Last Days in Wonderful Cambodia

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A day of rest in Siem Reap in fantastic Cambodia.

The morning went like this.
• Keagan slept until 12
• Kerri read
• Declan swam and watched TV
• I blogged

Lunch was spent at the Butterfly Garden Café. Encased by a large net the café is in a beautiful garden setting with butterflies in abundance. The owner pays local children to catch butterflies which is nice. Shopping followed at the central market - dresses, scarves and t-shirts. Swimming followed then the boys and I heated things up by going for a bike ride. Traffic is easy to navigate and we rode deep into town outskirts riding through a cemetery and disheveled houses. All on little dirt tracks it was an adventure. The appearance of Cambodia in the suburbs is in contrast to the more developed Vietnam. Using the sun to guide us we got back safely. Essential swimming then dinner at the superb small laneway café called Khmer Café again. (Are there any Cambodian restaurants in Melbourne?). In an internet café we caught up on news and checked our Visa account and still no returned monies….lesson 1 - avoid using credit cards…

Sunday 5/10 - to visit Asia’s largest freshwater lake called Tonle Sap we had booked our same driver as for our temple day (toursangkorwat.com). He speaks good English, knows his travel places, and is flexible, fun and cheap. A short distance from Siem Reap is a floating village called Chong Keas which is much visited. We opted to travel further a field as we had time to visit Kompong Phluck. WE traveled for 3 quarters of an hour on a main road then headed down a dirt track which was barely navigable in a small car. When the road deteriorated so badly we parked and walked to a boat moored on a small creek. We were in the middle of nowhere - surreal. Down the creek and then across open plains of water covered in bushes pocking their tops up. Our taxi driver came with us and for this we were thankful as thoughts of disappearing abounded. After half an hour we entered an out of this world village on stilts in the water. In the middle of nowhere it is something like I have never seen. Only one person tried to sell us something, the rest of the time the locals went about their business having fun in the water and just watching us. It was an environment full of color and sounds such as pigs and battery powered televisions. We stopped at a house in the centre of town and boarded two dugout canoes to be paddled into a floating forest on the edge of town…..peaceful until Keagan was stung by a flying insect, stood up almost capsizing us. Unlucky Keagan did not react too badly thankfully. Back out the house we joined our motorized boat and headed off to see the open lake a couple of km’s further on. Only water to the horizon - it’s a big lake. Keagan stripped off and swam…with spirits high. Back to land was without the anxiousness of the trip out. It was a special time. Swimming on return then Kerri and I shopped in the great town markets for our last things as we sadly return home tomorrow. Dinner of crayfish, fish hot pot, vegetables, beef noodles, spring rolls, cokes and beers - al for $18 in our favorite laneway. Brief shopping after dinner.

We wish the adventure was continuing……we will reconvene sometime!!

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