Oh, What A Circus!

Today we bade farewell to Vietnam and made the short flight from Saigon to Siem Reap in Cambodia. The difference in the landscape as we made the descent into Siem Reap airport was stark: gone were the fertile rice paddies and meticulously straight rows of fruit and vegetables to be replaced by scrubby wastelands of dust.

The airport itself was empty and quiet apart from us and the passport control officers were obviously making the most of our custom, taking ages to scrutinise our documents (there were lots of them and they'd taken most of the flight to fill in) and managing not to say a word throughout the process.

The welcome from our new guide, Ran, was much more effusive and friendly and we were soon ensconced in a cool restaurant enjoying another 5 course lunch.

After that we were taken to our hotel, which had been changed from the one on the itinerary. Apparently, visitor numbers are dropping so our original hotel had been closed and we have been upgraded to its 5 star "sister". It's certainly very luxurious and more central , although the grounds aren't quite as pretty as those of the other one looked on the website.

This evening we were taken to a circus on the outskirts of the city. The circus is run by a charity and the performers are all former street children who have been taken in and trained in circus skills. The storyline behind the performance, set in a fictional bar, was somewhat creaky, but the performers were brilliant acrobats and gymnasts and the accompanying musician, playing a fusion of traditional Cambodian and Western Rock music and instruments, were brilliant. As you can see they were a pretty flexible bunch!

After the show, we went back to the hotel for another excellent meal. It's noticeable that each time we've entered the hotel and again at the circus, our temperature has been taken and they've insisted on us washing our hands with sanitiser, as they did in Vietnam.