2012, Day 323 - Ancient bridges

Today was, alas, a travel day and as such it is hard to get excited about it.  We allowed ourselves to get up naturally; an odd experience after so many mornings as a slave to the alarm clock before the sun rises.  After puttering around the room we ate our last breakfast in Siem Reap and then returned our room to finish packing and when you spend a week in one place you start to settle in so it took a bit longer than expected.  Fortunately we had a bad movie on the television to keep us ever-so-slightly distracted and we even caught glimpses of Cambodia's amazing temples despite the fact that the movie wasn't supposed to have been set here.  I suspect that we will forever be pointing out Angkor's temples when we see them in movies and on TV.

At ten o'clock we took our burdens to the front desk, checked out, and found Mr. Mony waiting for us one last time.  He introduced us to the driver, gave him a few instructions while we loaded our bags, and then we were off for Phnom Penh.  It was a long drive and we stopped a few times; once to see an ancient bridge from the Angkor era, another to see the stone carving village, and finally to see the "spider village" where they raise and cook tarantulas.

The first two stops were interesting but the last seemed to be a tourist trap.  As soon as we got out of the car we were mobbed by children desperate to sell us fruit.  They were extremely persistent and Araceli quickly became uncomfortable.  Every time she tried to extract herself from the crowd another child would pop up in front of her, insistent that she buy what they were selling.  It didn't take long before we were frustrated, annoyed, and ready to leave.

After being harassed for a while it was nice to get into the car again where it was quiet and air-conditioned.  Exhausted by our admittedly minor ordeal both Araceli and I dozed off.  It seemed like we were in Phnom Penh in no time.  Traffic was light through the city and although the driver got a little turned around we were soon delivered safely to Francene and Tim's apartment.

We have been living in pretty close quarters recently and it is so nice to have a big room, almost twice the size of our last two hotel rooms!  There is room to spread out our belongings and even the facilities to do laundry.  Francene and Tim had to leave shortly after letting us in because they had a wedding to go to (hence all the shopping in Siem Reap).  That left Araceli and me with free run to do laundry, find dinner, repack for our short trip to Kampot, and get cleaned up.

For dinner we wandered aimlessly until we found a busy place (at five o'clock no less), the Boat Noodle Restaurant.  We didn't get boat noodles, we ordered fish amok and a fried fish with green mango salad.  The food was great and it was cheap which is probably why the whole place was packed with locals shortly after we were seated.  Araceli and I even managed to make room for dessert, a sundae with every flavor of ice cream they had, woohoo!  And the cost for our delicious repast?  Less than ten dollars for the two of us!

When Francene and Tim got home we heard all about the wedding.  Apparently there were a lot of guests and even more food.  Everyone was dressed in their best clothes and a good time was had by all.  We ended up chatting well into the night and only went to bed when someone finally noticed the time.  So I write this to you late for me but on time for you.  Tomorrow we will be in Kampot, more to come...

Canon 1D X, Canon 24-70/f2.8L Mark II
24mm, f4, HDR of 1/5000, 1/2500, 1/1250, 1/640, and 1/320 sec @ 200 ISO