” One should not attend even the end of the world without a good breakfast.” – Jarod Kintz

We started our second day of the trip with a hearty breakfast at Funky since we had booked a tour with the hostel yesterday.

J opted for the Full English which comprised of back bacon, eggs, sausage, baked beans, toast, baked tomato and mushrooms. At 5.50 usd, this fits the fickle-minded ones who can’t decide on what to eat. It was very ordinary tbh.

I chose the Breakfast Sub as it seemed like a cheaper alternative with everything you find in the Full English set.  It was a terrible choice as I had so much problems trying to chew off the baguette with an ulcer on my tongue (which was caused by my intense bite on my chocolate croissant while crossing the road =.=).

I had seen some photos of the Phnom Kulen Waterfall and it seemed like a great day trip to beat the afternoon heat. The driver/tour guide was supposed to pick us up at 8:45 but arrived at 8:15 instead when I was still chewing on my baguette.

The third tourist initially booked the tour for one person and it would fit all 4 of us in a car but she/he decided to add one more person at the last minute. The driver was at a loss and asked if the extra passenger would mind sitting on the back of the car which had ample space though it didn’t have any cushion. J and I was contemplating to be noble souls but withdrew our decision when we saw how the guests conversed with the driver. They were obnoxious and unrelentless.

They eventually decided not to join us and the driver drove all 3 of us to our destination. ALL THE BETTER CAUSE MORE ROOM TO SIT FREELY. *pops champagne*

“Kulen is considered by Khmers to be the most sacred mountain in Cambodia and it is a popular place for domestic visitors during weekends and festivals. The hill is used as the ancient capital city II in AD 802 to declared himself as god king and announced independence from Java, then giving birth to present day Cambodia.” (Source)

We also made our way to a bazaar nearby before moving on to a Chinese temple.

The extreme heat makes for a good cup of iced Sugar Cane Juice. Sooooo good! Drink at your own risk though, as there were a bunch of flies buzzing around the juice.

And we finally made our way to the highlight of our journey.

This is the smaller waterfall. The grander one is more hidden and approximately a 200-meters walk further inside.

The waterfall is a spectacular sight and we immediately jumped straight in after taking photos of it. You can literally feel the fishes biting you if you were to stop moving. We swam for a good 20 minutes and finally headed back in wet clothes and water dripping from our hair.

But of course, swimming causes hunger and hunger calls for food. These barbecued beef sticks were a good replenishment for fuel.

After 2-hours, we finally arrived at our hostel. Washed ourselves up and out we went again looking for… Food!

Our famished tummies were growling and we could not decide on an eatery yet so we shared a Banh Mi. Basically, it’s a French baguette stuffed with char siew(roasted pork), cucumbers and other vegetables and topped with Chili sauce.

Lunch was finally settled at a restaurant called Angkor Herb. 

The food took a long time to come and we were feeling frustrated when the first dish was served.

The seafood fried rice was very good as it hinted of wok-hei and each grain of rice was nicely toasted on the wok. I recommend spamming more Fish sauce on the rice before eating as this would purge all the aroma of the dish out.

不错吃! The paper rolls were stuffed with lots of fresh vegetables and complemented the sweet sauce.

There was a massage parlor right next to the restaurant so we settled for a 1-hour foot massage since we felt utterly drained. The moment we came out of the massage parlor, we saw food carts selling pancakes! Unable to resist our sweet tooth, we chose the Banana-Chocolate pancake. This was unlike Thailand’s version as it was rolled up and less crispy.

Fresh fruit shakes are available everywhere along Pub Street and costs only $1. If Thailand’s national beverage is Thai Iced Tea, it would be fresh fruit shake for Cambodia. I honestly didn’t expect a fruit shake to taste so good!

We gave a try of the mixed fruit shake. The hawker decides the fruits to be blended. Kind of like fruit shake roulette huh.

The end product was this pink and fluffy looking thing. Other than fresh fruits, the hawker had also added in fresh milk and condensed milk to sweeten up the drink. So perfect for a 34 C (with actual feel of 38C) weather! We also tried this fried chives dumpling (韭菜粿) thingy and it was so good too! The exterior is crispy and the interior was lots of fresh, moist chives. When you eat it with fish sauce, it was like heaven on earth. Okay abit exaggerated but I think it’s quite good.

Since the weather was unbearably hot, we decided to settle for some gelato (Food again!) at this two-storey cafe called The Blue Pumpkin.

J had a scoop of salted caramel ice cream and I ordered the Blueberry Cheesecake.

Looks appetizing but taste terrible. Oh well, at least this place has comfortable seats and strong air-conditioning!

We took a short nap after the visit to the market and settled dinner at Funky. 

J’s choice of fish and chips. Fish was fresh but it was such a small portion!

This homemade funky burger was made from beef and pork and served with lettuce, tomatoes and fries. The meat patties were good but the bread that they had used was so thick it was so filling.

This marks the end of the post for Day 2 as we would be waking up at 4am to meet our driver for sunrise at Angkor Wat the next day. Keep a look out for the next post for Angkor Wat!