We have decided to visit Siem Reap, Angkor Wat, in Cambodia. We are here in SE Asia, so what the hell. We will most likely never be back this way and it would be a shame to leave Asia without seeing Angkor Wat. That and Air Asia flights are really cheap!

We pulled into Talaga Harbor to check into Malaysia and who did we find but Dream Maker and soon we were followed by Allure. It was Dean's birthday the next day so we all decided to go to the Blues Bar and have a little birthday celebration, as well as another good -bye. It was great when we heard Simpatica on the radio and they agreed to head over as well. All the kids boats were together for one final hurrah! Flour Girl, Allure, Dream Maker, Chantey, and Simpatica. On the way Allure spotted a small whale shark and although we made every effort to get there quickly we missed it. They got a video but we have been wanting to see an elusive whale shark forever and we were pretty bummed that we missed it. The bay we anchored in had a small BBQ set up for cruisers to use, so we all went in and had a big grill up. The crew of Allure had been busy on their way over and had made a birthday cake for Dean. We all gathered round and Jason lit the cake from the bottom while Dean lit the candles. We all backed up a bit. We know Jason all too well by now. Dean continued to stand by his cake. It exploded! Jason, Maria, George and Luke had hollowed out the cake and placed a coil of 300 firecrackers inside and then frosted over it. Very creative. Elsie had made another cake and Zack and I had also so at least Dean got a bite of cake. Zack had brought in the last of his fireworks and we set those off for Dean. Then we went over to the bar and listened to some great blues being played by the cruisers, including Will and his son Max. A great night and a great farewell. We are putting Flour Girl into Rebak Marina and heading to Cambodia. Dream Maker is off to Vietnam and Cambodia and Will is off to England to return Max home, but we will see them again. We met up with Allure in Rebak and Jason seems to have picked up a Bruce anchor the last time he pulled up his anchor. It was covered in barnacles and had obviously been on the bottom for a long time. He did not need it so his boys were selling it to the highest bidder they could find in 24 hours. Well, we jumped on that offered them $10 each and they took it. They charged us $5 each to deliver it to the boat and we tipped them $5 each so for $40 we have a new anchor! We scrubbed the boat down with fresh water, did some laundry and packed up to go to Cambodia.

David had booked our flights and strangely it was a lot cheaper to book to Kuala Lumpur and then book a different flight to Siem Reap, even though the direct flight stopped in KL. Go figure. It worked for us because we need to stop in KL on the way back to pick up our passports. After Cambodia our passports were completely full. The flights were not too bad and we landed in Siem Reap mid afternoon, cleared in and grabbed a car to our hotel. David had booked it online as part of the flight for a combination deal. When we arrived the power was out and it wasn't as fancy as it looked online. The staff were really nice and the power came on the next day so it all worked out great. The Cockatoo Nature Reserve and Spa is no where near as fancy as the name portends but is a lovely basic hotel with a pool and for $35 a night is a nice place. All of Cambodia uses $US so that was super easy. We headed to the night markets for dinner and it was what I had expected of Thailand (which was a lot more calm than I expected.) It was chaos. The "night market" is several blocks of stall holders, lots of restaurants and bars with music going loud and street carts with everything and anything you could imagine. We spent four nights walking around and we still did not see it all. We had dinner at the Khmer Kitchen, it seems to be a chain as we saw several of them. The boys loved it and mine was good as well but after Thailand it was a bit under spiced. For dessert Zack had a "rolled Ice cream" from one of the street carts. This was really cool! The cart has a circle of about 18" in diameter and it is chilled from underneath. The vendor chopped up a few Oreo cookies very fine and them poured a mix onto the freezer plate. He moves it around and forms it into a ball several times which he chops fine with a bench scraper. After it is mostly frozen he spreads it out to the full diameter of the circle and uses a paint scraper to make coils, like chocolate cigarettes, and scoops them into a cup, more oreos and some chocolate syrup and voila, dessert. The dessert with show was $2.50. Brilliant. The town has so much energy and life it is a full on party every night. And we were here in off season. There are tuk-tuks everywhere and it is a constant that they are asking you if you need a ride or if you need a driver for the next day. They are young and fun but it gets old. The other issue is that there is a lot of begging. Given Cambodia's recent history it is easy to understand. There is a lot of poverty here and a lot of sadness. There is also a lot of very determined people doing an incredibly amazing job of moving forward. There is however an almost constant barrage of people selling things and of people asking for money. Mostly people who are missing limbs due to land mines and the war. As bad as it is it would be impossible to give to all. Zack bought a bracelet from a man with no legs and we gave to several people, mostly the Cambodian money we received as change. Other highlights of the town were a great vegetarian restaurant we found called Chamkra, where we ate there twice it was so good. Ans a wood carver where we bought a carved elephant and a wooden plate.

