Day 06 - Always a Professional

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So the title of the blog will become evident later in our story. So just wait for it. We started out as normal at 0800 with another day in the Siem Reap area. We met our guide and driver and headed about an hour to a really big lake we can't remember the name of but it is as big as the Great Lakes and feeds the Mekong River. Up to this point the weather has been hot and humid but mostly overcast. Today it all changed. It was hot, humid and SUNNY. Hot as balls. Chester and Kirsten decided to buy big Kentucky Derby hats to try and fend off the sun. We headed to a smaller boat and down the dredged channel to the lake. On the lake there are entire floating villages, with churches, schools, restaurants and homes. They move 2 times a year based on the water level. We stopped at a floating fish farm and saw lots of catfish and some fresh water crocodiles. It was shocking to see young children around 2 crossing between barges that had a foot gap that would crush them. There was one adolescent girl rowing from barge to barge in a wash tub singing away. Quite the site to see. She didn't do so well with the boat wakes.

From here we headed to Ankgor Artisans where they take local villagers and teach them how to sculpt, make silk, paint lacquer hangings and other handy crafts. Some were deaf mutes as well. They do a 6 month training program and the products are sold in the gift shop. The items were beautiful. We we may have done a bit of damage in the gift shop. But all for a good cause, right?

We ate lunch in Siem Reap at a modern, stylish local restaurant. We had another set menu with delicious food and some wine to top it off. The heat had not let up when we headed to some Hindu temples in the afternoon. On the way to the temple, we crossed paths with a number of things we never thought we would see on a scooter. Namely a 300 lb pig strapped to the back of the scooter on its back, legs straight up in the air. We did not see this just once but 3 times. So must be pretty common practice.

We arrived at the Hindu Temple and our guide was dutifully giving us the history of a Hindu temple built in 900 AD that was restored by the French. While explaining the ancient Hindu story in the carvings on the archways of one of the doors, Lynn really let loose and let her guard down. She ripped a number of wet and juicy farts. Her fiber pills and all bran cereal kicked in. Kirsten immediately looks at her to make sure it was just a fart, but just about then Chester started laughing and so did Kirsten. Then there was no hope for our guide. He cracked the first smile of the 2 days, but continued to maintain his professionalism and proceed with the story. Unfortunately the 3 of us did not maintain our professional demeanor and could not stop laughing, to the point that Kirsten and Chester were crying. We finally looked away from each other and regained our composure, for about 30 seconds, and then we turned back into 12 year old boys laughing historically about Lynn's fart. The guide decided it was best to move on to another part of the temple for obvious reasons. The laughter started up a few more times in the next 30 min. The temple carvings were beautiful and amazingly restored. We headed back to the van where our guide identified the bathroom location to Lynn on the way out and the laughter started all over.

By this time the clouds were starting to roll in, and as we headed to the next temple the deluge started. It rained sideways for about an hour. We decided that rain and mud did not sound like fun so we headed back to our hotel. We had to check out in the morning but had a few hours to kill before our flights. Of course the first things that came to our mind to do were get a massage and have a drink. The massages were fully booked so we resorted to having drinks. We did get to shower up in the non-AC changing room, which basically means we just changed from one sweaty set of clothes to another dry set after a shower that did not stay that way long. We headed to the airport around 6 PM to fly to Hanoi, Vietnam. As we had such a huge lunch we were not hungry so partook in another delicious dinner of ice cream. Dairy Queen at the airport. As we write this blog, seven hours after the "incident", we are all still giggling.

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Photos

Everything is recycled here
this is how he steers the boat with an old Nissan steering wheel.

Scene of the crime
We will never know the story of this door.