Cambodia: Day 3

Mum and I on bikes

We decided a break from the tour guide was necessary, and as we live in such a hot country with not much opportunity for riding bicycles around busy roads, today we’d explore Angkor-Wat and it’s neighbour Angkor-Thom on the bicycles that were available at the guest house. I love building up great momentum and just gliding along a flat surface with the wind blowing through your hair, ah. My road sense was put to the test as we went straight into fast paced Cambodian traffic and Cinderella carriages, my mother was not impressed with my signalling skills. But come on, if you’re used to flicking a switch for signal lights to go on, and haven’t ridden a bike in ages, sticking your arm out and balancing a bike with motorbikes circling you is a bit nerve racking. I got the hang of it after a while and we had a nice cycle around the ancient city of Angkor-Wat, walking at some points and cycling at others.

The view of Angkor Thom from the top

It was nice to appreciate the detail on the temples without having to absorb constant stories about old gods and deities.. As our bums slowly became more numb and our stomachs began to growl we headed to the ‘Angkor cafe’ to have a light bite of tofu salad and fresh vietnemese spring rolls. The fresh veg feeling light in our stomachs, meaning we didn’t have to worry about any flat tires along the way! After cycling around a little more, we climbed to the tallest tower in Angkor Thom, looking over the entire ancient city. It was quite magical and surreal looking at all these old ruined that had that ancient charm but to think about what they must’ve been like in their heyday full of jewels and painted beautifully with lovely dressed servents and workers floating around the well kept grounds while water cleansed the dried reservoirs. 

Descending the steep steps

We finally cycled back after a refreshing break of King coconut (one of the most vitamin rich drinks by the way! One coconut contains all the nutrients you need for an entire meal!) The cycle home seemed far longer than the cycle we’d done earlier, and the heavy traffic became bothersome as our patience levels went down. The dust in our eyes, the inability to ask for proper directions home, going back and forth along a long unknown road and constantly seeing this huge image of the queen of Cambodia (who’s birthday it happened to be on that day) who looks surprisingly western (we found out she was half French half Vietnamese which explains the slightly mixed look) got the better of us, but after asking a few people for directions we finally got back to the guest house and returned the bikes.

We rested and showered the days exercise off us, before dining at a poor choice on my part - an Indian restaurant. Mushy tomato with balls of chicken was ‘butter chicken’ and blended spinach with rubbery cheese was ‘panneer in spinach curry’, the naan and misi-roti (roti made from chickpea flower) wasn’t bad.. but the mars bar we munched on at home infront of the documentary ‘The September Issue’ elicited much more pleasure than the meal.


Recipe of the day: Asian tofu salad
http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/asian_tofu_salad.html