Siem Reap 2012: Our Angkor Adventure

On Thursday, the husband and I slipped off on a short four day trip to Siem Reap.

I would never have thought that we would go to Cambodia for our first couple holiday, but that’s the way it panned out. The plan to visit Siem Reap originated from my SIL – she was journeying up to do some research and invited the rest of the family to join her. (My SIL is doing post-grad studies in Art History. How cool is that, right?) I decided to seize the opportunity to take a holiday – any holiday – and bring Noey with me. DD later confirmed that he could make the trip so tickets were booked for the three of us plus my MIL.

Then, just last week, news reports of a “mysterious disease” which killed significant numbers of children in Cambodia started streaming in. The grandparents got stressed, and we decided to be safe rather than sorry, and just like that, it became a childless holiday.

It felt a bit weird, leaving the kids behind. I almost felt too free. Hah. But seriously, it was something I got used to quickly! I could zone out on the flight, not worry about nap times, eat anywhere we wanted (or not eat, for that matter), eat leisurely breakfasts, swim, have the hubby hold my hand, and sleep the whole night through in a comfortable bed. WOW.

It also helped that we got regular reports from my parents that the kids were happy and well-behaved. Happy children = happy caregivers = happy absentee parents. Win-win-win. In fact, my helper tells me that Noey drank three cups of milk a day, bathed without complaint and fed himself his meals most days without any problems. Hmmm, I’m clearly getting the shorter end of the stick here.

We FaceTime-ed them back in Singapore everyday, and yes, my heart wrenched a bit every time. I also couldn’t stop myself from tearing when the husband chose to talk about the kids a bit too much. But knowing that they were having a good time with their grandparents helped me let go and just enjoy myself.

I was glad to find that Siem Reap was quite fascinating. It is a little town which exists almost solely to support the tourist trade of the millions which throng to see the ancient temples of Angkor. And those temples? They were really quite worth the hype. I went with no expectations, but it was hard not to get excited when you approach the ancient gates, or come face to face with the huge, intricately decorated, buildings which are thousands of years old. Surprisingly, we were not that impressed with Angkor Wat. For some reason, all of us felt rather underwhelmed. Instead, it was the 216 faces of Bayon and the tomb-raider-sque roots and ruins of Ta Prohm that captured our attention and imagination. Pictures and stories on these to come later.

I thought I was going to be able to disconnect and take an internet holiday as well during this time, but I found myself foiled by the amazing connectivity we found in Siem Reap. Unbelievably, there was an abundance of free wifi available! There was free wifi in our hotel, free wifi at every restaurant we ate at (you just had to ask them for the password), and free wifi at the airport. The only place they didn’t have free wifi was at the temples. They didn’t even have good phone reception around the temples, but I guess that was to be expected.

So yes, I was still able to log in to peek at what was going on online, though I tried not to participate. The free wifi made it easier for us to speak to the kids when we were out having meals so I was extremely grateful for it!

It was a break that both DD and I needed. And on hindsight, I’m glad we didn’t bring Noey in the end, because we did a lot of walking, which I do not think he would have enjoyed so much.

More tales to follow. For now, I’m going to soak up my kids, whom I have missed dearly over the past few days.