Tour guide in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I had a reader ask me for my tour guide information from Phnom Penh and Siem Reap a while back. Unfortunately, I couldn't find their business cards or contact information anywhere! I even emailed my friend, who was my travel agent in Vietnam who helped book a few of my trips to Cambodia, but she couldn't get their direct information either. I was so bummed out. I mean, I'm sure I'll end up in Cambodia again since it's kinda one of my favorite countries in the whole wide world and I wanted them to be there! Lo and behold, Naren, my favorite tuk tuk driver emailed me the other day. He finally got a website up and running and he had my email address. So he emailed me and asked me to pass out his information to friends who might one day visit Cambodia. Lucky for him I write a blog, even if only a couple of people read, but I'm sure they know important people.
Naren is great! I can't begin to tell you how much we loved him. The first time I met him was during my Tet vacation. He picked our group up at the bus depot and took us to our hotel. He was just one of the sweetest people I've ever met. The second time I visited he happened to be our tour guide again. He got on famously with my mom and sisters. The third time I went I was by myself enroute to Sihanoukville with a quick stopover in Phnom Penh. Well, it was supposed to be quick but I missed my bus in Saigon and I was late for my connecting bus in Phnom Penh. I was kinda freaked out because I would have to wait for ages in Phnom Penh. I could have gone to the Russian Market, my FAVORITE place in Phnom Penh, but my bag was kinda heavy and I'm kinda lazy so of course it was a problem for me. As I walked off the bus, despondent because I couldn't spend my time shopping, I literally ran into Naren. Yes, I'm using the word literally correct in this sentence. He was picking up someone from the bus, but he saw me and grabbed my arm and told me to follow him. I told him what happened so he went back to the bus depot with me and got them to change my ticket. Apparently there was a bus leaving in an hour rather than three hours that no one saw fit to mention. He then said he'd keep my backpack for me in his car while I went shopping if I wanted. He has a couple of guys working for him so he sent them to drop his clients at their hotel so they could freshen up and  he waited for me and then made sure I got on the bus. I didn't have anything of concern in the backpack except my cool toothbrush cover so that wasn't a problem.

Here's a picture of me and Naren and my awesome sign. That's Kat, my wonderful former roommate, looking on jealously in the background. 

Here's his website. http://naren-tour.com/
And his contact information just in case the link doesn't work.

Contact Information:

Contact Name :  Mr. Kao Naren

Address :  #209, St. Small road, Khleang Sang Village, Sangkat Ruessei Kaev,Khan Russey Keo,Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Tel :  855(0) 89 816 089

E-mail :  soknaren11@gmail.com / info@naren-tour.com

Website :  www.naren-tour.com

The one where mom and the girls visit: Cambodia: Part 2

Our second day in Siem Reap was spent touring the temples of Angkor Thom. Many of you may have heard of Angkor Wat or even remember it from Lara Croft, the first movie I think. Angkor Wat is probably the most famous of all the temples there and rightfully so. It's amazing! Our day started off with another free breakfast at the hotel. Mom and the girls were in heaven. Rice for breakfast! Okay, mostly mom.
Unfortunately Chrissy fell ill that day and had to stay at the hotel but I think mom, Selina, and I took enough pictures to make up for it. Try approximately 1200 pictures between mom and I alone. Ridiculous!
Included in the price of our trip was a tour guide at all of the places we visited and our tour guide for the temples was exceptional. An exceptional talker that is. Fortunately I didn't have to sit in the tuktuk with him. Mom and Selina sat with him while I sat by myself, like a queen, with my feet propped up on the other half of the tuktuk. It was pretty sweet. He knew what he was talking about but I know for a fact that mom knew more than he did and the only reason she kept asking him questions was so that he didn't feel like he had nothing to do. In fact when she asked him a question and he said the wrong answer I just wanted to yell out. (I should really learn to be patient.)
That day we saw Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm (the tree temple), the Elephant Terrace and my former favorite, Bayon. It's place as my favorite has since been usurped by Beng Mealea.
After our morning at the temples we went back to our hotel to find Chrissy all jolly from having made new friends. We fell napped, packed and then fell asleep. We woke up the next day for an early morning bus ride back to Pnomh Penh to catch our flight to Bangkok. It was a bit of a dodgy ride due to the fact that we were stopping as often as we were on our way to Siem Reap and I was terrified that we wouldn't get to the airport in time for our flight. I got so worked up I yelled at a few people who I'm pretty sure understood English but chose not to because I was so...well I'm not sure what word I should use that wouldn't display me in a terrible light, but would still let people realize that I was in the right. In any case, we got the Pnomh Penh in time. Naren picked us up and dropped us at the airport. The Pnomh Penh airport is pretty cute from the outside. Better than I expected it to be. The best part of the whole PP airport experience was that it had honest to God, real Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate. Yeah, they're all 'real' chocolate, but I now know better. The chocolate made in Birmingham, England is 'da best!'
The flight from Pnomh Penh to Bankok was only about an hour long. Read more about it in the next blog post. Why? Because I can be annoying like that. ;)