(Monday, June 23)

Breakfast is offered at 6 a.m. at our stay in Cambodia, which--with our jet lag--is a vast improvement over 7:30. But we still made the best time of the trip thus far and slept until 6. We ate and were ready for our driver and guide at 8.

I really wanted SIM cards for our phones. In Vietnam, this was accomplished in the airport. It cost $16 for two cards with unlimited data for a week. The process was accomplished completely, SIM cards swapped with active data, in less than 2 minutes. Well Cambodia was not quite as easy. I read online to go to one of the local shops, with one specifically mentioned, so we asked our driver and guide if it would be okay to make a quick stop. They were happy to. Once there, I grabbed a number and sat; there were about 5 people in front of me. Nobody was in any hurry in this place, and I ended up waiting about an hour to complete the process. If someone had said up front it would be this involved, maybe I'd have skipped it, or tried to find the best time to come and not wait, but once I'd invested a certain amount of time, I felt like I had to see it through. In the end, we got 2 sim cards with more data than we used in our time (not sure if it was unlimited) for $3 total. It pays to wait?

Then we actually started our temple tour at Angkor Wat, taking the back entrance in.
The kids were impressed but not stunned. They enjoyed exploring the temples, though there were many guests and now specific routes we are to take through the temples.
I feel like now is a good time to remind our readers that we visited this town and temples previously, in 2010. On our 2019 trip, with kids, we are not going to go into any depth on history of these temples and such, as we documented a little in our previous trip. We also absorbed way less this time. The kids of course just wanted to climb and play ninjas, not really caring what century a temple was built in or which king ordered its being updated to include new Buddhist imagery.
Back to pictures.
(more international fans)
In a pretty sad move, this is the only time we bought the bamboo coconut rice treats that we loved so much on our previous trip and that I was so looking forward to:
It was still tasty, though perhaps not *the* best. And for some reason the kids weren't that into it, despite that I once bought one at a Thai market in Nashville, frozen, and cooked it, and they really liked.

We got some more ice cream to cool us off.
And moved on to the next temple: Bayon temple, completed at the end of the 12th century. 
You can find a picture of Alli in this same window, I believe, in our old post.

We had lunch near Ta Prohm- maybe a little expensive but very yum. Chicken amok (different than memory, but still very good), papaya salad, and something Hamish ordered called something Siem Reap. Basil, beef, beans, red sweet peppers, lettuce, nuts, complex flavor. Very good, best thing from lunch.

There were some hammocks upstairs of the restaurant for siestas, should you like
After lunch it was back in the tuk tuk for more temples. 
(this is a chamber with an interesting echo, so if you beat your chest you'll hear it echo throughout).
It was in this temple that we finally located the dinosaur!
See it? We read about it in a book before coming. It looks just like a stegosaurus carved into a temple built in 1186. Manimal sees it
We finally wrapped up after 3. We were hot and tired and it was too late for a nap, so we did the next best thing: the pool. The pool was completely invigorating for our tired explorers and we played happily until about 5. 
Our kids decided they would take their swimming up a few notches on this trip.

We showered and changed and headed to an early supper.

The top rated restaurant in Siem Reap happened to be just steps away, a spring roll restaurant owned by French expats. We ordered a spring roll feast and a jug of long drinks for adults.
We ate and then played several hands of Uno before coming back for early bedtime.
The kids were asleep almost instantly. And thanks to the jug of cocktails, we weren't far behind. It was a 10+ hour night of sleep for all of us.

(Tuesday, June 25)

We had pushed our guide pick up to 7 a.m. based on previous days, but this morning we were all still asleep at 6. We had to hurry to get dressed and eat breakfast.

We saw more temples, thankfully some of the less crowded options that allowed a bit more exploring and climbing.
This last one was East Mebon, and we saw this one mostly without our guide (who had gone off to have breakfast). We didn't miss him. Hamish showed her attention to detail at this temple, pointing out how the builders had incorporated a design into the rain gutters used to divert water away from the lava rock layer underneath. Manimal also learned the difference between the lava stone and sandstone and enjoyed noticing the difference.

We had agreed to come back to our hotel by 11 a.m., with the intention of regrouping in afternoon, but that was really the end of our stamina for temples. We thanked the guide, paid him for the full day, and sent him on his way. I wandered in the market some, while the kids and Alli had a cool drink and worked on post cards. Then I came back and we had lunch.
(yummy lunch example)

We tried for naps but that was overwhelmingly frustrating. So we walked to the market and bought shirts for the neighbors. Amid much whining and begging, we wrapped up and headed back for a swim, then dinner at the Christa: fish amok, beef lap (larp lab; minced beef with mint and citrus, yum), club sandwich for kids. Amok was better here. Good overall. And to bed we went.

