Urban Tree Hut and Dialogue on 26th Street - Wat Bo Village

After a long day exploring Angkor era temples, followed by a quick dip in the pool at our hotel, we headed out to dinner at Urban Tree Hut on 27th Street in Siem Reap, including dishes featuring Red Ants, Quail and Crabs among others. Although we opted for the air conditioned dining room, most of the dining area here at Urban Tree Hut is actually outdoors in an awesome garden setting. If we hadn't still been in wind down mode from the days activities, I think we would have taken the garden option.

After dinner we felt like an after dinner drink or two, so we took a walk around the block to see what we could find. As we did, we found ourselves at the corner of Wat Bo Road and 26th Street, checking out Dialogue on 26th Street. We had a look over the cocktail list, looked around the venue and decided this would be a good place for those after dinner drinks. Dialogue is a cool open air space with a well stocked bar, great staff and quite a cool drinks list.

This Beef with Red Ant Salad at Urban Tree Hut was delicious, I would definitely order this one again.

Urban Tree Hut's Spicy Papaya Salad.

We all chose a dish or two off the menu to share amongst the table, the Quail Congee was my pick, and I quite enjoyed it.

Chicken Amok is a traditional Khmer dish, so you will find at at almost any restaurant in Cambodia, it quickly became a staple of our trip.

While we chose the air conditioned indoor dining area at Urban Tree Hut, there is an amazing outdoor garden style dining space as well that we would love to experience one day.

After dinner we felt like a few drinks, so headed around the corner to find a small bar and Dialogue on 26th Street seemed like a good choice. This is one of their signature cocktails.

One of Dialogues bartenders preparing our cocktails.

Ken, Mel and I all had the same cocktail, Lori opted for a gin and tonic.

Dialogues outdoor space is funky and a great place to catch up.

Dialogue on 26th Street, Wat Bo, as seen from the road.

Dinner at Urban Tree Hut and after dinner drinks at Dialogue on 26th Street turned out to be a great way to finish our day and debrief after a huge day exploring Angkor era temples in the Cambodian jungle. The Wat Bo village area and 26th Street precinct are a great part of Siem Reap to explore and we saw several other places we would also like to visit while we were here. Perhaps one day we will come back and try some of them.

If you have enjoyed this blog, please consider helping us out. A donation
will cost you less than the price of a Long Mac in Fremantle.

APOPO Hero Rat Centre

The APOPO Hero Rat Centre is a training and education centre near Angkor Wat, Founded in Belgium, the APOPO program uses giant rats from Africa to help locate land mines in Cambodia and around the world and has already helped clear over 33 million square metres of land of land mines and unexploded ordinance.

Some examples of the mines that APOPO's rats have located in the past.

Our tour guide explaining some of the history of the APOPO program.

Explaining the procedure used to clear an area of landmines.

A trip wire mine, and this one is not even hidden.

This mine is designed to target vehicles, and as you can see would be quite difficult to spot in the jungle.

One of APOPO's rats and its handler, ready to give us a demonstration of their abilities at detecting landmines.

The rats are tethered so that their team is able to map out cleared areas.

Mel holding one of APOPO's retired rats. The rats take about 9 months to train and work for 4 to 5 years before they are retired.

Lori and one of the retired APOPO rats that live at the centre.

My turn to hold the rat and he decided to run up my arm and perched on my shoulder for a bit before heading back to the staff member that was here with us.

There is a gift shop here as well, and the proceeds go towards funding the APOPO program. We picked up some shirts and stubby holders and I bought a money clip made from spent bullet casings, as we were working mostly with cash in Cambodia and the money clip I'd brought with me didn't hold enough bills.

If you have enjoyed this blog, please consider helping us out. A donation
will cost you less than the price of a Long Mac in Fremantle.

Ta Prohm aka. The Tomb Raider Temple

After Angkor Wat, one of the first temples in Cambodia that springs to mind is Ta Prohm, known by many as the Tomb Raider temple. While some claim that one of the Indiana Jones movies was shot here as well, there is no proof of that.

Built in the 12th century and abandoned in the 15th, when the temple was rediscovered in the early 20th century, several large trees had set roots through the temple walls. Early restoration efforts mostly involved clearing the scrub and making the temple accessible, but the size of the roots and how they had grown between the sandstone blocks of the temple walls made removing them impossible.

As you enter Ta Prohm from the east, just before you get to the main temple area, you pass a Dharmasala, or firehouse (literally a house with a fire where pilgrims can rest on their travels).

Ta Prohm is famous for it's trees, such as this one that featured in the Tomb Raider movie with Angelina Jolie. While much of the vegetation has been cleared now, quite a few of the larger trees were deliberately left to give an impression of what the temple looked like prior to the last 30 years of careful restoration.

As with some of the other Angkor temples, Ta Prohm is quite the labyrinth of passageways, with some amazing interior decor to be seen.

Apsara dancers decorate the walls of this hall of Ta Prohm.

While there are not as many of the story telling bas reliefs as there are at some other temples, there is certainly no shortage of carvings on the walls, such as this multi headed naga serpent.

As with many Angkor temples, works to restore Ta Prohm are ongoing, with the Indian government working with Cambodian locals in this case. That said, Ta Prohm is intended to be carefully restored, leaving some of the ruins as they are.

The restoration works have included laying timber walkways throughout Ta Prohm to make the temple safer for tourists.

These temple ruins may look neglected, but that is intentional here, with much of the restoration work focussing on stabilizing the ruins of Ta Prohm as they are.

There is no shortage of discussion about what the animal in the centre carving here is. There is no definitive answer as to why there appears to be a stegosaurus carved into the walls of Ta Prohm.

Part of the beautiful, and still standing, exterior of the Ta Promh temple building.

We visited Ta Prohm in the afternoon in late September, and while there are less tourists than you would find earlier in the day, and in the drier months, Ta Prohm was still quite busy. If (or when) we come back to Cambodia, I'd love to get a 7 day Angkor pass and spend another hour or 2 just taking in some of these temples as even though we did not rush through them, it still seems there is much more to be seen here.

If you have enjoyed this blog, please consider helping us out. A donation
will cost you less than the price of a Long Mac in Fremantle.