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.