At last a morning where everything worked. Rang grandma for her birthday on the internet phone from the hotel -- good reception but a little delay. 15c per minute can't be grumbled that. Left at 8am and drove most of the morning. Fairly slow and bumpy ride. Stopped for morning tea with locusts and fried tarantulas being the specialty, though only a few were game to eat them. Lunch at a roadside inn where the meals were two dollars!
Arrived in Siem Reap about 4pm at a hotel that looks brand-new. Sparse but lovely. Wandered down to the market and bought some insect repellent, then at six we headed off to the sunset temple for a hike up the steep stairs with thousands of other tourists, predominantly Koreans it seemed, to watch the sunset. Properly called Phnom Bakheng, its popular as it is built on the top of the hill. Wandered back down the elephant track with eight or nine elephants carrying tourists. Dark by the time we got down. Only about 8 km from town, so when we got back most of the group wandered into town for tea and ended up having fish and chips at Molly Malone's. Saw a guy carrying a six-foot by six-foot pane of clear glass on the back of his motorbike. Not great for dodging around traffic.
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