Day 12 - Return to Phnom Penh

This is our last day with Eric and we woke up to a power cut - good start! - not easy doing the packing in near darkness and using the bathroom by the light of your mobile phone!
Our car arrived at 8.15 and we said goodbye to the lovely people we had met while staying in Siam Reap especially our brilliant Tuk Tuk drivers Red and Sokheng. We had already said goodbye to Greg the night before, as he was staying on in Siam Reap for a couple more days.
We drove for about two hours and stopped for coffee and then on to the village where they carve the Buddha statues out of sandstone that is brought down from the mountain. Again the skills of the craftsmen are evident when you watch them at work with very little resources and in the searing heat. Joanne was all 'Buddha'd out' so she was practicing taking arty shots with her camera until it was time to leave - I like the Buddhas and was amazed that they were selling a 10ft statue for only £100 - am sure that if sold in England they would fetch at least 10 times that amount, although I don't suppose there is a great call for 10 ft Buddhas in Sussex!
We stopped for lunch at what I called the 'fast food ' insect village as practically everything sold in the little market was a deep fried creepy crawlie of some description or another, plus every child appeared to be carrying a live tarantula and one man was pulling them out of his pockets like a magician pulls rabbits out of a hat! There were deep fried tarantula, water cockroach, silk worm, frog, and other equally disgusting creatures found in undergrowth.
Joanne and I had thought we might try a deep fried tarantula but during the week we read an article describing the merits etc of this particular delicacy and were somewhat put off by the description of the 'inside squashy stuff' so decided to pass on this one. Fried rice with vegetables seemed the safer option!
We arrived back in Phnom Penh around 3.30 and had a last drink with Eric at our hotel, The Plantation. It was a sad farewell in a way as it has been an amazing trip and we have learnt a lot about different types of photography, been to places and met people that are not normally experienced on normal holiday tours and I think Cambodia has a lot to offer.
As we only have one more day here we decided that tomorrow would be a complete day off and so we jumped into a Tuk Tuk to visit the Russian market which had been recommended, in order for tomorrow to be completely spent not having to do anything.
Dinner was wonderful, as were the cocktails and we retired for the evening knowing that the air con was working and the showers had hot water - fantastic!