Getting down with the locals

For our last day in Siem Reap, Fila took us to the local school to visit the children and give them notebooks and pens. The children are absolutely adorable, so sweet, and eager to practice their English. Maeve & I decided to write inspirational messages in the back of some of the notebooks so the kids would find them. We wrote things like, learning is fun, stay in school, and love your Mum & Dad. After visiting the school, Fila took us to his parents house for lunch. They had prepared the most delicious meal ever. We then took ox driven carts back to our bus. In the afternoon we visited the floating villages. There are floating houses, shops, and even a floating church. We stopped at one of the floating shops and we were greeted by a young boy walking around with a python around his neck. He was fearless with the snake and took great pleasure in scaring us unsuspecting tourists. We went to a local families house for dinner and we ate spiders legs.... hippy jibbys or what!! But in fairness, they were quite tasty, tasted just like chicken :)

Ankor Wat meets Karaoke

So we were up bright and sparky (4:45am) to visit Angkor Wat and watch the sunrise. There is a moate around the temple and our guide (Fila) advised us to be careful walking over the bridge due to the darkness. Maeve came about two steps short of falling into the moate, Fila gave her his head lamp to ensure she stayed dry and above water. Angkor Wat is amazing, it took 37 years to build and it's clear to see why. There is detail in every cornice of the structure. The walls were constructed first and then they carved images into the stone. One of the images which is repeated throughout the temples is the Apsara. The Apsara were beautiful women that dressed up in intricate costumes and danced for the people in the temple. Our guide told us in modern English they would be called "hot temple chicks". After visiting Ankor Wat we continued traveling around visiting other temples, including the one featured in the Tomb Raider movies. For our encounter with wildlife today, I took a ride on an elephant and Maeve nearly got attacked by a monkey. I have no idea what Maeve was doing to upset the monkey, he was sitting there all coy and then all of a sudden he opened his eyes and mouth so wide I thought his teeth would fall out. He looked like he was stunned and then starting running over to Maeve. Thankfully, he quickly came to his senses when the rest of us squealled.
After the hectic day visiting the temples it was time for some hijinks. Our group went to a bar, which led to a club, and then a karaoke bar. The karaoke bar was a private padded room with brightly covered designs in fake leather, a loony bin for the drunk and disorderly me thinks. We had the entire room to ourselves, five of us (four from the group and the tuk tuk driver). The tuk tuk driver was dead serious and was belting out ballads from the 80's. We on the other hand, well lets just say we won't be winning the X-Factor next year :) On the way home the tuk tuk, tuk tuked... we ran out of petrol and had to walk our drunk little selves home. What a day!!