Day 3 - 9th September - Fantasy Island

After we had all rested and rejuvenated we took the plunge, grabbed a tuk-tuk and hooned on down to the main strip in Siem Reap, and to the Angkor Night Market - where Fantasy Island meets Salamanca Market, and the cocktails are only $2... oh to think what would have happened had we not have had children with us... but it was great that Felicity shouted the first round... and it sure beats the Dover Hotel, hands down!

Okay, so Felicity didn't shout the first, or any, round...

We have come to realise just how difficult it is for Fiona to say no to anyone, for anything - it's just lucky we aren't in Bangkok, or who knows what she would be saying yes to!

The most hilarious example of this was earlier in the day when we had just left Ta Prohm (where the trees eat the temples, and a non-English speaking Khmer old dude pointed us towards where we were going by using only one word "Tombraider"!). Fiona went to buy a Tiger Beer shirt for her brother, spent at least 10 minutes whilst we were chips for the local seagulls (have I used that analogy before???), and finally emerged, heavily laden with great bargains that she didn't go looking for. The hawkers (people trying to sell you stuff), more like vultures if you ask me, had pretty much given up on me, having learnt to extremely useful Khmer phrase "ntai aw kun", which means "bugger off, I'm not interested in your junk", well, perhaps something less rude and more polite, but generally to the same effect. So Fiona was like fresh meat when she appeared with her pile of stuff. It was about to rain, and Fiona and Felicity had to virtually wade through the throng of pedlars. From in front I could hear Fiona's desperate attempts to get themk to leave her alone "No", "I don't want any", "I already have some". But then the noise stopped. I turned around and had to laugh - her hand was in her wallet and she had agreed to buy something, just to get them to leave her alone. It didn't work. I'm sure most people have this problem at Angkor Wat - the sellers are so persistent that you usually buy something to get them off your back. Vicious circle, really... and Felicity and Sophia really didn't like like it, so the night market was a breath of fresh air! People are less pushy, and sell for cheaper prices quite happily.

We overloaded oursleves with more stuff - let me just say that there is going to be a lot of "sey tawat" going on, when we get back... I bet you can't figure that one out!

We then trudged through the mud road (as opposed to dirt road) to a local supermarket, stocked up on western snack foods for the next few days, and headed off to find some dinner.