Bike Riding and Getting Gyped

ជំរាបសួរ មិត្តភក្តិនិង គ្រួសារ,(Hello friends and family in Khmer),

We were exhausted from the awesome, action packed day that we had yesterday that when we got home we were too tired to post.

The day began with very little promise; it was raining out. The forecast for Siem Reap calls for rain for the next week (this seems a bit strange because the country is in the midst of monsoon season and it very rarely constantly rains). However it rained all day Tuesday and was actually kind of chilly. We are pretty sure this doesn’t even begin to compare to the weather that everyone back home in New England is beginning to feel with fall right around the corner.

Anyway, I woke up around 8:30 but Leah slept in until around 11 so we had a late breakfast and a very relaxed morning. It was really nice not having to set an alarm but to wake up when we felt rested because this was our “weekend.” When we were eating our breakfast Andy, the owner of the villa was around so we asked him for some ideas of cool things to do during the day. He is really nice and gives us great suggestions on what places are good, where the locals go, and places that not many tourists know to go to, which we like. This is so helpful for us being such new solo travelers and we don’t know what is good in Siem Reap. We really appreciate all that he has done for us and look forward to getting to know him and his guests better over the next five months. We could immediately tell from everyone’s reaction, including his employees, what a great owner and nice person he is when he returned from his mother country, London, for his “second honey moon” with his wife. Andy suggested that if we were looking for a relaxing day a great idea would be to bike to Pnohm Kron, a temple in the country side that can be a beautiful place to watch the sunset. We hadn't been out on bikes yet and the weather wasn’t too hot so we decided that we would go for it! The bikes cost $1 to rent for the entire day and Andy was nice enough to pump all the tires up for us.

We left the villa and turned onto National Highway 6, pretty much the busiest main highway. Because we were going into town we had to turn left, which sounds a lot easier than it actually is. The larger roads here are really interesting because there is a two lane road for cars in the middle and then on both sides of that road there are four lane roads for Tuk Tuks, motorbikes and regular bikes. It was only a bit terrifying at first when motorbikes were driving all around us but once we got the hang of it we felt so bad ass. Feeling very accomplished that we actually made it into town alive we decided to take a break while we were ahead and walk around to find some lunch. At first we sat down at The Red Piano, a nice looking German restaurant in the middle of the Old Market. But after looking at the menu we realized that it was a little out of our price range; about $6 for an entree, obviously considered a deal in the U.S.. Ah, how Cambodia has changed us. Leah had remembered that Pat recommended an excellent Italian restaurant to us just the day before. Il Forno, a hidden gem in the Old Market, literally nestled away in an alley behind other restaurants. I know, this sounds kind of odd to walk into an alley to go to a restaurant but that is part of what makes this place so great. Because of its “secret” location it was very quiet and peaceful. I assume that most tourists don’t know about this place unless they loose their way or have a recommendation. We only looked at the menu for a minute because we went in prepared to order a pizza. Only a week in and we have been craving Western comfort food. Another added perk to this restaurant was that they served us cold water. At first we were questioning drinking the water because you have to be so careful about the water here but today we aren’t sick so KNOCK ON WOOD! The pizza came out pretty quickly because we were two of four patrons in the restaurant. When the server put the pizza in front of us the belief that we weren’t very hungry went right out the window. We immediately dug in and it was just what we wanted. I think we might go back tomorrow night.

*Side note* - When we were touring the Angkor temples we ran into a couple from the Philippines. We were both trying to find our Tuk Tuk drivers who said that they would meet us in the same location. They told us about a restaurant that they had recently been to called “The Happy Pizza” that served really good pizza and if you asked for the pizza “extra happy” they baked marijuana into the pizza. They said that they were insanely high all night, which we thought was really funny. On Trip Advisor we found that there is a whole block of pizza places that compete to serve the “happiest” pizza. Just a few names of these fine establishments include Happy Herb’s Pizza, Happy Special Pizza, Ecstatic Pizza, you get the point. Pretty much all of these restaurants have close to 5 stars, (I wonder why), with reviews like “makes you happy after 30 minutes” or “paranoia overload.” With this in mind we decided to ditch the happy pizza, everything here is too new to add that to the mix, and try Il Forno. We’re glad we did!

They deliver! It may have been better that we didn't know this.

Look at that delicious pizza!!!

After lunch we were off for the country side, taking National Highway 6 until it turned into a one lane road. Although we were happy to have the wind in our hair and be on the bikes the beginning of the ride was nothing special. A lot of bikes and cars around us and trash in the brown river that ran next to us. We saw a lot more poverty in this part of Cambodia but Leah was saying that these people are still considered the better off ones in the country. When the amount of motorbikes and cars began to decrease the ride became a lot more relaxed and the lotus flowers and rice paddies came into view. There were these really cool restaurants along the 7 km ride that overlooked the rice paddies and had hammocks so that you can watch the sunset. When we finally got to the stairs of the temple our legs were tired and we weren’t sure if we could make it up the 100 or so stairs so we bought a coconut (yes a whole coconut for only $1) for the hike up. There were some kids playing on the stairs and even some mountain goats. Leah was really pumped about this.

When we got to the stairs there was an Angkor guard waiting. Andy had told us that sometimes there were guards waiting and if you didn’t have a ticket you could try to bribe them. While we went in with the intention of bribing the guard with $2 we chickened out when we saw how intimidating he was. So we decided to walk to the other side to get a great view of the village.

Rice patties on a dull, gray day

GOATS!!

After our bike ride home we decided to stop in town to go to the Night Market and Pub Street. It felt so different at night than it did the first time we went to the market, which was the day that we arrived so we were tired and cranky. The Night Market was alive and bustling. We looked around for a place to get a small bite to eat and ended up going to a place that served fried rice in half a pineapple. Although we could get a better tasting fried rice at the hotel the presentation was excellent. All the restaurants had happy hour which meant 50 cent beer! I got a beer and Leah got a margarita; both tasted great!

Cheers!

We decided that we weren’t quite ready to end our amazing day so we looked around the shopping vendors. It is really interesting to see all of the vendors set up next to each other selling a lot of the same stuff. Basically what happened was we were looking for really cool printed pants that we have seen all over. The first place that we went to the woman offered us two pair of pants for $14 at first. As we were walking away she bargained down for us to both for $8 and then both for $6! Even though we didn’t really like the patterns it was a great deal but we still walked away. The next vendor we went to the woman eagerly greeted us and showed us what styles and patterns she had. We really liked them so we asked how much they were. She started off at $18 - way overpriced. We tried bargaining down to both for $10. She was not happy about this but agreed. Then Leah told her that the other woman offered us two pairs for $6 so she should give them to us for $8. She got kind of mad that we were being so wishy washy but she reluctantly gave them to us for $8. Then we walked around a bit more and the other vendors started the bargaining at 2 for $8, so we knew that we got ripped off. It took us a while to get over it but now we understand that that was kind of like an initiation so we are more ok with it and we are happy with our new pants!

After dinner and shopping we got a delicious banana and nutella pancake from a street vendor - our first street food! We are very excited to have more street food during the rest of our time here! Then we biked home, talked with some of the other guests, showered because we were so sweaty from our ride and fell right asleep. It was a great day!

Before we end this post, we wanted to thank you all for reading our blog and following our adventure. Yesterday we made it to 1,000 page views! It really means so much to us that you all have been consistently reading our posts!

Love,
Us