We were well protected in our mosquito net. No bites while sleeping.
Our room rate included a tuk tuk driver for the day until as late as 10 pm. This was not the norm, only because it was low season for the hotel. Our driver was a nice guy, understood english pretty well, and I think his name was Warren or Borran.
Our first stop was Banteay Srei ("Citadel of the Women" circa 10th century), which was a one hour ride.
The intricacy of the carvings was amazing, so much detail! I can't imagine how long it must have taken to build the wat. After Banteay Srei, we went to Kbal Spean ("River of a Thousand Lingas" circa 11th - 12th century). It was a 1500 meter hike to the waterfall and bridge. It was a tough hike, lots of rocks to climb. We're glad that we were wearing sneakers. We saw some Japanese guys struggling in flip flops. After the 1500 meter hike, we found ourselves at a natural bridge at the Siem Reap river. If you look closely, you can see the carvings in the rocks at the river but due to river erosion, it was a strain to find the carvings. We saw a tour guide take a women across this log in the middle of the rushing river and pointed something out to her. Naturally, I had to see what they were staring at, so I ventured out onto the log. Unfortunately, due to my lack of coordination, I ended up falling into the river. I had to hike with wet socks and shoes for the rest of the day. Sadly, there really wasn't anything to see anyway. We came across a nice waterfall, unfortunately, we weren't wearing bathing suits again. I should've just jumped in since I was half wet anyway.
After that strenuous hike, we desperately needed a cold drink. I went to the first place selling those coconut drinks.The vendors are very aggressive here. Everytime you leave a site, they come rushing up trying to sell you cold drinks, food, scarves, postcards, jewelry, etc. You can't really fault them, it's their livelihood, but it wears on you after awhile. We headed back to the hotel for a break and got washed up for dinner. I think we had to declare our socks as biohazards after that hike. They were no longer white.
We decided to have dinner at Le Tigre De Pa Pier in the Old Market area. Sounds French, but actually a Cambodian/ Italian restaurant. We thought it would be fusion, but just had Cambodian and Italian food on the menu. I ordered a banana milkshake. We started off with NEM with shrimp, some kind of spring roll. We heard the pizza there was good, so we also ordered a pizza with ham and mushrooms.
After dinner, we walked a couple blocks to the Old Market, where they sell mainly clothes, jewelry, watches, souvenirs. We've become used to haggling, usually saying that we would pay 50% of their asking price and okay walking away. I think the reason we are fine walking away is because we're trying to travel light! I ended up getting 50% off from my negotiations.
At 9:00pm, we try to find our tuk tuk driver in this row of tuk tuks on the side of the street. We walk by, drivers are trying to get us to ride with them and we're just trying to find our driver. One guy says,"I am your driver." I look at him and just nod my head no. Then other drivers started laughing saying, " You don't even know your own driver!" Eric turned around and recognized him, we're embarrased and followed him to his tuk tuk so we could go back to the hotel.
For the pictures of the day, go to: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=theresang1977&target=ALBUM&id=5391012181720818609&authkey=Gv1sRgCM_-o6PE9cilcQ&feat=email
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