Last Day in Siem Reap..

23 December was our last day in Siem Reap. It took us awhile to decide what to do but then it came to us -- go back to Angkor Wat! This time we'd be there in the morning with a tuk tuk driver, not an AC car and not leaving at an ungodly time like 5:30. We got out there around 8:30 and headed into the spectacular setting which we were unable to enter on our first day when we got there around sunset. We decided that we couldn't leave Siem Reap without seeing the inside of the Angkor Wat complex. Luckily, there weren't a ton of tourists there while we were there, so it was nice to walk around and see all the amazing structures and bas-relief carvings without too many others around. We spent about two hours soaking it in -- and soaking from sweat! It's amazing that by 10-ish it's already sweltering. But that worked out for us because we had seen what we wanted to see and wanted to get back to the hotel for a swim, shower and nap.

Our tuk-tuk driver from the morning offered us his services for the afternoon, so he came back to pick us up to bring us to the Cambodian Cultural Center which was a sort of Disneyland-esque version of Cambodian cultural history (without the rides). The center was comprised of a wax museum (yes, a wax museum--we swore that some of the figures were melting in the heat), recreations of different types of Cambodian villages, and miniatures of various wat/temples. The whole experience revolved around going to the various "villages" and watching traditional"dance performances." This was a really interesting experience because: 1) narration was in Cambodian with a few sentences in English; 2) we were maybe 2 of 5 Westerners there; 3) each performance was timed to follow the previous one which meant that everyone left the performance en masse about 5 minutes before the performance was done so that they could get good seats for the next one. One of the performances involved poking fun at various SE Asian cultural stereotypes which was funny to see. And a nice man offered us some of his spicy chip snacks while we waited for one performance to begin which was a kind gesture. The only odd thing about this was the complete lack of any information on the Khmer Rouge period. We could only assume that this was intentional as it was a time people wanted to forget but it makes one wonder -- so many Cambodians joined the KR cause -- what do they have to say about this period?

Afterwards, in pain from the previous days of trekking to the wats we realized we were in dire need of a full body massage. Getting a cheap massage in Siem Reap (or pretty much anywhere in SE Asia we're finding out) is not a difficult quest. We had checked out some place earlier in the afternoon (on our way to a cool French restaurant owned by 3 ex-pats where Charles had a tasty bacon burger and Laura had a Croque Monsieur!) and decided to come back to this place that was well-reviewed by an Australian paper (whatever that may mean). This was a strange experience! The two Cambodian girls (they claimed they were 18 and 22 but looked more like 14 and 18!) who took us up to the "massage rooms"seemed to think it was hilarious that a man and his wife would want a massage at the same time, in the same room and, once realizing that we are both ticklish had a great time at our expense! One hour later we were both relaxed and would definitely get a Cambodian massage again (nothing like the Thai-torture session we suffered in Bangkok!)