After another dodgy accommodation booking…I really haven’t covered myself in glory with my accommodation choices for Cambodia….we ended up swiftly moving to a little place across the road where the room at least had windows and the swimming pool wasn’t being used to wash clothes! One of the main reasons to explore Cambodia was to spend some time at Angkor Archeological Park and the many many temples….safe to say that this was much higher up on my agenda than anyone else’s! Armed with my full and slightly ambitious schedule of temple exploring we were ready to go although I can’t say that my excitement was matched by P, E & G but to be fair I think my enthusiasm was enough for all of us. We worked out quite quickly that you could spend weeks at the Archeological Park and still miss some of the hidden gems but with our local tuk tuk driver (quite how we managed to get the slowest tuk tuk driver of all time I have no idea!) we (mainly I) set off on a determined mission to see as much as we could…..
We spent the first day exploring the Bayon Temple and Phnom Bakheng and only just started to hear the murmurings of “they all look the same” and “once you’ve seen one temple you’ve seen them all” by about 5pm. Not to be defeated I rallied the fairly despondent troops for a 5am start the next morning to see the sunrise of Angkor Wat promising a deeply serene, meditative and peaceful experience. Unfortunately we were to be greeted with something that looked slightly more like Black Friday at Asda with people rushing in the dark to get the best spots by the lake in front of the temple and over enthusiastic stall holders pretending to be Harry Potter or James Bond offering exhorbiantly priced coffee. Whilst finding a quiet spot away from the crowds we saw the sun rise behind the temple which was pretty amazing to see but really slightly ruined by the insane amount of selfie sticks, clicking of cameras and hoards of people. My impromptu art class of temple drawing followed which E embraced with pure enthusiasm, G lasted about 5mins before he got distracted and Pads literally walked off before we started. An afternoon exploring the smaller temples off the beaten track beckoned…if you ever get the chance to go these smaller temples are the ones to explore. Ta Prohm, made famous in Tomb Raider (knew there was value in showing it to the kids), was the clear favourite, totally magical and allowed us to explore the ruins, marvel at the ridiculous shapes of the trees growing through the ruins and try some pretty advanced vine climbing. I also got to experience one of my wishes to spend some time meditating with the temple monks and we were blessed to be given a special family Buddhist blessing…truly memorable…until the kids started to giggle when sprayed with holy water!
It was quite clear that I had exhausted my temple exploring schedule so conceded to a morning Zip Wiring through the canopy’s of Angkor Wat Archelogical Park….kids loved it and the honeymoon swing allowed Pads and I too recreate our very own Tarzan and Jane moment…although slightly less elegantly and thankfully more fully clothed!
Siem Reap gave us the opportunity to overindulge with ridiculously cheap massages which were on offer on every street corner (E now thinks are going to be a regular part of this trip…how sorely she is mistaken…), copious amount of chicken rice and some of the best ice cream we’ve tasted..What a perfect way to a finish our time in Cambodia…
We knew that we were going to be in need of some R&R after Vietnam and Cambodia so we smashed the budget and stayed in a gorgeous 3 bedroom villa with private pool in beautiful Bali. Slight waste as needless to say the kids refused to sleep in their own room so we all ended up bunking into together…..looks like we’ll only need a 1 bed house when we finish this trip! E&G really deserved a treat after the numerous temple escapades and genocide museums so we decided to surprise them with a day at Waterboom – Bali’s premier water park….ridiculously fun although by the 8th time down “The Python” I was starting to feel a little sick! A day soaking up the sun at one of the Island’s famous beach clubs followed and we all felt reinvigorated and ready to hit Australia!
Worldwide Wanderers 