. They have a lot more dishes to choose from and even cocktail drinks! I'm definitely coming back at this restaurant to try more bugs, insects and maybe reptiles, too! Back to realityWe went to the airport past 7PM for our 11PM flight, it was so hard to say goodbye to the place and even harder to face the "reality" in going back to the Philippines. At some point I even suggested to go to Thailand since it was just 8 hours away and just book a flight from there. Hahaha. Or just not go back to the PH at all and keep on travelling around South East Asia :)) I thought I had to check-in my luggage because when I had it weighed from 6.7 to 10 kilos!! So just imagine the look on my face that time, good thing our Cebu Pac plane allows 10k as hand carry. Whew. We talked about just doing the "backpack" thing on our next trip... Challenge accepted! The airport didn't have Starbucks and again, another heaven sent moment - Blue Pumpkin!! We stayed there until our flight was called for boarding. It's funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realize what's changes, is you" - Eric Roth It was good, crazy and fun while it lasted - I couldn't be any more thankful and grateful to have one of the best trips of my life with Yiezza and Paolo. Aside from the places and food, they made it one hell of a good time! I also learned a lot from them, from the little things to the words of wisdom from Yie and Pao. I think we're the perfect trio and I am looking forward to more trips with them :) <3 Hehehe. Life was meant for good friends and great adventures! It feels like a dream - to travel without my family, but with friends, to budget my money and to pack only the essentials. I think this experience taught me a lot and the trip gave me a new perspective on a lot of things. It made me respect other religion more, gave me the understanding of other's culture and practices, and most importantly, it made realize that there's more to life than the one that I grew up knowing. This trip also inspired me to work harder so I save and travel more in the future. I promise myself that I will travel out of the country once a year and I would try travelling by myself before my late twenties. I would really recommend that once in a while, we travel and explore because this broadens our understanding, and for me, it makes us more open to the world. It also opens our eyes to see new wonders, taste the local food, feel the warm embrace of the culture and hear the foreign language. It felt really weird going back and do my usual routine, but this time, I have a purpose - work harder and travel more <3 'till our next trip! xoxo, M
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She wonders and wandersMonica writes about her life, what she eats, what she reads and where she goes. This space is where her thoughts, experiences, memories and feelings turn into words. She's glad that she can share with you. Archives
August 2021
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