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Published: December 22nd 2014
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Hi,
Today we decided to cycle for our second day around the temples of Angkor. We hired better (mountain) bikes today for $3, but it made such a difference! We cycled the distance up to the temples, which is about 10km from our hostel. As we were entering the site, the ticket booth is on the right of the main road, but as we already had tickets we kept riding at normal pace, along with the taxis and tuk tuks who also didn’t stop. However, apparently we have now learned the hard way that cyclists is seems have to show their tickets again. I managed to put my breaks on quite sharply to stop for this woman that was coming for me waving her hands, but this man chose to stop Neil by running right out in front of him. Neil consequently went right over the handlebars!!! He had a few cuts but he was angrier with the man who had given him no warning to stop or slow down. There system to buy and check tickets is bazaar (and very dangerous!).
We cycled a further 2-3km to get to the Angkor Thom and then
explored Bayon Temple. This was massive; we climbed to the top and walked through all the ruins. It was quite touristy because it was still quite early. Most people tend to get tuk tuks for the day or they have booked on to a tour bus. The bikes are good though, as it really gives us perspective of the vast size of the temples.
After looking around the smaller temples in Angkor Thom including the terrace of the elephants and terrace of the leper king, we cycled over to Ta Prohm. This area is also where they filmed Tomb Raider. It was ok, but not as impressive as Bayon, we thought it was going to be huge with jungle vines seeping down everywhere.
That was all for today, we cycled back to pub street area for about 12.30pm, where we got lunch again in the same restaurant as yesterday (Venus) from the specials we can get a beer and meal for $2.5 each-bargain. I had papaya salad and actually got coconut because I was so thirsty. Neil had a beer and a chicken cop salad.
We dropped our bikes back and
headed to the hostel, we chilled out for a bit and then at 3pm we went to my favourite Peace Café. We went for a snack and to listen to a Monk talk about Buddhism. I had the amazing banana, sesame seed and wild honey pancake and a cabbage, cucumber, ginger and apple fruit juice: delicious. Neil also had a fruit juice and a cookie. At 4.30pm we then went for a free Monk chat. We went into a little hut and sat on mats with about 6 other people, the Monk from the local Pagoda chatted to us about his daily life and Buddhism. He told us how to sit on the mats, how many meals he ate a day (1), what he couldn’t eat (everything but tiger, rat, cat, dog and snake) haha. We could also ask him questions. We all did a bit of meditation at the end too. We took a few photos, and then he stunned us all by saying he has Facebook! Neil was please because he now has his first monk on FB.
In the evening we had a few beers in the hostel, whilst playing pool. The hostel lost
all the power in the kitchen and lights around the hostel, so Neil over heard the manager say we need to get out an electrician, and said he was and would take a look. The breaker had tripped so he reset it…..and got two free beers out of it!!! WOO HOO!!
We headed to pub street in the evening, eating on a little side road slightly off the main street. It was cheap and tasty!! After we headed back to the hostel to watch something on the laptop. Neil fell asleep during it…looks like he is coming down with man flu ahhhhhhh.
Love V&N X
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