Upon arrival in Siem Reap Sam and I were reminded of when we went travelling. Firstly, our taxi driver tried to get us to hire him for some hugely inflated price, secondly Siem Reap had such a third world feel on the outskirts that we were reminded of India and Africa and finally, our guesthouse was complete backpacker heaven where our room for four, including breakfast, was about £15 for the night.
Rather than pay our taxi driver vast sums to be driven around in the heat, we ate lunch and relaxed by the pool. In the evening we headed in to Pub Street where we had cocktails watching the sunset, followed by a traditional Khmer curry for four for £10. Sam and I realised that we were nearly achieving our daily budget per person that we had set ourselves when travelling fourteen years ago.
The following morning we were up bright and early and headed off to the famous temples of Angkor. We hired a tuk tuk and driver for the day which was much more comfortable in the heat than a car and handy to dodge the traffic.
No sooner had we set off than we pulled in to a roadside stand. I thought maybe the driver needed breakfast and then realised it was, a rather rudimentary, petrol station.
Sam and I have had the temples on our list to visit for ages and were worried that they wouldn't live up to the hype.
However, they were amazing and William and Oliver enjoyed them as much as we did and even understood the religious aspect of them.
Our favourites were the less restored ones where nature has been allowed to take over.
The final temple we visited was the famous Angkor Wat. It was very hot and pretty crowded but very worthwhile.
Unfortunately, children under twelve were not allowed to climb to the highest point. However, William and Oliver, although disappointed, declared that we would just have to come back in six years. Instead, they enjoyed exploring the temple and finding bits that seemed far more risky.
Upon arrival at the temple complex in the morning we had asked our guide to take us straight to the point for an elephant ride. However, despite being pretty early all the elephants were booked up. There are only a certain number of rides allowed a day in order to give the elephants time to rest. We were told that more rides would happen in the afternoon. Sam and I promised the boys that we would make those rides, therefore, after looking around the temples and having lunch, we headed to the location about an hour early. I positioned my self right by the table and chairs where the ticket people would sit, to hold our place in the queue. Living in Shanghai has taught me well! William and Oliver enjoyed trying out the hammock in our tuk tuk and even driving it. They were also entertained by a local monkey.
Eventually the elephants arrived and after negotiating a discount in exchange for the four of us going on one elephant, we were off.
Oliver and William really enjoyed the ride and it was a great end to a wonderful day. We returned to our hotel where we cooled off in the pool, had dinner and headed to the airport for the final leg of our trip.
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