What Wat?

Morning All,

It appears the Cambodians do have a better sense of timing than the Vietnamese. We were only 15 minutes over the scheduled 5 1/2 hours: and the roads are far better than anything the Viets have built. Come to think of it, they are better than most of the West Berkshire roads.

That was 2 1/2 days ago, and since arriving in Siem Reap we have managed to fit in quite a few of the must see wats/temples of Angkor. These have included the obligatory sun rise over Angkor Wat which meant a 4.30am alarm call, the Bayon and the Baphuon of Angkor Thom and the Ta Keo. These are all in various states of degeneration/regeneration. Our personal favourite is the Ta Prohm which is a fascinating combination of thousand year old buildings and trees completely intertwined. They so obviously rely on each other for support now that it would be fatal for both if either one was removed. All of these places were of the type and scale that you just can't do justice in photos, they are so vast and yet so intricately detailed that even the David Baileys of the world would need to be on top form, needless to say we gave it a good go with our point and shoot though!

Luckily (??) for us when we came out of each of the arenas there were a thousand kids under ten ready and waiting to sell us packs of postcards with aerial and panoramic views. We have noticed a strict etiquette when it comes to street sellers - you should buy from the first person that approaches. As you all know we love a bit of etiquette so try our best to conform but it's not always easy when 8 kids run up and approach you simultaneously! Anyway, we get a pack of posties and walk away, the kids moan that they asked first etc etc but then give up one by one and peace resumes. That is until the smallest girl of the bunch who's no more than 5 follows us for about 400 meters repeating the following mantra "hey you, you by bracelet 3 for one dollar" over and over, this continued without her taking a breath until we turned to go out of sight of whoever she belonged to then she just stopped talking and walked away! Credit where it's due she was persistent but I think it's important not to give them money just to get rid of them, especially as we would be coming home early and broke if we start that sort of behaviour!

We spent this afternoon (Saturday) in the city of Siem Reap which is celebrating the annual national water festival. Whilst not completely certain of the reasoning behind it, it comes across as the Cambodian version of the Henley regatta. Except there are no toffs, the boats are about twice as long as an Oxbridge one, and the rowers face forward; all twenty two of them.

Tomorrow sees us on the move again, this time to Kratie and the Mekong Discovery Trail. We're hoping the bus is as good second time round as there is no real alternative long distance transport in Cambodia. So, where are we on our final night in Siem Reap? Sitting in a WiFi free bar in Pub Street having a beer. We've already decided that when we finish this beer we're Heading off for another massage. We got a bit addicted to these in Phu Quoc and also had a fab reflexology treatment session yesterday which was just perfect after a full day on our feet.

That's all for now folks. Hope you're all well.

Lots of love Mr & Mrs McK xxx