Siem Reap - Day Three

Our third day began with an unplanned adventure.  Vivian woke up in the morning to announce that she had lost her first tooth, and she was pretty sure she had swallowed it because she didn't know where it was.  Luckily Judy managed to find it on the floor next to Vivian's bed.  It was really easy to get Vivian to smile for the rest of the trip, because all we had to say was, show us your gap!

When she got back to school and people asked what she did over Winter Break, her response was, I lost my first tooth in Cambodia.

After tooth hunting, we drove to Banteay Srei, also known as the Citadel of Women.  It's made from a pinkish sandstone which is softer than the stone used in many of the other temples, so it has very detailed carvings.  It took about an hour to get there which is why we opted not to go the day before.  It worked out perfectly as a morning trip though, because it meshed with Elena's usual morning nap time.

The temple was worth the trip.  The carvings were beautiful.

The only downside is that it was really hot, and there were not a lot of trees for shade, so both of the girls started to fuss.  Our guide pointed out a shaded area behind the temple, so I took the girls there.  It was really neat, because it was under this big tree and there were little "seats" made of chunks of wood covered in patterned tarp.  We sat there and listened to some music while the rest of the group finished looking through the temple.

We drove back to town and got lunch near Angkor Wat, and then went to Angkor Thom, which means the Great City.  The wall that surrounded it still stands, and our bus had to squeeze through a pretty small gate to get in.  There are lots of interesting sites there, but since the girls were fading, we opted to only spend time at one, Bayon.  It's a temple dedicated to Buddhism that has 54 towers with faces on each side, for a total of 216 smiling faces.

After that, we went back to the hotel to let the girls rest, because we were planning to go downtown for dinner and some shopping at the night market.

My sister was craving pizza, so we decided to try an Italian place that the guidebook recommended called Il Forno.  It was right off of Pub Street, which is the main restaurant street in town.  It was really pretty at night, all lit up, and the restaurants had little alleys between them with outdoor seating.  We invited our guide to join us for dinner, which is a good thing, because we probably wouldn't have been able to find the restaurant without him.  The food was good, and we had a lot of fun hearing about our guide's life story.

After dinner we walked over to the night market area which was one street over.  Everything was lit up and had a party atmosphere.

We didn't buy anything, but we had a lot of fun looking around.