We saved the best till the last! Angkor Wat (literally means "the city which is a temple") is breathtakingly beautiful. A stunning, striking architectural masterpiece. A five towered temple shaped like a lotus bud stands in the middle of the complex . The outer walls represent the edge of the world and the moat is the cosmic ocean.
The carvings on the wall replicating heaven and hell, the differing hair styles and battle scenes are all very detailed and intricate . Damian with our Lonely planet book as reference, was our tour guide again for the morning!
The kids were given no choice and had to listen :-)

A distraction to the "tour" was when Jake spotted a pony ride! We managed to negotiate a rate of $5 for both him and Emma. A 15 minute ride with Angkor Wat as the backdrop to photos.. Amazing!

3 hours later, hot and sweaty the kids were "wat'ed" out, so back in the tuk tuk and back to the hotel for a light lunch and a swim.

3pm. A 30 minutes tuk tuk ride with our very friendly Mr Mean to the floating village of Chong Kneas. What an eye opener this trip was . We boarded a boat to ourselves, "captained" by Ray, (who only 2 years ago lived on a river boat) and his 2 friends. A total of 2000 inhabitants on this stretch of the Tonle Sap river . A fascinating sight. We saw families eat together in a very small place, young children bathing in the river, old men sleeping in hammocks, babies sleeping in hammocks, women fixing fishing nets. We saw a school boat, a restaurant boat, a community boat where everyone can get fresh drinking water, a police boat , "normal" house boats. What struck me most was how happy these people seem to be . Very few possessions but they have each other and food on the table... Very humbling for all of us.
For Jake and Emma, they will also remember the fact that they were allowed to steer the boat for 5 minutes each. Two very happy passengers on board.

Now back to watching Murray vs Federer.. Murray 1 set up so far.

Px