The lost boys

All our travel today was by tuk tuk, which was a hit with the whole group. We started off with a two hour guided tour of Angkor Wat. It was seriously hot and humid but our guide Shorty was skilled in finding shady places to stop. We were all offered freshly cut coconuts with straws in them for a refresher. Not quite my cup of tea but Campbell enjoyed his. Flynn tried a can of sour sop soda. We all had a taste of that too. The temples were very impressive, with intricate detail everywhere. Shorty showed us a part of the temple where he lived for three months at age 7 to hide from the Khamer rouge.

After Angkor Wat, we gathered under a large shady tree and were told about the treasure hunt we were about to take part in. We were handed an envelope with a cut up picture inside. We had to glue the picture together and show it to our tuk tuk driver for him to take us to that location. We then had to find the right spot and replicate the photo to get the next clue. It started off very 'amazing race' but we had a little hiccup at the second stop. Our driver was not sure where to go and stopped at a few other temples before get found the right one. You may have seen pictures of this temple complex - it is the one with the huge tree growing in and around the temples. Flynn and Campbell ran ahead to try and find the photo spot, but this location was large, confusing and crowded. Josh and I followed behind but could not find them. After about half an hour we tried to find the way out, thinking they might be waiting there. We were not allowed to exit the way we came in and there were three different exits, each a kilometer or so apart. The boys were not at the first exit and I was getting anxious. It was super hot and were were out of water. We joined up with another family, the Hwangs, and we hired tuk tuks to drive us to the entry and the other exits. We saw one of our party at the second stop and she said everyone else was inside. By this time I had not seen the boys for 45 minutes. We trecked in and met up with the group, who had Flynn and Campbell safe and sound. I had a little cry and gave the guides a bit of a serve about the lack of information regarding the exits. Cambo and Flynn were fine, but Josh was a little upset because he missed seeing the temples and just got to see a frantic me pushing through the crowds looking for the boys. We are calling this part of the day the "could have been amazing race". Drama over we had a nice lunch at the Press club. The lost boys actually came second in the race and we won a little statue. 

Our last activity for the day was an elephant ride. The elephants had fancy red cloths over their backs and a kind of flat tray with a cushion to sit on. There were only three to an elephant so Flynn went with another couple in our group. Our elephant kept stopping for snacks (tree branches and leaves). The pace was pretty slow but it was a fun experience. Everyone was relieved to get back to the hotel for a cool down and a swim - the heat is gruelling here. All the kids met up at the pool and enjoyed some down time before our farewell dinner. The dinner was beside the pool and we were entertained by some traditional dancers. The guides had put together a slide show with the photos they had been taking and we could not believe how much we had experienced in the last 11 days. We said our farewells to the group and headed off to bed.