Tourism, Temples and Tonle Sap

Our trip is coming to an end! For the past few days we have been tourists in Siem Reap - a great way to finish our dental volunteering trip. I visited Siem Reap two years ago on my dental elective, so it was nice to come back and see some familiar surroundings.

I have been feeling quite poorly since we've been here, having come down with a nasty cold since finishing our dental volunteering (typical!) So I was very un-energetic when it came to sightseeing (although I could probably win a competition for the loudest and most frequent nose blowing).

During our stay in Siem Reap, we visited the markets and invested in some much needed souvenirs. The markets are a funny place, you don't have to say a single word for the seller to just have a monologue conversation and immediately offer you a discounted price.

We also visited the floating villages on Tonle Sap lake, where our boat driver did a good job of non-stop talking. Quite educational though I guess. In the evening we climbed a massive hill at the Angkor temples (well it seemed massive because I was struggling a bit), to watch the sunset over Cambodia.

This morning we woke up at 4.30am to catch the sun rising over Ta Prohm, the "tomb raider" temple, where the jungle is regaining control of the land (the trees are interwoven between and around the stone temple walls, as their branches and roots begin to take over the man-made feature). This remains my favourite temple and today the surreal tranquillity made it the perfect place to watch the sunrise. The light glistening through the trees and over the towers was most beautiful. Most tourists go to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise, but I think we made the right choice going somewhere much quieter, with only a few other people around. We then went on to Angkor Thom, the elephant terrace and Bayon. And finally Angkor Wat, where we hired a tour guide to drone on at us with his monotone speech - no he was good really, just funny because you could tell he had said the same thing about five times already that morning. We finished at around midday, by which time we were all exhausted and in need of some lunch. Having been to pub street (quite famous if you've ever been to Siem Reap) for some lunch, half of the group returned to the makets whilst a few of us visited a massage and spa parlour. The massage was a-mazing, feeling very relaxed now and a little bit better since this morning (also very drugged up on cold remedies).

Tomorrow we are heading home, so this will probably be my last blog post. Can I just say another very big and sincere thank you to everyone who donated to this trip, it really has made a huge difference to the lives of Cambodian children and adults in need of dental treatment.

Over and out, for now ;-)