Our Christmas Present This Year

We figured that we did not need anything this year, so we skipped Christmas shopping completely and did not worry about presents under our tree. Today we realized that we truly did give each other a present this year, a trip to Siem Reap, which included spending most of the day in Angkor Wat area with Elder and Sister Leavitt, then a boat ride out on the Tonle Sap Lake to watch the sun set and to end the day at dinner with the Leavitts and Christensens. What a perfect Christmas present that we had not completely counted on.

We were up and on our way from the hotel in Kampong Cham about 6:20 and arrived in Siem Reap around 10:40. The Leavitts and the tour guide had already been over to Angkor Wat and seen it, which was just fine with us because we had already spent more than enough time there in March. We did go to the Tomb Raider Wat, where Angela Jolee filmed her famous movies, The Pink Lady Wat (so called because of the pink sandstone and it is beautiful) and Bayon Wat in Angkor Thom, which was the capital of the Khmer empire.  Our guide recommended that we take a boat ride out to see the floating village on the lake and watch the sunset,. That was definitely a worthwhile side trip.

After the lake we met up with President & Sister Christensen, who where in town to take care of some Church business with the local District, for dinner in Siem Reap. It was a great day, we were with wonderful friends, we got to see some phenomenal sights from the 10th through 13th century and truly experience the part of Cambodia that most tourist come to see.