We left Koh Rong Sanloem & flew with Air Cambodia from Sihanoukville to Siem Reap, good flight, free checked bags (first time my bag has been checked) & a much easier option than a night bus.
We checked into the Blossoming Romduol Boutique for 6 nights, spacious room, balcony overlooking the pool, breakfast, all for $19/night!
Unfortunately another hotel with no elevator & a room on the 3 rd floor, getting used to this.
We are walkable to the Old Market, Riverside Night Market & the Siem Reap River - great for walking, a bit of shopping & people watching. I kept up my morning walk/run & Robin has an exercise routine. Really hot though, 33-36C every day. We are thankful for the pool, we made great use of it!
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| Robin’s favorite spot |
Of course we had to return to see temples at Angkor, despite seeing them last year. We tried (for the 3rd time) to catch a sunrise over the main temple of Angkor Wat but the third time was not the charm! And we got picked up at 4:30 am! Still an amazing location with so much history dating back hundreds of years.
Our tour included visiting 3 other temples, next one Ta Phrom, made famous by the Tomb Raider movie.
After brunch at 9:00 we stopped at Ta Nei, an unrestored temple, left as it was found with crumbling walls & closely surrounded by trees.
The last temple for us for the day was Bayon, special because of its faces on all the towers. And we saw monkeys!
We found a local restaurant with a uniquely flavoured curry & ordered it 3 times! We are enjoying the Khymer food!
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| Best curry yet |
One of our favorite day trips so far has got to be the “Floating” Village of Kampong Phluk. There are several villages along the Tonle Sap River near the huge Tonle Sap Lake where the houses are either built on floating platforms or up very high off the ground on tall poles. In the dry season (now) the river is shallow & narrow, allowing travel by boats, but not up to the houses. In the wet season the water level rises 20-30 ft covering any roads thru the village & reaching quite far up the supporting poles/stilts. All travel then is by boat only, motorbikes have to be moved up into the houses, chickens & ducks are moved to floating platforms, pets stay indoors or swim. The temple in the town we visited is built on much higher ground so the children take boats there to be able to run around & play games. The water level reached is visible on poles & concrete buildings as a dirty sections. We were lucky to have a local from the village of 1000 families as our guide & we were taken up the steep steps & into one of their homes. Electricity arrived many years ago but they still cook with wood, fathers fish & grow rice, mothers work rowing boats for tourists - leaving the children home, doing laundry when we visited. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there, taking many photos & videos - too bad I can’t load videos to the blog.
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| We took a boat along the river to see the houses from river level first |
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| Fishing in the river |
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Floating platform
Then we walked down the Main Street in town. |
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| High School, water level the dirty sections |
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| These houses up much higher than those by the river, so lower poles under them |
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| Inside a house, spaces between the floor boards & I could see just how high up we actually were! |
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| Kitchen |
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| Washing themselves & the laundry |
We rode up the river a ways, then got into smaller canoes, rowed by local women (ours sang to us), for a ride through the flooded forest & out into the Tonle Sap Lake where we stopped for a drink.
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| Floating restaurant |
We always like a chance to see the countryside & how people live, time for that on our way back to Siem Reap.
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| Rice fields |
We are all packed up & ready to fly to Sri Lanka for a month, leaving tomorrow. We are excited & a bit nervous, should be a great new adventure! Here’s a few random photos to end with.
Still Living the Dream!
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