The guesthouse we are staying at for our ten days in Siem Reap is about 3km out of town and down a bumpy dirt track away from the main road.  Our French friend Lara had stayed at the Bloom Garden guesthouse last year, so it was here that we had organised to meet up. The days when we weren’t out for any full days we spent the mornings doing school work on the top verandah after a superb  breakfast of eggs, toast, tomato, pancakes and tea and coffee and milk which was included in the $25 nightly rate.  It is low season and at times we were only one of three rooms booked so we were well looked after.  The guesthouse had bikes available for guests which we took advantage of in the afternoons, exploring Siem Reap with the girls sitting on the back wire racks (cushioned by towels), through the towns streets, markets and finishing for dinner at various restaurants in town.  Siem Reap has a much more provincial feel about it.  I can see why people don’t want to leave – I could easily spend more time here.  It is simply laid out in a grid pattern with the river of the same name running through it. It is well-shaded, relatively quiet, and clean which equates to a much more slow and relaxed feel. Conversely ‘Pub Street’ in central Siem Reap can be a bustling happening place when they barricade the street to make it more of a pedestrian way during the evenings.

On some nights we met Lara, Teddy and other long time Cambodian devotees for dinner at a Restaurant known for its tapas on Wednesdays and half-price dinners on Thursdays.  Deborah, an Australian photographer who has been coming to Siem Reap for the last 8 years, and her two year old son Kai.  Aline the wonderful French grandmother who we met when cutting up vegetables for ‘Touch a Life’ at Mavis’ (who met Deborah some years before and makes the trip each year to meet up here.). On one evening we met Joe, an American living in the very affluent area of Orange County, California a University Lecturer and High School Teacher who has recently advised his family and employer in the States that he will be returning to Asia to live indefinitely.

Such is the pull of these poor but wonderful countries that make the need to do something proving that;

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. (Aesop)

We would often make the bike trip home after dark sometimes as late as 9-10pm with our head torches on as our ‘headlights’.  Although coming into the wet season (September is usually the wettest month) we only had a tropical downpour once or twice a day which lasted no more than half an hour, it just so happened that a couple of times this would fall on our bike ride journey home – which added to the fun, dodging the potholes along the muddy tracks when they are full of water! The girls loved it and so did we.