22&23.11 - Days 312-3 - Siem Reap, KHM
Friday 22nd & Saturday 23rd November - Siem Reap (Day 312 & 313)
A quiet but hot day catching up on and finishing the week of school work. The carrots to be dangled in front of Sienna and Seb revolve around mango smoothies and time in the pool. Though the first pool visit is cut short when the young French couple plead with Sienna and Seb to stop splashing them.
There’s no cooking at home now so every lunch and dinner is eating out with an almost unlimited number of places within a 10 minute slow walk.
We must allow time coming or going in case Kathryn the owner is at her desk - I had assumed that ‘Aussie Kathryn’ as she announced herself on Whatsapp when I was booking would be a backpacker earning some wages, instead she’s a 60 something year old who’s moved out here and she’s keen to share some stories of previous guests or health issues. However, she is very helpful and accommodates us staying some extra nights and points us in the direction of good food venues.
The afternoon pool session, after dumplings for lunch, is much more successful and it’s more meat and rice for dinner before falling asleep, aircon on.
The second most popular attraction in Siem Reap, beyond visiting Angkor Wat, is visiting Angkor Wat for sunrise (and in third, visiting for sunset).
In terms of taking Sienna and Seb, sunrise offers cooler temperatures but a very early start, and sunset the opposite. We decide on Sunset for Sienna and Seb, so on Saturday morning Kim is enlisted to take Kate and I off in his remorque.
We were a little hesitant after hearing about large crowds, jostling for space, but leaving at 4:45 am who else would possibly be awake?
Well, the room of three guys next to us for one; plus eleven new guests downstairs for two. At one of the only traffic lights in town, 7 or 8 tuk tuks and remorques shoot past with tourists inside. In the pitch black at the gates we join throngs of people marching with torches and phone lights blinking on their swinging arms.
There are two small lakes in front of the main temple, we pick left and find a spot along a fence. For the next hour and a bit, streaks of red cloud dissipate and the sun slowly emerges up from behind the temple.
It’s very picturesque and we’re glad we made the effort (and glad we left Sienna and Seb curled up in bed). There are several thousand people but the space is so large that we’re not banging elbows.
The warmth is instant when the sun hits, and we walk a lap of the temple - again marvelling at the sheer scale not just of the temple but all the stone picture carvings, carved columns and edgings.
The sun having risen by 6:30 am, after our walk we’re back to Kim around 7:15 am, walking back into our darkened room just after 7:30 am. Seb has just woken up and Sienna on waking and seeing the daylight says ‘Won’t you miss sunrise? It’s already bright outside.’
From there, it’s a slow morning ending with a walk for smoothies and a post office visit leading to a swim in our pool. That swim is extended when another Australian family emerge and their two girls Hannah (14) and another Sienna (12) get in and Sienna and Seb start playing and splashing with them, whilst Kate and I chat to the parents - from Perth on a 8 week trip through Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Japan and Bali.
The kids finally admit to being hungry so our gang traipse to Taste for Life for fried rice and meat (Kate, Sienna and Seb) and amok fish curry for me. Sienna and Seb are exhausted after the mammoth pool play so they watch Sing 2 with an equally tired Kate while I catch up on some writing.
The late lunch means no-one really wants dinner, but a walk through the markets and shops produces a football kit for Seb ($5) a wrap around skirt for Sienna ($4) and a football shirt for me ($16), plus an ice-cream roll for Sienna and Seb, last had in Chiang Mai with Emett and Hazel. Creamy liquid is laid on a very cold surface, Nutella and Oreo added in this case, smoothed and spread out, frozen, then rolled. Result is two happy children.