Other than the new safety precautions, the temples seem to have stayed pretty much the same over the last decade. Siem Reap, however, is completely new. And it’s great.

Eleven years ago, Siem Reap had one major hotel, the Intercontinental, and a lot of guest houses. Now there are literally hundreds of really nice hotels, with beautiful landscaped grounds, pools, and luxurious rooms for relatively cheap.

There was also no nightlife to speak of then. Now, Siem Reap has Pub Street and several night markets. Tonight, we went out for a fun date night. We rode our bikes down and meandered through Pub Street first. We decided to eat at Temple, since they have a traditional Khmer dance show every night.

They did four or five different routines, including the coconut dance which is one of my favorites.

Temple also has some of the best deep fried chicken spring rolls we have ever eaten. Ever.

Isa got the Khmer curry, which tasted perfect. It brought back a lot of memories with just one taste. I got the chicken ginger, which was a little spicier than I would have liked, but it was still delicious.

After a long day of wandering the temples, Isa convinced me to get a foot massage with her at one of the night markets. It was $2 for half an hour, and it came with a lady boy show. It was probably the most fun we’ve had since coming to Asia.

We laughed so hard throughout the show (whether it was supposed to be funny or not, I don’t know, but seeing those guys dressed up like Beyonce and Shakira and shaking their booties and lip synching their hearts out so passionately and enthusiastically, we loved every second of it), and the foot massage was wonderful. Yes, even I enjoyed it (and we know how much I hate massages). The whole night made us really love Siem Reap.