myretroperspective

Phnom Bok Temple If you've been following along for awhile, you know that Jeremy and I love to experience out of the ordinary destinations while on vacation. Whether it's swimming with whale sharks , road tripping across the country , or zip lining through the jungle , one of our favorite parts of traveling is finding places or activities not commonly stumbled upon.  That's why we knew that once we saw all of the temples at Angkor, we also wanted to travel outside of the city to the 'Lost Temples'. These temples give a true Indiana Jones feel as most of it has ben left in ruins, the forest taking back claim to what was once theirs. The first temple we visited was about an hour ride outside the city of Siem Reap called Beng Malea. It was a massive complex that was almost completely destroyed and overgrown with moss and trees. You had to crawl under and climb over the rubble at certain points to make it back to the clear path that was made just for tourists such as ou...

One of the most nerve wracking parts of traveling for me is finding a hotel. I have a friend  who has a similar hate and faces buyers remorse every time she books. It's hard not to when there's literally hundreds of choices in each area. So my solution? Let my husband do the dirty work. Thank goodness he's happy and willing to take it off my hands for me. And this time he was able to find the Villa Langka  hotel in Phnom Penh, a gem among the hundreds of choices in the city. When we travel we always look for the same things in our hotels. And thankfully Villa Langka filled all of these requirements. 1. Locally owned and operated aka no chains (only one location in the heart of Phnom Penh) 2. Small in size (48 rooms in total in two different buildings) 3. Budget friendly  ($55 a night with an included buffet breakfast. A deal breaker when we look for hotels) 4. Location location location (just a short walk away from tons of bars, restaurants, and shops) Thankfully in Phnom...

SOLD OUT I can't tell you how excited I am for this! When I saw these elephant wallets for sale in a market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I just knew that I had to bring some back. I bought some for gifts, one for myself and I gave one away last week. If anyone searched my bag at the airport they probably thought I was crazy for having so many wallets tucked away in my bag. But then ask me if I care and you'll get a big fat nope . Well here's the great news guys, if you entered the giveaway last week but didn't win, you can still get your hands on one! I have six of these bad boys to sell, in two different designs and you can buy them through my sponsor page . These wallets are well made from recycled concrete bags in Cambodia (how cool is that?!). So if you want your own souvenir from Cambodia, be sure to head over to my sponsor page and snag one up for yourself!

On the last few trips it's become a sort of unintentional tradition to rent a motorbike and take a road trip (you can check out our one in the Philippines and Thailand ). We love it because not only it is a cheaper method of transportation versus taxis or tuk tuks since it's less than $10 a day for a rental, but I feel like we are also able to see parts of the country that would have whizzed by the bus window. In total we rode over 900 km (that's 560 miles for you USers), or the width of Cambodia and almost back again and I have the bruises on my butt to prove it. We went through cities and back country roads where the farmers were steering their ox through the rice paddies. We drove through the blazing heat, dusty roads and pouring down rain. We met farmers, school children, business owners and our guardian angel; a stranger who drove slowly in front of us with their hazards on so we could see the road through the downpour of rain. But no matter where we traveled, we were...