The Party’s Over (Almost)

Steff and I had been excitedly anticipating our visit to the Night Market in Siem Reap. Especially the foot massage place with free drag show.

We had spent the afternoon with Mr Mot and his tuk tuk #17. We asked him to take us to shops that sold items made in Cambodia. Most of the silk in the markets is from China and we wanted the locally made silk items we saw being made by hand. We had purchased some at the workshop but needed scarves.

Mr Mot took us to a local shop run by a young man and his dad. Lovely shop with luscious silk work. I fell in love with a wall hanging that will go on the dining room wall. Embroidered silk.

We spent a long time deciding on scarves. John was getting antsy and the dad finally urged him to sit down and have some (very strong!) coffee.

Next we visited a hot dirty workshop where disabled people were carving wood pieces to sell. Many were deaf and some maimed by landmines.

Continuing our journey under gray threatening clouds (June 1 is beginning of monsoon season so we were testing our luck) we shopped at a small market that was filled with treasures. After realizing the “boys” were hovering over us, we send them off to have a beer so we could continue unsupervised.

Needed a cool down after that exertion!

Dinner was Cambodian food at a restaurant recommended by Mr Mot. Good choice. Maybe he gets a kickback from all the places he took us. He only charged $18 for six hours.

So now the boys are done. D.O.N.E. we sent them back to the hotel with Mr M and Steff and I remained at the lively Night Market. We wandered a round trying to find the massage/drag show combo, but when we finally located the shop with bright pink chairs it was closed! Bummer.

Mr Mot wasn’t due to pick us up for an hour so we retired to the Red Piano bar on Pub Street. Soon the sky opened up with a monsoon-like rain (go figure). After beers we skedaddled to our meeting spot and got zipped into the tuk tuk for a spectacular ride home. Hundreds of motorbikes, tuk tuks, small cars, bicycles and thick clots of pedestrians dodging the deepening rain puddles.

Today we were up at 4:30 to catch our ride to the airport for our flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. By the time we figured out how to get to our airport hotel it was mid-afternoon.

Short nap and then grabbed a train to downtown KL.

Scenery shot from train window:

Our destination? Yet another market! But we grabbed the golden ring with this one. We found a tiny little shop when a husband and wife team designed motifs for batik on cotton. For a small amount we could purchase one of their designs and paint it right there in the little shop. It was so much fun.! We. Od have stayed hours and done many more. Steff’s lotus flower is just stunning.

Finally we rounded out the guys and found a great Chinese place for dinner. Spring rolls were the absolute best I’ve ever tasted!

Hopped the train back to the airport hotel in time for the call to prayer. There’s an arrow on our ceiling pointing to the direction of Mecca.

I leave you with a shot of fresh food seen in the market stalls. I could barely stand to look at it. The name creeped me out.

Now it’s time for sleep on our last night of this adventure. Tomorrow night we fly to Singapore, 5 hr layover, flight to Manchester,UK 12 hours 💤, then Manchester to Houston, Houston to Atlanta, Atlanta to ORL. home will look mighty sweet in the wee small hours of Wed.