[Siem Reap, Cambodia] 11:30 and we were still in bed – what a great way to start a day 🙂 We took a stroll into the tourist centre of town (‘Pub Street’ and ‘The Passage’) in search of a pastry and came across a dodgy DVD shop. We couldn’t resist asking for ‘Tomb Raider’. There must have been at least 100 000 discs in the shop but ‘salesman’ strolled over and plucked it out of the chaos with ease – so our entertainment for the evening is sorted. The ‘Blue Pumpkin Cafe’ is unbelievable. Great food (if a little expensive) in a beautiful setting. You would almost think your are New York or London. We followed the rocky road and coconut milk shakes up with a stroll around the local tourist market. Nothing took our fancy – most of it was exactly what we had seen in Vietnam and Laos (Same Same, but NOT different).

Our plan for the afternoon was to get a ‘free’ (should have been hint) bicycle from the hotel and head out to the Angkor balloon ride before chilling to a sunset overlooking Angkor and that’s pretty much where the wheels came off (well a pedal anyway).

At the security checkpoint outside town we negotiated our way past the officials without a ticket (since we were not planning on going into any wats) and were told that the balloon had been closed for ages. Seems someone burst our balloon. In place of the balloon we decided to suck it up and pay for the 8 minute helicopter flip over Angkor and continued riding out to the where the balloon used to be. A sign announced that the heli-flip company had relocated to the airport ! Not daunted (well maybe a little) we decided to cycle another 5km to the airport and try our luck there. Shortly after setting off one of my pedals sheered off completely and riding became almost impossible.

We eventually got the the airport exhausted and wet through with sweat. The place looked deserted. Security tried to assist us but in the end we discovered that to get a helicopter ride we needed to book with an agency in town. Arghhh! So it was back to Angkor for us. Odd that when you need one of the thousands of tak-taks you can’t find one (I guess they know the flight arrival times). I gave up trying to pedal with one leg after a few hundred meters and ended up switching bikes with V and pushing her all the way back to the Wat. We (well mainly me) arrived totally spent and collapsed on the moat wall to wait for sunset. When it finally arrived, the sunset was a little disappointing but we got a few shots and went in search of a tak-tak. There were dozens of them around the car park but all occupied or off duty save one (thankfully) We loaded up and headed home. What an afternoon!

In the evening we had planned to watch our Tomb Raider DVD. We made it as far as the scenes that were shot at Ta Prohm (too cool) before nodding off into a coma. I can safely say we have done Angkor. If there is a next time, that heli and balloon owe us a ride.

[Pictures: V on her bike – so cool to ride past Angkor. Not a great sunset at an amazing spot]

– Posted from my iPhone via WiFi