Siem Reap - Day One

We relaxed with massages on Wednesday, and then left the house bright and early on Thursday morning to drive to the airport for our flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia, the home of Angkor Wat and many other beautiful sights.  Before I moved to Bangkok, I had never even heard of Siem Reap.  It's a quick one hour flight from here, and so lots of people go there on vacation.  Everyone who has gone there has raved about it, and after the trip, my family all agreed that the raves were well deserved.  Of course Angkor Wat is amazing, but there are many other incredible temples, and the city itself is a fun place to have dinner and walk around in the evening.  We also stayed at a wonderful hotel, which made the experience even better.

In typical Bangkok fashion, what should have been a 30 minute drive to the airport, took an hour in heavy traffic, but we had planned for that, and got to the airport in plenty of time.  It is ironic though that our trip to the airport took as long as our flight to Siem Reap.  We had arranged for a driver and guide to pick us up and take us to our hotel.  The hotel, Villa Indochine D'Angkor, had arranged a special welcome for us, or at least for me.

My name was on the reservation, so that's what got written on the bed.  The hotel was small, but perfect for us.  Jeff only had one complaint.  The room's open floor plan was really open, to the point where there was no bathroom door and no shower curtain.  The toilet was tucked away in a little alcove, and it all worked out fine, despite the possibility that someone could open the door to the room while you were in the shower and you would be on display.  At night when we walked up the entrance path, however, we had no complaints.

They also had a lovely little pool with a swim up bar and some lounging couches.  

Each afternoon we laid claim to a couch near the swim up bar.  Jeff and Vivi swam and had drinks (orange juice for Viv), and Elena and I could splash around for a bit, and then lounge with the rest of the family.

The first day is a bit of a blur.  We started with lunch, where Jeff felt he should try the local beer.

He decided he liked it, and bought the t-shirt to prove it at the night market.  My sister Judy was also feeling adventurous and got a big, peppery fish.

After lunch, we went to four sites in the Roluos group.  I stayed on the bus with Elena for two of the four, since she was napping, and we wanted to pace ourselves, so that she made it through all four days without completely losing it.  The consensus from the rest of the family was that I didn't miss much.  Apparently we're becoming temple snobs.  Here are a couple pictures, so that you can judge for yourself.

We were worn out after all that, so we took a dip in the pool, lounged around (we fit most of the family on the lounge couch next to the pool)

 and then had dinner at the hotel.

Our meal was complimentary, because I told them that we chose the hotel based on a friend's recommendation.  We pointed out that our friend really should have gotten the free meal, but I guess it's a pay it forward thing.

We were all exhausted by the time we were done with dinner.  Vivian was sharing a room with my sister, and Jeff and I had Elena in our room.  This seemed like a reasonable arrangement, but the crib was more pretty than functional,

and Elena was so wound up from the day that she was fighting sleep.  We didn't convince her to sleep until 10pm, and that was in our bed where she woke up several times during the night.  It's all part of the fun of parenting though, and we got enough sleep to be able to tackle our next day's adventures at Angkor Wat and the "Tomb Raider" temple. (Next blog coming soon!)