We will be bidding au revoir a Cambodge in a few hours, so a last blog of our last 2 days here. We spent a lazy morning in Siem Reap yesterday (other than Marc's AM run), which basically involved rolling out of bed at 6:30am (this is late for us here), having breakfast, checking our emails and such, and then heading to a pool a block down from our guesthouse. We chilled there for almost 2 hours, reading, taking dips, chatting and savoring our last hours in Siem Reap. Then we headed back for showers and went to a nearby French-Vietnamese restaurant (Paris-Saigon) for lunch. It was a fantastic last meal in Siem Reap -- comparatively more expensive than other places, but well worth it (we spent $ 26 for gazpacho, Beignet de Crevette, a Pork stew cooked in fresh coconut juice with hard boiled eggs, and 2 glasses of pretty nice tasting wine). Actually, we've decided that while we had a number of good meals in Phnom Penh, food in Siem Reap is actually better (or at least we've have many more great experiences here). For anyone thinking about going to SR, we recommend Korean BBQ, Paris-Saigon, Korilene (we had a great Tartare de Merou and pizza there), and Temple (free Apsara dancing, yummy duck and glass noodle + shrimp salad and beer & cocktail specials, but skip the wine), and Blue Pumpkin (the best place for pastries, bread, desserts, ice cream and sorbet).

Anyway, after lunch we finished packing and were soon picked up by a minivan to bring us and others to the bus station to catch our 1:30pm bus to Phnom Penh. Due to limited buses that run in the afternoon, we had picked a less than stellar bus company, which unlike typical Cambodians who tend to be very punctual, left 20 mins late, and did not have a particularly good A/C system. We were sweltering on the bus for the first 2 hours or so, but then it rained and somehow that seemed to cool things off in general and the A/C appeared to also run better from there on. All in all, it wasn't too bad an experience (for $6 a piece on a 6 hr trip, one really cannot complain), and we got to see a bit more of the country-side, including some spectacular views of the rice paddies at sunset.

Of course the moment we got off the bus, we were surrounded by tuk-tuk drivers offering rides for ridiculous prices. After discussing with 3 drivers who all tried to fleece us, a 4th drove up to us after observing us for a bit, realized that we knew the going rate and accepted our offer of $2 immediately. Back at our old haunt (Maple Inn), we were welcomed back and ordered our dinner. Jenny and Ameer finally made in back at 8pm after a full day at the field, exhausted. We chatted about various things (our visit to Angkor, their work progress and challenges so far), to touch base, before we finally called it a night around 10:30pm.

Today, Marc is joining Jenny, Ameer and the enumerators out in the field in the morning, while I went to a yoga class this morning and am now surfing the internet and blogging. We will reconnect at lunch and putz around for a few more hours before we head off to the airport around 4pm.

I'll provide a link to photos from this trip in a week or so once I've had a chance to upload and organize them. We took a bunch of pictures on this trip!

photo on right: Shuwen's yoga class in Phnom Penh


Post-lunch update: We ate fried tarantulas as our lunch appetizers! It tastes like soft-shell crab.