Most of the Angkor historical site has been “kitted out” with bicycle paths and, given how cycling-keen our troop is, we manage to find a rental with kid-sized bikes on the outskirts of town. The only questionable part is getting there in one piece – even the backroad is quite busy with zooming tuk tuks, motorbikes and trucks all whizzing about according to their own rules, SouthEastAsia style. 7 km later, we manage to cross the entrance safely and the ride becomes a bit quieter. First stop, Angkor Wat for a second time. We want to soak in the ambiance a little more, and the children loved the elaborate mythological murals so much that we brought some papers and pencils to copy down their favorite bits. Anjali chooses a scene from the Ramayana, when Sita is captured by the evil Ravanna, Nilay captures a beautifully decorated elephant from the Mahabharata and Vyas takes on the ambitious task of copying a scene from the Churning of the Sea of Milk. We stroll around, enjoying the beautiful light on the reddish stone, finding a quiet corner to watch the children scramble about in a game of poison on these ancient rocks. Over the next few hours we’ve covered most of the 23km cycling paths, stopping once for a chilled coconut and game of chess and now it is time to head over to Ta Tie temple: with all its nooks and crannies it is still practically abandoned and with hardly any visitors, an absolutely perfect spot to play a game of family hide’n’seek. Indeed it is – we have a blast, albeit covered in thumb-sized ants and hairy spiders given our level of ambition to find the absolute perfect spots. Dirty, hot and very hungry, with Anjali coming out way on top, we wolf down some mango and pineapple with our last Riel (badly planning, Ms. M-J!) and kick off the ca. 10km back. A great day!
The next morning, we explore the temples in yet another way – on the mini golf course! The Angkor Wat Putt is an impeccably maintained course, set amidst fields, it is surrounded by beautiful greenery from palm to fruit trees. Every hole has a temple for a theme, with miniature replicas. Nilay and I win the first round, Vyas and Anjali the second. What fun! That lunch, we find our new favorite hang out in Siam Reap: the New Leaf Café – not only do they have a great selection of second hand Enid Blyton books for sale, but their menu is straight up our alley. Their Khmer vegetable curry is an absolute delight.
And finally, team Indiana Journiac is on a mission to compete in a temple quest. We are supposed to solve the Great Escape of recovering 5 hidden Angkor artifacts is supposed to go for 45min but it is quite tough so our host extends the limit 60min. Let us just say, we finally complete it after 1h45min – we would have so been skewered in the jungle by now!! 😱 It was super hard! We had to crack codes, find keys, find locker combinations, reconstitute maps from hidden clues…… our showing was admittedly not very brilliant, and somewhat humbling, but we nonetheless celebrate with gusto when the disco lights turn on and “Who let the dogs out!!” blares out of the speakers.
In the meantime, we have our favorite restaurants in town, notably the New Leaf Café which has the added advantage of being only a 5min walk from the possibly best ever ice cream shop, dare I say in the world? We will have to travel a lot more to sustain that argument, but for now, GelatoLab is, for sure, the top ranking ice cream spot for us (ok – level with Giapo’s Blackberry-Mustard in Auckland). They have few flavours but every single one of them is excellent. Their yogurt is slightly sour and very refreshing, one scoop of their 80% chocolate with kampot pepper must contain at least one full tablet of chocolate, the mango tastes more like a creamy smoothie and coconut has just the perfect amount of texture. Oh, and their hazelnut!!!!! Even their ice cream cones are pure, crunchy deliciousness. We sadly only discover this place on our final days, but we definitely make the most of this find once we have.
Great to see the fabulous journey continue! Enjoy, despite the challenges to move these days. Take care.