First post of tomorrow: It's vacation.

Even on the best vacations, at the most intriguing destinations, tourists reach a saturation point. On our last full day in Siem Reap, we awoke to this saturation point. The question, "What are we going to do today?" fell with a thud on our hotel room floor, and we went to have breakfast without answering it.

After breakfast, we had no more direction than when our bellies were empty. Feeling the pressure of the last day, we HAVE to do SOMETHING, we opted for a hodge-podge of small activities. We decided to take a walk to find a post office. Although I lament the loss of the complete unknown by having access to the internet, I do think it helps "get things done" when you're in a country and know absolutely none of the language. I'm sure we could have asked our hotel for the complimentary tuk-tuk ride to the nearest post, but what fun would that be? No, let's take a walk at 11am when the sun is bright and the temperatures are high and there is absolutely no chance of rain!

First, we walked by the main offices of the Sam Veasna Center (SVC) for Wildlife and Conservation. They had a map of Cambodia that featured both ecological regions and the animal species most likely to be seen in each region, and we were told we could probably purchase one at the main office. They had ONE left, so it was meant to be.

Next, we headed to the post office. One of the main roads goes along a river, and there are sidewalks, benches, and fantastic statues all along the way. There are mature trees, so keeping in the shade was relatively easy and much appreciated by us.

We found the post office! I was more excited than Ryan, but I like to think the elements got to him more than the destination. We watched as stamps were applied by hand and postmarks were applied by a stamp at the end of a hammer, which the postal clerk forcefully banged three times for each card: one to the stamp pad and twice to each postcard. It was impressive. Cambodian post doesn't mess around.

We headed back to the hotel. Siem Reap is awfully dry and dusty at this time of year. You feel it on your face whenever you ride in the tuk-tuks, and you can see it on the walls and on the sides of buildings. Just the nature of things, but it is noticeable.

This was not my first time walking around the neighborhood that surrounded our hotel. I had been here before on somewhat early morning bird walks. I got the distinct impression that not many tourists came through these streets, and even fewer with binoculars looking at Common Mynas in the palm trees of peoples' backyards. Everyone is always so nice, though. If a dog gets out of line, the lady of the house gives a stern reprimand, and we are safe. The sweetest moments are the children. They learn basic English in school, and love to say, "Hello!" when they see you. We passed these three children, presumably siblings, the oldest of which was trying to roll the bicycle tire on planks that the younger two were keeping in a straight line.

As we walked past their game, the two youngest children stood up and said, "Hello!" We said hello back and waved, which prompted another "Hello!" and waving from them. I took a photo, to remember how excited the kids get when they see tourists. It was also a good reminder that not all the children of Siem Reap hang out at the temples and try to sell you things. It wasn't until I got home and really looked at this shot that I noticed the peace sign, and my heart broke a bit.

To avoid the heat of the afternoon, we hung out at our oasis of a hotel, reading, enjoying the pool, drinking lots of water, and being lazy, over-indulgent tourists. I really did like our hotel and the pool. This was a Friday, and the hotel was filling up with more people. We didn't exactly have the place to ourselves, but the variety of languages and accents was exciting. We recognized French, Australian, and some eastern-European-sounding tongue, maybe Russian? The growing number of people further reinforced the fact that our vacation was coming to a close, and our timing was just about perfect.

We walked to Pub Street that evening. We'd wanted to walk through the ~~tourist traps~~ markets again before dinner, and we found things that we absolutely did not need but that would remind us of Siem Reap. We took a slightly longer route to Pub Street so we could pass by the gardens of the large, outrageously expensive Grande Hotel, the oldest hotel still in operation in Siem Reap. I'd remembered that our guide mentioned these gardens as a place to see flying foxes up close, and Ryan indulged me in one more wildlife hunt.

The gardens were very well-manicured, and there were several people enjoying the walkways and benches. There is a sign out front, letting everyone know that these grounds were public but maintained by the staff at Le Grande Hotel. Maybe a little PR outreach? I found a fountain with replicas of the dog statues I'd admired at the temples, and I asked Ryan to take a photo. Here's the first photo:

Then, I heard the bats. Unfortunately, they caught my attention right as Ryan tried to get a second good photo of me at the fountain. While it's not the best photo of me and my favorite statue, I love that you can tell that my mind is blown by whatever it is I am seeing. I'll post the largest size I can on the blog, so you can see a look of amazement.

The trees were riddled with flying foxes, and I was kicking myself for not bringing my camera with the big lens! They were moving around quite a bit, chattering, and a few taking flight from one tree-top to the next. They absolutely reminded me of "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," and I've always wanted to see me some mega-bats since that scene early on in the film. You know the one. Our guide told us that westerners love to take pictures of these bats in the park, and Cambodians think we are crazy to photograph something that is SO GOOD to eat. For real, people.