(Wednesday June 26)

We again slept later, until about 7. Breakfast at the hotel, and Poly (who had been our driver the whole trip) picked us up with car at 9, a Mitsubishi SUV, for a 2 hour drive to the waterfalls at Kulen mountain. The kids played with their phones and frustrated themselves and proved why we limit their access.
countryside on the way:
The waterfall was a little overly tourist-focused, we paid $2 to use a lock box and a small changing area (for family). People taking pictures for $. Tiny biting fish nibbled your feet (fish spa for free!) But it was ultimately pretty fun. We climbed on slippery rocks, swam right under falls, and stayed for 1.5 hrs or so.
There were so many butterflies.
We left, with some picture breaks on the way
(The family posed the arm around. They wanted both kids but the Manimal declined; Hamish agreed.)

On the way home we stopped at one more temple on our own, since we had a three-day pass... Banteay Srey was one of the oldest temples we saw, completed in 967. It was very hot mid-day, and Manimal didn’t want to walk.
We made a pretty quick run through, stopped for Fantas and smoothies at the restaurant nearby, and got back in the car. We stopped at a basket seller on the return, and Alli bought a few things. I was no help choosing. We finished the trip home, with a few rain showers en route, got back about 4, and laid the kids down. Manimal actually fell asleep quickly. Hamish twittered for a while. I asked if she could be still for 5 minutes. Later she told me she was counting to 60 5x. She did not make it.

We woke them at 6, walked to Meng Cafe for dinner (pizza, a sour tamarind-based curry with green shoots in it and chicken), then headed to the Phare circus after a brief panic when I thought I’d left my backpack. The “circus” was kind of awesome for talent and a show. It was a story of bar owners who were a little unscrupulous, and then this kinda weird overlay of people trying to pick each other up at the bar. We are hopeful the kids missed the innuendo. Over this story, the actors were all acrobats and contortionists. Highlights included a guy doing like 15 backflips in place, another guy balancing on several cylinders at once, such that there’s like 3 directions of very careful balance. He couldn’t hold that balance too long, but quite impressive at all.
Well we have a video of that.
There was also one pretty ripped dude (but skinny) who held himself up on 2 points on top of the “drink machines”, with several one arm balances, including a one arm-side crow kinda thing that was nuts. The music was rock and roll, all engaging and fun. Hamish was dancing in her seat and couldn’t move enough. She told me she wanted to go out and dance on the floor with them. After the show, back at our room she wanted to flip things and twirl and move like the actors were moving. It was fun.

To bed we went. I noted here in our trip diary that everyone still had colds, but now I don't remember when we first got these colds, and luckily, looking back, I don't really remember having colds, but I'm sure at the time it was an annoyance. I know for the entirety of our trip, nobody got really sick, Manimal didn't need to use an inhaler, all things health related worked out pretty well.

(Thursday, June 27)

In the morning, we had breakfast, hit the pool for a while,
had lunch at an American cafe across town, and then Poly took us to the airport.

We did a little bit of tabulation on our way out of town. We visited 7 temples, Angkor Was, East Mebon, Bayon, Ta Prohm, Preah Kahn, Ta Som, and Banteay Sray, the oldest of these being East Mebon dating to about 952.

I'd like to make a note that we really rarely visit the same places twice when it comes to travel-- there's just always somewhere new to go! But we could really tell a difference between Siem Reap 2010 and Siem Reap 2019. It had just grown sooo much. My recollection of the main square in town 9 years ago was that it was just that, a small square with a few streets and a lot of local food and a few bars. Now it seems to stretch forever in all directions. It has just grown so much. It seems there's not a ton of oversight regarding land and resource management, but it was still a very pleasant place to visit, and of course in some cases, this means like more air-conditioned stores and restaurants, access to fancier hotels, etc., so there are some upsides.

Before flying on to Singapore, we studied with a book Hamish received for her birthday.
and hit another lounge
This one came with good dessert options and even nice mixed drinks.

And once again we were off on a plane, headed to Hamish's first home in the world.

Our good friend Germaine met us at the airport with a cute sign welcoming Hamish and Manimal, with small print inviting parents. She drove us to our home exchange and ordered Salad Stop to meet us when we arrived. So gracious and welcoming! We will tell you about our home exchange in the morning.