A Friend In Need ...

1)  I like to think if the situation calls for it, I can be brave.  Not Joan of Arc brave but you know, not running for the hills screaming, "each man for himself." 

2) I'm not what one would refer to as an "animal person."  

When people find out that I'm not an animal person, the most common refrain I hear is, "but you're a farm girl!"  This is true.  However it is also true that I listened to the early morning lowing/bellowing of the cows, not with my head resting on a flank as I milked a cow, but from the warm comfort of my bed.  I heard the clucking of the chickens outside the kitchen window and yelled threats at the rooster crowing at the crack of dawn (and continuously throughout the day).  I kept a wary distance from the cats and I certainly never ever let an animal sleep on my bed.

Once I woke up at 3am to find a little mouse nibbling it's way through my rolled up Leo di Caprio posters.  After a failed attempt to banish it from not just Leo's face, but my room, I called for my long suffering, ever gracious dad.  (Mice are scary, what if it nibbled on my face while I slept?) He appeared , bleary eyed and dishevelled, and what ensued was a mouse hunt of epic proportions that involved brothers and dad chasing mouse around while I hopped from chair to bed, shrieking what I thought were helpful suggestions (apparently they were not).  One more story to illustrate the point:  On my first visit to my friend Eloise's house in Std 6, I woke up early on a Saturday morning and in the pre dawn light, saw her kitten on my bed. It wanted to play, with my face.  I tried shooing it quietly off the bed but it only got more excited and scampered up the duvet towards me.  In fright and self defence I lifted the duvet a little too forcefully and the kitten (whose name was Babycats) went sailing off the bed and landed with a gentle thump on the floor.  Feeling simultaneously guilty and relieved, I planned to keep that little incident between Babycats and I..until I heard..."joh joh joh" from my friend who'd silently watched the whole thing.

Ok, digression over.

A few weekends ago I met my good friend Jess in Siem Reap.  On Saturday morning we headed off to see Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples on quaintly rickety hired bicycles. After taking a wrong turn and realising a few kms later we headed back and eventually found our way in.  That evening we cycled back and sitting on the steps and chatting in the evening light, we saw a troupe of monkeys with their babies clinging to them heading our way.  The situation played out something like this:

Jess: Ah look how cute these babies are, hello little guy.

Me: Ah sweet.. ooh there are quite a lot, perhaps we should go.

Me: Ya, I think we should go. Let's go!

At this point the monkeys were around us and Jess was sitting down, taking pictures of them. I turned my camera off and took off down the steps, calling out: "Come on Jess, lets go!"

Jess: Vic, there's a monkey on my back.

Me (backing away down the stairs): Oh, oh gosh!

Jess: Help me!

Me: Um.. ok.. um.. uh.. there's also one clawing at your knee

Jess: Yes I know, help me get it off.

Me: Um uh (looking wildly around for someone else to help)

At this point a man came close and ineffectually swatted at the monkey on her back while I took another step down and imagined the monkeys descending on us in a frenzy.

Jess managed to remove them (no thanks to the man or I) and we hurried away gratefully, while I giggled  in nervous relief and apologised for my cowardly behaviour.

So call me in your time of need, and if it involves out of control animals I'll call someone nearby to help you out.

Siem Reap 2.0

Siem Reap is such a charming town.  After the hustle and bustle of Phnom Penh, it was great to take meandering bike rides along the river and out to Angkor Wat (although meandering became lung-killing, leg- wobbling speed as we realised we might miss seeing the sunset from a mountain overlooking part of the temple area), discover walkways bursting with restaurants and quaint boutiques, very little traffic and a laid back atmosphere.

After our Angkor Wat adventure which included walking around the temples for hours before going home for a break and returning on aforementioned bikes for the sunset (which included a roughly 16km cycle both ways and a hike up a mountain only to discover we'd missed the sunset) we spent the evening at a restaurant called Temple whose selling point was the opportunity to watch a free show of Apsara, traditional Khmer dancing.  Delicious chicken amok served in a banana leaf (I'd tried the Cambodian signature dish of fish amok for lunch), ice cold coke, beautiful dancing and good conversation followed by a roadside banana, chocolate and condensed milk pancake would have been enough to satisfy but we'd decided on one last treat for the evening...a Dr. Fish foot massage.  For the unitiated, you sit on the edge of a big tub of water with your feet dangling in the water and little fish eat your dead skin.

It was very ticklish and really freaked me out at first and I had to force myself to keep my feet in the water as the fish FLOCKED to them but you get used to it and it feels good, although I preferred not to watch the fish nibbling away.

wobbliest, most rickety bike I've ridden

self portrait

another part of the night market

street food is changing my life

view from Temple restaurant, home of delicious chicken amok

Siem Reap was lovely and I'm so grateful for the unexpected opportunity to spend a few days there.

Siem Reap 1.0

Some friends of mine spontaneously decided to go to Siem Reap for 2 nights and invited me to join them. After deliberating I decided to take the presented opportunity and go and I am so glad I did!

On Monday morning 6 of us piled into 1 tuk tuk and despite our best intentions arrived late at the bus stop, giddy with excitement and relief that our bus had waited for us.

Six hours later we emerged a little dishevelled from the bus and went off to drop our bags at Tanei Guesthouse.  I'm realising that aircon, a swimming pool and to a lesser degree, bicycles are very important considerations when choosing a guesthouse.

We found a Khmer restaurant with the biggest menu's I've ever seen (due to the inclusion of photographs of each dish).  A meal and fruit shake for $2,50 went down very well!

I'd heard about the great night markets in Siem Reap and they did not disappoint.  We meandered among the stalls, enjoying the surprisingly cool breeze, Rocky Road ice cream and beautiful things for sale.

 

I love these Tintin prints!

The next day was a very early start. Armed with our packed lunch of fresh French loaf, butter and jam my friend Ang and I joined hundreds of other people to watch the sun come up over the temples of Angkor Wat and then explore as many of the ruins as we could manage.  I thought Angkor Wat was one of the 7 wonders of the world, as as far as I'm concerned it should be.  The grand scale of the buildings, the intricate carvings are incredible and must be seen to be fully appreciated.  We visited a few of the other ruins including Bong Thom and Ta Prom which was my favourite.  It's the one which has the trees growing amongst and through the buildings and even though the trees are destroying the buildings, i found it quite beautiful.  Sadly, my camera battery died about an hour after arriving so I have very few pictures but here are a few: