Jo and Hayley's SEA tour

Our car trip to Siem Reap went well, instead of 6hrs on the bus, only took a bit over four. The road condition actually not to bad. The car horn is vital part of the road rules here  and is honked half a dozen times for every push bike, motorbike, horse and cart, car, bus and the occasional cow.....when overtaking. There were half a dozen roadside stop points where you could pick-up fruit and drinks etc, and we had indicated to our driver that we wanted a couple of rest breaks. At our first stop he was motioning his hand like a spider and laughing (his spoke very little english). It turned out that the particular specialty of this stopover point was fried tarantulas. Half a dozen children rushed to the car, wearing big black hairy tarantulas (live) as broaches. Scaring the tourists seemed a popular pass time for these sweet kids. Hayley refused point blank to get out of the car, and did not budge from her position. Ian, Billi and I got out for a bit of a look, but didn't taste. We continued on, watching the beautiful landscape. Our next stop, we just pulled over on the side of the road. There were little huts back from the road and within 5 mins most people living there had come out to say hello. The children are beautiful, big brown eyes, and very shy. Our last stop turned out to be a flat tire, which was changed quickly enough, but made us realise how hot it was, the tire looked melted. We arrived at our hotel, the Antanue Angkor Villa and settled in. Another pretty little place with a nice pool, though not as luxurious as the Pavilion. Staff are friendly, and can't do enough for you. The heat was oppressive when we arrived, sunny day but too hot to move, so we did very little. Went out for dinner in the evening when it cooled. Today the sky is overcast and a bit of drizzle, we are really happy about this, so will go and plan our day. There is very little access to phones here, and the rate is $2USD/min so won't be calling home to back in Vietnam. Hope is well back home, love from us!