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Published: October 14th 2005
We arrived in Siem Reap by boat - the journey was more expensive than doing it by road - but was significantly shorter and more comfortable. We were once again plagued by people trying to persuade us as to where to stay - but we already had plans - we were meeting Uncle Ian (see NZ and Australia entries). Ian had booked us into the Ivy and luckily, there was a tuk tuk waiting that would transfer us to our accommodation. Our driver Chi was keen that we used his tuk tuk when we were visiting the temple at Angkor.
We met up with Ian and got organised over an afternoon tipple and then we went to the temples to watch sunset. Apparently we were really lucky with the weather, as Ian had been there for a few days with his sister and it had hardly stopped raining. The next day it was time to celebrate Gill's birthday. Not realising I had bought her birthday present right in front of her eyes, I presented her with an opium pipe (ornamental, of course). Chi arrived to take us to Ta Promm, made famous by Tomb Raider. They are spectacular - the
temples remain the way they were when they were re-discovered by the French. The ruins look like they have been built around massive tree roots - we had great fun pretending to be Lara Croft for the afternoon. After another couple of smaller temples it was back to town to begin the festivities. The night started with the re-appearance of 'those' candles, but Ian had managed to find a cake to put them in this time. The cake tasted like cardboard, so we didn't finish it!!! The evening began as a civilised affair, sampling many local cocktails, on a pub crawl along Pub Street (it is actually called that) and into a local disco called Martinis where we tried to do the local dance routine. Basically this involved shuffling slowly around the dance floor in a circle, whilst rotating your wrists - I don't think this will catch on in Scotland. It was not Strictly Come Dancing!!!
Feeling very fragile the next day, we were late for meeting Chi, and when we got to Angkor Wat, we only managed about an hour before having to return for an afternoon nap!!! Being refreshed by a decent night's sleep we headed
On the demon side of the bridge
sitting on the god side didn't seem appropriateback to explore Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat, the terrace of Elephants and the Bayon were particular favourites. We said farewell to the Ginger Monkey (see picture) as he was heading on to Vietnam and we were moving onto Bangkok. Our last day in Cambodia was spent at the Landmine Museum and the McDermot Art Gallery and a quick drink in the Angkor Foreign Correspondent's Club.
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Ian
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Drinkers
Hi Scottish Spinsters. I am never going drinking with you again. You embarressed not just me but yourselves also. "Everyone likes a drink, no one likes a drunk"