travel

Hi friends!

I was able to go to Cambodia this past week on a week-long trip. The last time I was there was over 11 years ago, so it was quite a shock to see just how much it has changed over the years!

Thankfully, one of my lovely friends moved back this past year and spent the entire year scoping out all of the cutest spots for my visit. Ha ha… just kidding. But she is a foodie and knows all happening places to go! I am seriously sooo thankful for that as Yelp does not exist in Cambodia!

I hopped off the plane in PP and headed straight to my hotel.. Kabiki Hotel. Located centrally in the middle of town, everything that I wanted to see and do was only about 15 minutes away.

I walked into this amazing oasis in the middle of the hustle and bustle of town. I had such an amazing stay here! It was definitely the perfect way to kick-off my stay in PP.

We wasted no time at all and headed straight to Seekers Gin Distillery – and had the best gin & tonic I have ever had! It had a hint of kefir leaf and wowweeee the flavor was amazing!

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I mean..even the bottle and everything was so picture perfect. The taste was just as good!

Now there are starting to be some high-rise buildings that are appearing the the developing city. Trust me.. there were no malls or anything even resembling high-rise buildings a decade ago. To see the difference is astounding.

Rosewood Phnom Penh opened a rooftop bar on the 30-something floor. The views and whole bar had me feelin’ like I was in another country!

Alright… time to call it a night. The next morning we woke up and started our day off right. The picture-perfect Sundown Social (located right besides the Russian market) was definitely one of my favorite places. It was SO cute, the drinks were cute, and I had some amazing fried cauliflower bites.

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Since no vacation is complete without lots and lots of food, we continued on to the next spot! This one was very healthy, with smoothies, bowls, and juices! There was even bottles of locally-made Kombucha (which has been my obsession lately). This was called Backyard Eats, which is located right by the palace area.

77E02D78-4473-4C02-8329-03FACFED070C 8DFFDB53-2547-409B-A4D1-3450A8B6E834 I hope you are able to check out some of these places if you end up taking a Phnom Penh trip! Let me know if there are any other places I should visit for my next trip there!

Xoxo,

-Lena

Aloha! Mahalo! <- (goes to Hawaii one time and pretends she’s a local…the only 2 Hawaiian words that I know and will annoyingly repeat every time I go to the islands)

Although there many not-so-fun things about getting older, one very fun thing about getting older is getting to travel more with friends and celebrate all the milestones with them.

A few months ago, I was able to celebrate my friend’s 30th birthday by going on a trip to Maui with a group of girls. Now, I hadn’t been to Maui since I was like..eleven..sooo this was basically like my first time visiting this island 🙂 (Sorry mom and dad for my short-term memory issues…)

Now thankfully, the girls I went with were major planners AND foodies, so every moment of our 3 days spent on the island was well-spent and we were well-fed!

Day 1: Hit up a cute coffee shop.
Visit the Maui swap meet… macademia nut bread/cake was BOMB!
Take a cool workshop. We made flower crowns and that was super fun.
Tin Roof is a Maui fast food must try!
Maui Tropical Plantation Tour…aka eat delicious coconut ice cream and watch locals cut coconuts in half!
Eat lots of Hawaiian food (Da Kitchen’s loco moco bowl portions are OUT OF THIS WORLD! Can easily share between 3/4 people they are ginormous!)

Day 2: ROAD TRIP to Road to Hana. Be warned..this is not for the weary. This was a 12 hour trip round trip. Bring LOTS AND LOTS of snacks. And bug spray. And water. And comfy shoes. And sun tan lotion. The roads are seriously so scary and windy and narrow. I thought this was going to be the last day of my life. But alas, I am still here and survived! I also saw the MOST amazing double rainbow I have ever seen in all of my days and beaches made of black sand! The delirious-ness really set in that evening as you can probably imagine.

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Day 3: Whaler’s Village – sometimes it’s fun just to embrace full tourist mode. Because this village is definitely tourist land. Go here to shop and drink mai tais. There are some amazing happy hours here and some kickin’ strong mai-tais let me tell you! The foam on top is really what makes the drink. You will also be greeted by ukulele playing classes.
Ululani’s Hawaiian Shaved Ice – because no trip to Hawaii is complete without a shave ice.

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I am ready for another tropical trip…

xoxo,

-Lena

ps.. you can watch our trip here: