Alas, the guys rang soon after, forcing us to dress and go down for breakfast.
As usual, the breakfast spread was good.
We ate a lot, intending to start off the day right.
But we ended up back in our rooms right after breakfast, feeling absolutely stuffed, idly flicking through the cable channels before finally deciding, on Wan's suggestion, to check out Siem Reap's one and only War Museum.
Wan declared this visit to be the highlight of his trip.
To enter, this open air, museum-in-a-garden, we had to pay USD3 each but it was money well-spent, we thought. The items on display were collected from various parts of Cambodia and painstakingly transferred to the museum.
We were led on a free tour of the grounds by Alvin - my sister claims that's his name- who is a local farmer-turned-guide. He had lost his left arm stepping on a landmine when he was a young boy working on his father's farm. Bits of the metal from the landmine remained embedded in his chest and when the weather gets cold, his chest will hurt. Alvin cannot afford the surgery needed to remove the pieces of metal in his chest.
Alvin's life story and family history is truly tragic (and I hope he was not bullshitting us) and we really felt for him. His whole family died from a land mine blast as they were farming their land. Later, his aunt and her family took over his father's farm and chased him out. Alvin went to live with monks in a monastery where he learned basic English.
As Alvin explained, life's difficult for the average Cambodian, living with the legacy of war and the Khmer Rouge regime.
Alvin showed us the cornucopia of weapons used during the war of 1975 -1979 which saw a targeted genocide of certain ethnic minorities and the intellectual class.
We examined AK47s, pistols, rockets, bombs, tanks supplied by the Russians and Americans, knives and steel blades, and an endless array of 'boy toys'.
Being firmly anti-war, I refused to touch anything, noting that many of the items like the knives and old uniforms still had obvious bloodstains.
There is a great deal of history in the place and ghosts too. Alvin claims to have seen ghosts of soldiers past lingering in the museum at night fall.
It's very sad, looking at man's capacity for destruction on display. We saw rusted bombshells and hand grenades stacked up wall-to-wall and thought about the lives that were lost.
We saw landmine casings planted in the ground and Alvin demonstrated how easy it was to accidentally step on one and be scarred for life in an instant.
And to think that just as Cambodia is struggling to rid herself of 3 million live and active landmines (a very dangerous job performed by specialist landmine removers, mostly women), countries (including ours) are designing and manufacturing more sophisticated models.
After the very informative tour, we made a donation to the museum and thanked Alvin, wishing him all the very best.
Still a little shaken, I suggested we head to Blue Pumpkin for some comfort food. The fruit shakes and beef burgers served there are delicious.
And I love the ice-creams as well. For lunch that day, I had caramel and rocky road, both sweet and rich.
And Aidil polished off a slice of moist pineapple cake.
We headed back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the free concert held every Saturday by Dr. Beat Richner in aid of the Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital in Siem Reap.
Titled "Beatocello", the concert has been a permanent fixture at the auditorium next to the children's hospital for the last 4 years, I think.
In between playing and performing, Dr Beat Richner explained the dire healthcare situation in Cambodia: the lack of medical funding, facilities and basic health education and awareness. Children were dying of common diseases like flu / cold, dengue, malnutrition, simply because the average Cambodian parent could not afford basic medical treatment for their child.
He also showed us a video documentary of the efforts made by him and his team to improve conditions. Watching it, we decided to donate some money and blood to Kantha Bopha's blood bank the next day.
After the concert, we headed to the Pub Street for dinner. The area was colourful and noisy, with plenty of small, beautifully decorated cafes offering good and cheap food.
We settled down at Le Tigre de la Papier for some fruit shakes and local dishes.
My sis and I shared a fresh shrimp salad with plenty of crunchy greens and dressed with a homemade sweet/spicy sauce.
Wan, Shahira and I had rice with stir-fried beef, fish or squid.
Our meals were quite tasty. I quite like Cambodian cooking.
Aidil was more adventurous. He wanted to try the local BBQ and so ordered a platter of fresh meat with vegetables for grilling, which turned out to be pretty satisfying.
And so at the close of our third day in Siem Reap, we had good food, great company and a deeper insight into the country's past and present, having been told inspiring, heart-wrenching, real life stories of tragedy, triumph and survival.
