Adventures in Cambodia: The Phare Circus, Pub Street, and Night Market

Aside from seeing the temples, my favorite part of trip to Cambodia was hanging out and shopping in the night market!  We went down there twice (once during the day and the other time during the night), and I could have gone at least 3 more times!  The market is filled with every souvenir imaginable, and for the most incredible prices!  We bought clothes, wooden carvings, magnets, and snakes in a jar :)  Our kids were in complete shopping heaven.  And, then there was the food and the massages!  We found a massage place in the market that was amazing.  Massages: $3 for 30 minutes or $5 for an hour!  We all got foot massages ($1 for 20 minutes), including Clara.  And she LOVED every second of it!  She is so funny; since going there, she keeps talking about wanting to go get massages.  Such a little princess!

We also did plenty of shopping and eating around Pub Street in downtown Siem Reap.  It's a really fun area with tons of restaurants, shops, massage places, and doctor fish tanks!  Peter and I had gotten a fish pedicure in Bali, but we decided to do it again in Cambodia, and the place we went to had much bigger fish!  And it was so much crazier!!!  I was dying laughing, or squealing/screaming actually.  It was crazy!  And, sadly, all of my photos from the fish pedicure are missing, so I only have this screenshot from my instagram!

The other really amazing thing we did was going to see the Phare Circus.  It was an acrobatic circus show, not unlike Cirque du Soleil, but without all the crazy stage production.  The performers were incredible!  And the whole story behind the circus was even more amazing.  Phare not only is a circus, but they also have a school that serves underprivileged Cambodian youth.  The circus is actually an appendage of the school, and the performers are employed graduates and students.  The show was nothing short of amazing!  Well worth the money.  I'd highly recommend going!

Cambodia was, hands down, one of the most beautiful and astounding places I have ever visited!  I don't think there's anywhere else in the world just like it!  We had such an incredible time--I am truly grateful for the opportunities that we've had to travel since living here.  I had never imagined that I'd visit Cambodia and some of these other Southeastern Asian countries, but I feel fuller now that I have!