Cambodia 21-24 June 2015

At first we had wanted to go to Scotland because I fell in love with the scenery watching an episode of Downton Abbey set there. Then we found that June is the hatching of the Highland midges, bloodsucking biting insects that I will certainly not be fond of. So we thought we might go earlier in April, since May is full of the children's birthdays as well as mid-year exams and this is an important academic year for Sarah taking the Primary School Leaving Examinations. But April would be way too cold for tropical me. Shelving Scotland for another time, we thought, let's just do a cheaper nearby thing. We have been going to Malacca a few times already, so I suggested visiting Angkor Wat, something I was sure Sean would like. Before I knew it, he had booked the flights and sussed out a really nice hotel! So we went.

Sean's beautiful photos are in his facebook album.

We stayed at a lovely quiet spa resort. Navutu Dreams is about ten minutes from Siem Reap's town centre by tuk-tuk, and 25 minutes away from the Angkor Archaeological Park. Our three-day park pass was fully utilized, and if we had had more time I would have wanted to see more temples. 

It was much better than I had expected! I was prepared for a terribly sweaty, itchy, possibly soggy and unpleasant time, but the ruins were truly impressive and awesome. Some were simply huge and grand (Angkor Wat), others felt tensely ominous (Bayon); Ta Prohm nestled within the trees' embrace as if it had grown itself out of the ground, and Preah Khan was a veritable labyrinth of concentric ever-expanding and contracting squares of doorways, corridors and chambers.

Cambodian food is the best Southeast Asian fare! Milder than Thai but richer than Vietnamese - a wonderful balance of flavour, spices and aromas. Sean and I have even indulged in the idea of starting a Cambodian restaurant in Singapore as there simply isn't one here at all, and it would be such fun to decorate it in the temple-ruin-style and classic Cambodian icons.

It's such a short hop away, a mere 2 hours by plane, I really do think that every Singaporean should visit. 

Realer Racing!!

'Open only to Singaporeans and Singapore residents, 200 rookies will be randomly selected by ballot for the Singapore GP Karting Training Programme. These successful candidates will be trained in the fundamentals of racing with specialised theory and practical workshops from 18 to 20 June. Participants who show potential will then test their mettle in the Singapore GP’s Karting Championship on 21 June.

The Championship winners for each category (14 - 17 years old and 18 - 21 years old) will win over S$14,000 worth of prizes each, including a year-long karting scholarship sponsored by KF1 Pte Ltd and Singapore GP Pte Ltd, consisting of practice sessions, race gear and entry to karting competitions in Singapore.'

Matthew is lucky enough to have been selected! Terribly excited for him. Some drama was involved as they had sent the selection notification to Matt's email instead of ours and he had not checked his email until the reply date was over! But they were good enough to still take him in, so now he's off and I hope he wins the championship!

Real Racing

Watched a powerboat race on youtube with the kids and the spills and thrills were so extreme that Matt exclaimed, 'OK I'll stick to karting!!'

Sarah said, 'I'll stick to NOTHING!!'

That's because she had tried go-karting together with Matt and has subsequently often referred to it as the worst ten minutes of her life.