Sunday 3rd February

Sunday 3rd February…A great day……
Well, it was another early start today. We cycled 35 miles to Preah Veeha (?) In northern Cambodia. The scenery is improving and even a few mountAins around. Thankfully we won’t be going up them. We are still two days cycling away from our next destination where we will spend three days visiting the ancient temples of Ankhor Wat….another UNESCO world heritage site.
So today we visited the ancient ruins of Bakan temple near a small village of Tasang. It’s ridiculously remote. A 90 minute drive with a taxi driver who appeared to want to please us Brits by driving on the left side of the road. Problem is…..they drive on the right here! Scary stuff and a few ‘head on’s narrowly avoided. I think the driver also learnt some swear words! (From his passengers!)
The ruins were magnificent. Much of it was still standing in good condition……over 1000 years old. The Khmer civilisation must have been one of the most advanced at that time. Swimming pools, huge temples….amazing. At this time, London had a population of around 40,000. We were years behind. The area around the temples is very poor. People work the fields up to their knees in mud…..they spend their days with a shop desperately trying to sell something. That said, they are usually asleep until you walk in and say hello!
The kids here still wave like crazy whilst shouting “hello” or “goodbye” at the tops of their voices. Great stuff…….
Oh yes, and we found out the rugby score!
Happy day….
MJ