7th April 2009

Our nights sleep was not exactly a relaxing one, the air con had a pretty unleasant smell, so we switched it off and opted for the fan only. As the temperature at night rarely drops below 30, it made for a pretty unpleasant night. Luckily though, there were a few good films on TV to help the hours pass.

Before we knew it we were on the Apsara mini van and on our way to Siem Reap. Seats 1 & 2 actually mean that you are sitting at the front, next to the driver. But it was more comfortable than our previous journey and it did give us an uninterrupted view of the crazy Khmer driving!

5 hours passed quite quickly and soon we pulled into the Apsara office. As we collected our bags, we were surprised to see Sukry, he was our tuk tuk driver for 3 days on our previous visit to Siem Reap. Again, we were greeted like long lost friends, with hugs and handshakes all round. We do wonder what the other people on the van must have thought.

As it was Clares birthday, we decided to push the boat out and opted for The Encore Angkor hotel for our 5 nights stay in Siem Reap. Sukry took us there and we arranged for him to collect us the next day for Clares birthday day out at Angkor!

The owners at the hotel again recognized us and we were given a warm welcome. They had even kept to their promise of providing hair dryers in the rooms, which made Clare very happy! That afternoon we made full use of the swimming pool and we even had it all to ourselves!

The next day we enjoyed the usual high standard of breakfast that we had come to expect here and got ready to once again go to the temples of Angkor. This time it was for Clares birthday and we were going to take it pretty slow this time and try and resist taking more photos. Before we left, Adam gave Clare her birthday card, he had bought this is Phnom Penh and it was made out of recycled elephant poo!! It was very funny and luckily did not smell!

After obtaining our day passes, we soon arrived at Angkor Wat. We soon realized that we would never cease to be amazed by the sheer scale of this temple. It is a wonder how something so magnificent and beautiful was built so many years ago. No wonder the crowds flock to here from a over the world. We walked through and picked a spot for Clare to open her cards from her family. This spot was right by the lotus pond, with Angkor Wat towering in the distance. It was great for Clare to finally open the cards that she had been carrying around since leaving the UK. Clare also received a special gift from Adam, a pure silk purse, purchased from Artisans Angkor in Siem Reap. After opening her cards and presents, we set up our gorillapod to enable us to have a photo taken of us together in front of the temple.

We spent the next 6 hours walking around Angkor Wat, The Bayon and Ta Prhom. When we are at Ta Phrom, Clare decided that people at home would never appreciate the heat we were experiencing here, so decided to get a close up photo of Adams sweaty head. To get a true image of his sweatiness, he decided to jump around a bit in the sun, this was a great idea, until, due to his weight loss, his shorts fell down! Clare was just not quick enough with the camera to capture that moment.

After seeing the temples we got back to our hotel and cooled off in the pool to get ready for our night on the tiles.

Clares birthday was made extra special by receiving phone calls from her family and hearing Kiera and Ewan sing happy birthday. This really was a birthday she would never forget.

We began our evening at The Red Piano bar, this is particularly famous for it's cocktail that was created by Angelina Jolie. She spent time in Cambodia filming Tomb Raider, so the cocktail has been named after the film! The tomb raider cocktail consists of lime juice, soda water and Cointreau. It was pretty nice and easy on the pallet, so we each had 2!

We then ventured to a restaurant that specializes in Khmer BBQs. This is not your average BBQ, it is cooked by yourself, at your table, we opted for chicken, steak, squid, crocodile and snake!! Yes, you've guessed it, crocodile tastes like chicken, but snake on the other hand, had a taste all of it's own, and was surprisingly nice! Clares birthday was finished off with a few beers and a good nights sleep.

The following day we decided it was time for us to purchase something to capture our memories of Cambodia, so we set off with a credit card in tow to find a souvenir for the flat. We had previously spotted a wooden carving of King Jayavaraman, who constructed the temples at Angkor, which we particularly liked, but on closer inspection found that it was far too big and far too heavy to carry around for the next two months. It would also have cost a small fortune to have it shipped home! So we decided to visit our favourite shop, the Artisans Angkor. Upon visiting this shop, you can also get to see the craftsmen skillfully producing the wooden and stone carvings. Everything in this shop is beautiful and at such a high standard, it's not just your usual tourist tat, the only problem is that it does have a high price to match. None the less, we knew exactly what we wanted and made our purchases with the excitement of displaying them when we get home.

As four weeks had passed it was again time for Adam to get his hair cut. We found a local barber and Adam confidently sat in the seat to await his normal dousing of talc before the clippers whirred into action! This time there was not much whirring going on as the barber seemed to be having some difficulty in keeping the guard on. But within seconds he appeared to solve this issue by jamming a piece of cardboard in place. Adam looked nervous ad this method did not work and the guard continued to pop off. As this was an obvious problem, the barber continued the cut with just the blade and the comb. After the hair cut appeared complete, out came the cut throat razor and he continued to remove any stray hair. Little did we know but that service cost extra. Adam paid $5 and we continued on our way, it was at this point that Adam felt his head was feeling a bit uneven. Sure enough, one side was definitely shorter than the other!

Later that afternoon, Clare went into a hair salon to enquirw about hi-lites, it was at this point that the hair dresser asked Adam what had happened to his hair! After much laughter we headed to another barber to get this sorted. While Adam was having his second hair cut and a massage, Clare sat outside reading her book and enjoying the sunshine. Suddenly she heard a distressing noise which made her look up, as she turned to see what was going on, she soon discovered that the noise was 3 live pigs, strapped onto the back of a moped being taken to market! So Dave was right, the pigs are alive! Clare sat there for a second, realizing what a surreal moment this was, and then continued with her book!

The time we had in Siem Reap was just as great as our first visit, we will be very sad to leave, but we have the Apsara mini van collecting us tomorrow afternoon, so it's goodbye Siem Reap again.