We arrived safely in Siem Reap, cleared immigration and
purchased our ‘Visa’s on arrival’ without any fuss. The first huge surprise for
the kids, have to admit it freaks me out a well, is that they drive on the
opposite side of the road. Emily announced immediately that she would not be
driving anywhere while here. We all decided that that was fine with us as
clearly there are many ways to die already in this country.
I had booked us a 4 hour quad bike tour for our first
afternoon. I debated about this tour as it sounded so very ‘touristy’, however
it’s not all about me, unfortunately, and I knew that the rest of the family
would love it. You have to be 17 to drive the quad yourself, so it was a
requirement that both the kids had an instructor on the back of their bike the
whole time. This I thought was a marvellous idea as it significantly reduced
the risk of Tom hurting himself. Ian and I had to take a test before setting
out which consisted of riding down the road and back. LOL
The tour was actually quite cool and we drove through
some amazing country side. We saw lots of fields, rice paddies, buffalo and
many local villages. I loved driving through the villages as all the local
children waved and laughed, although how I didn’t take out a chicken or duck is
beyond me as they were everywhere.
When we stopped the children would all gather around. I
would try and speak to them, of course they had no clue what I was saying. Ian
and Tom didn’t quite know what to do, however Emily, who is clearly the most
sensible member of the Clark family, decided to ‘Hi-Five’ them. This worked a
treat and they all lined up to hi-five the strange white girl.
We also purchased a box of 50, 2 minute noddle packets
which we then handed out to children at a local school. This was really cool!
Our hotel ‘The Angkoriana’ is crap-o-la. Our rooms
weren’t ready when we arrived. They promised me 2 rooms together – there not. I
have no proof but it appears they turn both the hot water and wi-fi off at
night and they conveniently pretend that they don’t speak English when you ask
questions hmmm….. Any Hoo. I must have left the shower tap turned on because
suddenly water started pouring out everywhere unexpectedly this morning……. Ha
ha ha
Today we start ‘templeing’. Hopefully the guide I hired
for the next 3 days will be here to pick us up at 9am…. Just a tad excited this
morning……
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| The glorious 'Angkoriana' hotel...... LOL |
