Happy New Year!
On the 30th Dave and I rent a moto from Bora, the guy that has been organizing all our transportation needs, to go to the temples with Dave’s friends from school as they rode in the tuk tuk. Not sixty seconds after picking it up I ride down the road and say to Dave, “hey am I going the wrong way?” Well, the answer was yes when the policeman whistled and pointed us to the curb. This simple traffic cop was joined by another who seemed to be in charge. This second cop then goes on to blabber about going the wrong way or something like that and tells me “five thousand.” I try to bluff my way out and tell him “two thousand.” Then he starts talking simply in English and appeared to get irate so I say “alright, four thousand.” He nods and I hand over one Washington to the first cop and we are on our way, my first experience at bribing a cop. I felt a little sullied.
On the 31st we rented some motos and drivers for a trip to a temple in the jungle, Beng Mealea. Dave’s friends, Raj, Cendal, and Provine all had their own motos and drivers. Dave and I rented the same moto from yesterday at half the cost of the others’. At the last moment as we get ready to depart, Dave decides to run up to his room to get his sunglasses. As the other drivers left, I figured it wouldn’t take him that long and didn’t bother to tell them to wait.
Well, it did take that long and by the time Dave jumped on, the others were nowhere in sight. We rode for a few blocks in an attempt to find them before pulling over and finding out where to go on the map. At this point I want to catch up as the map only shows what road to take out of the city. I run the red light and start weaving in and out of traffic, a very normal thing to do here actually.
Dave’s first comment about the red light didn’t really register as it was a right turn and I wouldn’t have stopped on a normal day anyways here. His second comment concerning how he would be fine if we didn’t drive in the oncoming lane caused me to start passing on the shoulder. His third comment was “I’m alright if we don’t catch up with them.”
We did catch up with them as the lead driver had stopped to wait on us. The rest of the hour ride was a blast, hitting eighty kilometers per hour on this little 125cc Honda with the broken front brakes and no turn signals.
Tomb Raider
Beng Meileng is a temple complex that has been reclaimed by the jungle. The first sight after crossing the long walkway is a jumble of large stone blocks scattered in a pile. To the right is a tall tree towering over the remains of the wall. There were a few tourists there and there are some boardwalks in place to route people through the heart of the complex. We decided to go exploring though, climbing under half collapsed doorways, over piles of collapsed blocks, and onto the roofs of the temple buildings still intact. There is only one building that is still intact and walking through its long, rectangular chamber was quite a treat. The main spire is unfortunately completely collapsed, nothing more than a very large pile of blocks, some intricately carved.
Sus Dai Chnum Thmei
Dinner on Bar Street was ok, definitely too westernized for most of us. It was bland and we had to ask for some diced chilies to spice things up. There was live apsara dancing to live music though which was very cool to see. We also got the table on the balcony overlooking the street, so we had a bird’s eye view of the festivities picking up. Around 11pm it got rather crowded on the street and there was a lot of water getting tossed onto the crowd below.
We then decided to join in the party and do some dancing on the now wet and dirty street which meant for some very dirty feet as most were wearing flip flops. There was a lot of drinking and dancing and the large speakers on the street kept cutting out. The music was ok, but definitely could have used a better DJ. And the fireworks…That was interesting. There was no way the local restaurants and bars were going to spend any significant amount of money on it, so it consisted of hand fired bottle rockets albeit dozens of them. Another year gone, a new one begun. Let’s see what 2008 has in store.
