Other than the sounds of howling dogs last night, I was woke up at 5AM by music from loud speakers surrounding the Mosque next door. Now it wasn’t just a short little thing, but the hotel manager said this will last for 2 days straight. Good thing I found another place to stay yesterday and that was my first order of business.
My driver was supposed to meet me at 7:00 in the morning, but it started raining. At 8:00 he still wasn’t there. Soon after he did show up but we had to wait since it was raining. Finally he drove me to the other guesthouse. He wanted to drive me to Angkor Wat, but I said no since it was not looking like a good day. He dropped me off and I finally got rid of him! I felt free since this guy was no longer talking to me and putting pressure on me. The rain stopped in late morning and I decided to rent a bicycle from the guesthouse and do everything myself. It was fairly cool and cloudy outside.
I took off on my full suspension mountain bike and my backpack. I had no map, but I knew which way to go. I almost entered the park without a ticket until someone yelled at me to stop. I decided to get a one week pass to the Angkor Archeological Park for $60. So then I can take my time and be under less pressure. I continued on maybe about 30 minutes riding total and arrived.
In the afternoon I walked through all of Angkor Wat, the most famous place in Southeast Asia. It was, of course, impressive. Although not too surprising since I knew what to expect, but I was surprised it was not too crowded during mid-day. While I was there I met a Chinese woman also there alone. She also had the week pass, but was on her 6th day. I ended up partnering up with her and seeing another area of the park, Bayon. This building was really neat because it included some dark passageways and a sort of basement.
Before it got dark I had to ride my bike back to the guesthouse. Even though the highest gear didn’t work, I was able to ride fast enough to keep up with the Tuk-Tuks and pass all the people on single speed bikes. There are no side walks or bicycle lanes, so you have to mix in with everyone else. It was kind of like being in a race and pretty fun.
For dinner I ate at the Hot-pot/BBQ place again since I was really hungry after that day.