4 Massages and a temple

Monday 6th December

After yet another interesting night bus, we have just arrived at sihanoukville on the southern coast of Cambodia where we will probably once again sleep for the majority of the day.  

We spent 4 days in Siem Reap and it really wasn't long enough, the place is amazing with great restaurants, markets and loads of tourist activities to keep you amused. 

Obviously the biggest of which is Angkor Wat the ancient temple complex situated about 4 miles from the city centre.  We spent a day there with a local guide and whilst we probably only glimpsed the tip of the ice berg, it still provided a great introduction to what is one of the worlds most sacred sites. 

The architecture is truly unbelievable, especially considering the lengths that the indigenous people had to go to in order to obtain, relocate and sculpt the rock into the marvels that stand today. 

Whilst having a tour guide was definitely a benefit ours seemed to be engrossed in the mythological aspects surrounding the site and went to great lengths to impart this knowledge onto us at every available opportunity. 

At one point he spent an hour relaying the story of queen Raja's struggle against the monkey warriors, a tale that was promptly forgotten, aided by the fact that we only understood every third word. 

However to give him credit he provided us with a lot of knowledge about the site itself and without him we would have been wondering around aimlessly like so many of the other tourists that we bumped into along the way. 

I could have easily spent multiple days there but after around 6 hours of walking Tyler had well and truly lost the will to live, after all there are only so many temples one can endure at 8 years old.

The following day we went on a quad bike adventure to watch the sunset over the paddy fields, the ride was great and the bikes couldn't have been more than a couple of months old. 

We rode through multiple villages and the local children flooded out of their houses to wave and practice their English skills. 

I am totally gutted that I don't have a decent camera here, the Cambodians are definitely not camera shy and always seem to have a broad grin on their faces. 

When we had any spare time we filled it by getting massages, we even convinced Tyler to try it and now he is addicted, we have had Dr fish feet massages, back neck and shoulder massages, foot massages and 4 hand Khmer massages as well as the obligatory full body. 

I even had ear candling which is a very unnerving procedure whereby they stick a tube into your ear then stick a candle into the tube that goes off like a sparkler. It's the weirdest sensation to have all external noise muted out and the only thing you can hear is the burning flame descending rapidly towards your earlobe. 

To make matters worse we happened to be in the middle of the night market and the chairs were outside in the open which meant all passers by could bare witness to the stupidly fearful look that I had adopted whilst my head was draped in a towel with what looked like a tube of dynamite in my ear.

Not to be spared any scrap of humility Pauline convinced me to have a cut throat shave whilst I was there, normally a pretty straight forward procedure, however after they had finished they cut long strands of cucumber and stuck it all over my head turning me into a veggie mummy and thus completing my journey through the annuls of embarrassment. 

Anyone that had stood around for long enough would surely have a wealth of footage that could be used against me for the rest of my life.