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This was to be our final day in Siem Reap. Scott and I were doing a cooking course at the hotel and Jon and Geoff were doing a bit of shopping and then having a massage. We were very excited about learning some Khymer recipes especially when we realised we got the teacher, Nary, to ourselves. We made fresh and fried spring rolls, a traditional curry, including making the paste and a pumpkin and a banana dessert, both if which used tapioca, which grows on the surrounding area. It was SO much fun and we had a lovely teacher. Jon and Geoff ate our food, which they said was the best curry they had ever had. I'll definitely be making these things back at home. We were given a t-shirt and all the recipes to remind us of the experience. We must find time to do another course when we get to Vietnam.
In the afternoon, we all hired quad bikes from a lovely man from Brittany. We went out around the countryside, driving along dirt tracks through small villages, alongside paddy fields, past water buffalo, wallowing in the mud. We visited an orphanage where we met some of the kids and were told about the different funding they were getting. We left them with some coloured pencils (as we'd read that sweets were not a good thing to give due to the lack of dentistry). We also stopped in a small village for a chilled coconut. Our guides taught us more Cambodian and explained the different food that was being cooked, including snake. We were filthy by the time we got back, but we had a fantastic time. We feel so lucky to be here.
That evening we had booked the no. 1 restaurant on tripadvisor, the Touich restaurant. We were picked up in a jeep which took us out of the city into the country, via a very bumpy dirt track. We ordered Kampot pepper crab and squid, BBQ pork ribs, and then the boys has beef filet and I had a red snapper, stuffed with lemongrass, cooked whole in a salt crust in a hole in the ground covered with charcoal. It was possibly the best fish I've ever eaten, simply stunning. We had an interesting mojito that included ginger and lemongrass. The bill for all of us with digestifs, came to just over $40, bargain. We would definitely recommend. As has been the theme so far, we laughed continuously.
We were all ready for bed but decided to try a place called hip hop near the hotel. What an odd place, euro pop meets trance. Lots of young Cambodian men, prostitutes and transvestites and a few Westerners. Geoff and Jon went to the loo and were given a massage while they were peeing, although they struggled to reach their shoulders lol. Time to leave. Geoff fell asleep watching the Man City v Arsenal match, probably just as well.
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