And then we were 9 – travelling onwards to Siem Reap

Now with our expanded party of 9, we left the capital for Siem Reap ready to take on the hordes and elbow shuffle our way through the temples.

We toyed with the idea of taking the boat journey from Phnom Penh but after reading the masses of negative blog entries referring to these boats as coffin boats we decided to pass and entrusted a minivan driver with our lives instead. Although the speed and driving style wasn’t for the faint-hearted, we arrived after 6 or so hours to Siem Reap without major mishap and only one vomit. We had booked the Bou Savvy Guesthouse in advance knowing that its pool would be a hit with the kids, especially if we were to subject them to endless hours of temple viewing during the day. Within minutes of our arrival, the slightly snooty clientele of European, retired ladies were tutt-tutting profusely as the kids splashed and jumped. One giant bomb-dive and a phone splash later, they had bailed out to the safety of their rooms and we had the place to ourselves.

Siem Reap was fun to wander, the kids enjoyed the night market, insect stalls (more for photography than meals i think), souvenir shopping and fish massage. All the usual tourist stuff, plus cheap beers to keep the adults happy and a good selection of restaurants. Oh, and an amazing night out at Phare Circus, a blend of theatre, music, circus and a non-profit social initiative for Cambodian street kids turned performers. Check their Facebook page if you are ever going there or know anyone who is.

Bag of insects anyone?

The main draw was of course to visit the temple complexes and so after various tuk-tuk applications for the job of driver we settled on a couple of nice chaps to ferry us about over the next couple of days.

How do you keep 5 boys entertained at the ruins of Angkor for long, hot days was the next question. So the adults had fun into the night making them a scavenger hunt and 10 missions to be completed at each of the major sites including group shots at each spot. I think I was more excited making it than the kids were completing it to be honest.

Oscar nose to nose with giant Buddha

We decided to narrow down the sights to a handful of the more major complexes and decided to go to them all at the “wrong” time for photography in the hope of seeing them in at least some of their awe-inspiring glory.

An almost empty Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat was the first on the list and we went for a late evening visit and weren’t disappointed. It’s one of those places that at its first glimpse makes your jaw drop, even if only for a short while before you come back to the real world of tuktuks and fellow tourists. We also saw a monkey eating an ice-lolly which was the highlight of the place for Aran and Zev. This sight was probably the second most highly rated of the whole trip, the first being a monkey drinking a can of RedBull. And we thought we were delivering a cultural experience to our kids. Oh well!

The next day we set off early to the Bayon, to see some of the 200 enormous smiling faces carved in the 12c. We busied the kids with nose rubbing selfies with the main man himself King Jayavarman VII and sent them off to scour the bas-relief to find the one of the Circus coming to town. Mission acomplished.

We continued through Angkor Thom and were fascinated for hours, finding hidden corners and even exploring some far flung temples which we had all to ourselves despite the crowds.

The last temple complex we visited was Ta Phrom of Tombraider fame, but by this point the selfie sticks in our faces were getting too much for me and so we entertained ourselves (and some surprised tourists) instead by making our own lame action movie in the grounds. The kids were hot and bothered so we cooled them down with coconut ice-creams and got them into their action-packed stunt film with Hugo starring as a makeshift Lara Croft.

Tombraider

Finally found the stegasauros carving

Amazing night out at Phare Circus

A few days later after some long logistics and planning late into the night we finally made our arrangements for onward travel via Phnom Penh to the coast…last destination on the trip.