After a brief conversation over breakfast, we made the decision to use the hotel’s TukTuk driver and return to Angkor Wat mid morning. With the current lack of tourists in Siem Reap and our one day admission ticket coming with a second day entry free of charge and this time with no agenda, we just wanted to wander around the vast temple complex and enjoy whatever came our way.
Again, Angkor Wat was very quiet and we enjoyed many of the vast inner sanctums completely on our own, taking more time to look closer at the carvings and bas reliefs, enjoying and discovering details that we had missed before; both knowing that we would never return to Angkor Wat again.
Again, our afternoon was spent by the pool enjoying the peace with a pot of Pandan tea, we also packed ready for moving on the next day.
Using the hotel TukTuk driver, we headed out for our final event, an evening at Phare Ponleu Selpak’s Circus. Seam at the Sokkhak had reserved tickets for us at the box office, which turned out to be seats in the perfect position giving us a great view of the stage area.
Phare is a social project that takes the poorest and most vulnerable children to educate them and give them skills that will enable them to lead an independent life. All for free. The Siem Riep big top houses the main performance, but the performers learn their skills in the town of Battambang. Every element of the performance is provided by the students from ticket selling, running the gift shop/bar to music, artwork and circus performance. All profit is ploughed back into the project allowing another generation of children to benefit. The show was amazing, circus skills mixed in with a tongue-in-cheek story about visitors and locals in Siem Reap. Having seen Cirque du Soleil it was obvious these performers performed to the same high standard.
After the show we were hungry and asked our TukTuk driver to take us in to town to eat, dropping us off at Pub Street, a really busy and noisy area of town filled with restaurants and clubs, where we managed to find a meal before being overwhelmed by the noise and chaos heading back to the hotel for some peace and quiet.
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