We had booked a driver with a car for the next day because I had read online that this is a good way to get a tour and learn some history while you are driving. For anyone following our path, you don't need to book ahead as it is super easy to find drivers here and a bit cheaper. Our driver picked us up at 5 am. You need to start early to see sunrise at Angkor Wat. He was as nice as could be but very soft spoken, as are most people in Siem Reap, and he wasn't as outgoing as we had hoped. He answered any questions we asked and was really great, just a bit reserved. He was a bit older so I'm sure part of that is from war trauma. The younger guys seem more extroverted. Sunrise at Angkor Wat is breath taking and worth the entire trip just for this temple. The sheer size of it and the intricacy of the temple is astonishing. We watched the sunrise over the lake and Zack got a great picture from his perch on David's shoulders. There are lots of other early riser's there with you. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, we are here at the hottest part of the year and so it is the hight of low season. We were still there with a couple of hundred other people but it can get to thousands. We spent a few hours wandering around the temple. The walls, roofs, and even some of the floors have carvings. The entire temple is a work of art and you are allowed to walk all over it freely. There are workers who make sure you don't sit on anything but other than that it is mostly a free for all. I had written down an itinerary for a three day tour that I had found on someone's blog online and I was feeling pretty smart. It was basically straight off the tour map. There are planned routes so you don't need to have anything planned before you get there. Angkor Wat has been idiot proofed. The first day we did Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon, the Elephant Terrace, The Leper Terrace then back to town for lunch and a two hour swim at out hotel pool. The driver picked us up and we then toured Preah Khan and a smaller temple. He dropped us in town at six and offered to wait while we had dinner and bring us back to our hotel. We had planned to spend the evening in town so we said we were fine and would get a taxi back when we were done. The cost for the car and driver all day was $45, and we had overpaid by about $10. It is pretty cheap here.

Day two we were off to see the temples in a tuk-tuk. We walked out of our hotel and found a tuk-tuk on the same road. He was busy but he drove us to his friend and we were off. A tuk-tuk is a motorbike that has an attached carriage that is pulled behind it. They seat four and have a canopy but are open on the sides. The ride is bumpy and there is no air-conditioning. We all agreed it was a much better way to travel, as you feel far more connected and you see a lot more. They travel slowly and you see more of the countryside and you can look into shops as you pass. It is far more interesting than the back seat of a car. We saw a bunch of temples with the highlight being Ta Prohm, the temple that was used in the movie, Lara Croft, Tomb Raider. It was wild to see the tree roots growing over the walls of the temple. We have yet to watch the movie but it will be cool to look for the temples we've walked through. The temples are all amazing and each one is different but after 2 full days of temple touring Zack is getting a bit templed out. We gave him a camera and he really got into it, taking over 400 pictures. The most difficult part is all the vendors. You need to run the gauntlet to get into and out of each temple. There are people selling everything on all sides of all the temples. Some of it is nice and I bought a bunch of silk scarves for gifts The hardest is the children who will not take no for an answer. They are selling post cards, 10 for $1. They were actually nice post cards and I would have bought some but everything you read and even the government ask you not to. The parents use the children to sell because they are cute and you do want to help them. The issue is that the kids then do not go to school and do not get and education so they end up with limited options, it is sad.

On our second day we visited the Land Mine Museum, which was sad but informative. On our third day we visited the War Museum. It was sobering to say the absolute least. It is an outdoor museum and there is not a lot there. Some old tanks, a few planes, lots of guns and missile launchers. Mostly just stuff that was salvaged from the fields around the area. I had read online that Zack could hold machine guns and rocket launchers. After the tour it did not seem appropriate and we did not even ask. The tour was given by an ex child soldier. He didn't sugar coat anything and told us in detail his story from the war. It was a real eye opener for Zack. I had thought that the war and Pol Pot had ended in the mid seventies. The fighting actually went on into the nineties and was over by 1999. Not that long ago. He told us stories that were really horrifying. Most of the soldiers were children about Zack's age. The older soldiers would round up the local kids and beat them with a stick. If they cried a lot they were killed, if they cried a little they were put to work in the fields, if they didn't cry they were given a weapon and became soldiers. After this and many other such stories I think and hope that Zack has a new perspective on his life. He was pretty quiet as we left.

This blog could go on forever. It was a very packed three days but these are the highlights. I would say that Cambodia was definitely one the highlights of our entire trip. We are all very glad that we made the trip. We stopped in Kuala Lumpur and picked up our new passports on the way. We also met up with our friends Ron and Nancy from Always Saturday in KL. It was nice to spend a bit of time with them as they are selling the boat and going home from here. If anyone wants to join us for the sail home, Always Saturday is ready to sail and we can get you a good deal on her!