Today at 09.00 a.m. we went to Siem Reaps Irish Pub Molly Malone‘s. The staff from the night shift had asked us the evening before, to come today, for they had plannend a farewell surprise for us.

We sat there in the large rattan armchairs with the green cushions and wondered what would happen, when Poas, both Moms and the cook arrived and told us to get on the mopeds. All six of us squashed on two mopeds left the city and drove to a lake about 14km away. The road along the lake was full of grill stalls, where our Khmer friends begun a bulk buying. Grilled frogs, grilled birds, grilled chicken and grilled fish. When they also bought a bag full of fried crickets at another stall, I wasn‘t too sure anymore, if I was still looking forward to this surprise.

A breakneck climb-down to the waterside followed, where a long and covered platform on stilts was built out into the lake. This is a very popular picknick place of the Khmer and guessing from the way other people stared at us, we figured not many westerners have yet set foot on this spot.

We sat down on the floor, spread out our meals and said hello to the other Mollys people that had just arrived and joined us. Yes, we both ate a cricket (I have to admit, it wasn‘t bad, but just the thought of what was in our mouths kept us from wanting more). Paul liked the frogs (I only tried one calf), the birds were a bit too sweet for our taste and we didn‘t touch the chickens legs & feet. I liked the fish best, so I mainly stuck to that.

We stayed there until the early afternoon and on our way home we had a short stop where we drank fresh-squeezed sugar-cane juice from a plastic bag. Our friends from Mollys really made sure that we got to try all Khmer specialities before we left the country.

In the afternoon Jessie came to Siem Reap with 19 children from our orphanage. A big hotel had organized an „Amazing Race“ for their guests and the children were one post. After that Jessie brought them to the Lucky Mall, so they could see and have a ride on the escalators. That‘s where we met them.

When the children saw us coming, their faces lit up and we too were really happy to see them again. For them it was a very exiting day, because they had never been to Siem Reap, had never seen a shopping mall and didn‘t know escalators or tap water (they were frightened of the flush in the toilets and Paul had to show them how to turn the water on and off again in the sink, to wash their hands). Jessie invited them all to a snack at „Lucky Burger“, where the air conditioner was turned up ridiculously high (until then the kids didn‘t know a/c either). The poor children were freezing cold and sat there holding each other in their arms, trying to get warm.

After a long goodbye again, with lots of hugs, „I‘ll miss you“ and more hugs the kids got into the van and we waved to each other until the vehicle disappeared in the traffic.

We ended this wonderful day with some friends and a dinner at Molly Malone‘s, where we could also give our picknick-girls one last big hug goodbye.

Even though we had crickets and frogs, we both couldn‘t imagine a more perfect last day in Siem Reap.

More pix under ‚pictures/cambodia‘.