Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

We started our day bright and early with Mr. Toukla to try and beat some of the heat. We made a quick pit stop for tickets and then hit the temple trail. First stop is Angkor Wat – the largest and most recognizable of the temples. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to climb to the top for the amazing view (kids aren’t allowed because the steps are so steep) but we still got to wander around plenty. We eventually made our way over for our first water and shade break of the day. It’s only 9:00, we are at our first temple and we are all already awash in sweat!

Thankfully Mr. Toukla is a real pro and was waiting for us on the other side of the temple with more cold water and cold face cloths with lemongrass oil on it! What a treat! We spent the rest of the morning exploring the other temple grounds – the one with the faces, the jungle ones, and a new to us one. I probably should know the names of them but that was never really the draw for me. It was just a really cool place to wander around. At around 1130 we had to call it and head for some A/C and lunch. I can honestly say I have never been this hot just sitting around in my life. Jacob had soaked his shirt all the way through. We were very literally melting.

After a bite to eat we had one more temple (the one with the trees) that we wanted to see before we planted ourselves in the pool and attempted to recover from the heat. We stepped out of our restaurant to trucks full of people playing loud music and throwing water. It is the end of Khmer New Year and it’s celebrated by these impromptu parades/water fights. We were invited to join in the celebration and danced around for the next 20 minutes being doused with powder and cold water. The kids were an especially big hit – people were snapping their pictures, giving hugs and helping them navigate the mud. It was a highlight for everyone.

After our dance party we set off to explore the temple made famous by Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider movie. It would probably have been a highlight for everyone except that by now we were all so hot that we were ready to be done of temple looking. We had also escaped relatively unscathed from our couple of monkey encounters so wanted to quit while we were ahead. Jacob had lost his shirt by the end of the walk, there was no more room for caring about modesty and we had Mr.Toukla take us back to the hotel so that we had time to get laundry done – none of these clothes were suitable to be packed.

After we finished up at the temples and were sufficiently cooled down we headed back to pub street for dinner on the rooftop before packing it in for our last night in Siem Reap.