Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

Our time in Phu Quoc came to an end and we set off for Cambodia. Jacob still ranks Cambodia in his top three countries so we were excited to head back. After a full day of travel (bus, plane, taxi, minibus) we finally arrived at our hotel. We got in, most of the children were crying for no real reason and we went to bed.

We only had a few days in Siem Reap so we had a pretty jam packed schedule (for us anyway). We made friends with our taxi driver, Mr. Toukla and he agreed to collect us in the morning. Our first stop was the landline museum which was about 20km outside downtown. He took us through the Angkor wat complex where we caught our first glimpses of the temples.

The land mine museum is a small museum that is run by a former soldier of both the Vietnamese army and the Khmer Rouge. He spent the majority of his life planting land mines as part of his time as a child soldier and later as an expert. At end of the war he began his mission to clean up the mines that covered his country. He has single-handedly decommissioned and collected every mine in the museum – it was an incredible amount. He has formed associations to teach others his skills and dedicated his life to help Cambodia recover. It was an excellent stop.

The kids were understandably feeling a little deflated after the museum. It was a bit of a shock to understand the history of where we were. Mr. Toukla suggested we stop in to the butterfly farm just up the road before we headed back to town. We were so glad we did.

They gave us a wonderful tour through their gardens and showed the kids the entire lifecycle of the butterfly – they got to see and hold cocoons, pupae, caterpillars and one huge moth. The gardens were stunning but so hot. We wrapped up our time there and headed back with Mr. Toukla. On our way back to the city he took us to a little market where they had cakes made from palm plants. We had these little rice cakes with sugar cubes in them, warm palm cakes with coconut cream in them and some kind of jelly with coconut. Everything but the jelly was delicious – especially the rice balls.

After the very hot morning (it’s easily over 40°) we headed back for a dip in the pool. The kids attempted to drown each other and did a lot of screaming before a wicked thunderstorm rolled in. Thankfully it rolled over quickly and we were able to head over to pub street for a snack before the circus.

In Siem reap you are able to visit fish spas – we did this the last time we were here and it was definitely something to remember. They have these huge fish tanks with benches beside them. For $3 (which includes a beer or drink of choice) you can sit there and have the fish nibble all the dead skin off your feet. It is just about as weird as it sounds, but I can’t deny it works. Your feet feel brand new after about 20 minutes.

Our evening ended with a trip to the circus. Mr. Toukla picked us back up from our fish spa and brought us to Phare, the Cambodian circus. After some delicious supper, we made our way to our front row seats. The circus was about a dozen acrobats who put on a spectacular show full of contortion, acrobatics, juggling and some live music.