Day Eleven

Having left Laos and part of my DNA behind (see day 10), we departed Kratie today for an 8 hour drive in the bus to Siem Reap, our final destination for this Tour de Laos.  The drive took us though many interesting landscapes, most of which was fairly flat, but the most memorable thing again was the ridiculously bumpy roads, however, they did improve as we got closer to Siem Reap.  We drove passed a lot of farm land and even a rubber tree plantation.  Each of the trees had a little bowl attached to it to collect the rubber dripping out.  It also looked like the trees had been carved to have a channel around the tree for the rubber to flow down.  We were told that getting the rubber out is a delicate art and if done wrong, the tree could die.  We also stopped along the way to visit a town that had some remaining French colonial buildings during their time of occupation here in Cambodia.  These buildings looked very run down and completely out of place with what was going on at the street level.  Knowing that many tourist come and stop at this town to look at the architecture, the locals had set up their market along the main street.  There were all kinds of fruit, vegetables, spices, meat, fish, etc. to buy and it was a little concerning to see so much meat and fish sitting there in the sun with flies buzzing all around.  We also stopped for lunch and to take some pictures at a 900 year old bridge that we had to cross on the way.  Since much of this area is close to rivers that can rise significantly during the wet season, most, if not all of the houses are built on stilts, not stumps, but stilts.  They are very high off the ground and they have walkways built from the front door to the road, which is also elevated from the rivers.

We arrived in Siem Reap and I gathered all of my dirty clothes to get them washed, we all do, as this is the first time that we've had an opportunity to do so since we started this trip.  Most of the others then had a dip in the pool, but I kept them company since I couldn't go in because of the wounds.  It was good to just not be on a bus to be honest.  We all caught up for dinner and headed out into town to check out the markets.  I did a little more shopping as there is so much beautiful hand crafted things here that catch you eye.  Also, some of the group had thought about doing a KK thing since it was close to Christmas and we would exchange gifts on the last night, so I bought that gift too.  Once we were done, we came back to the hotel where Susan, the fiancee of Bryce who fell off his bike about a week ago and sustained similar injuries, offered to re-dress the main wound on my forearm given she had experience doing Bryce's arm in those first few days following his fall.  It was very much appreciated as it would have been very difficult to do myself.
Tomorrow it's back on the bikes to go to Angkor Wat to explore the temples there.  I'm going to stay far away from Simon. ;-)

I didn't get any photos on my phone today, but I did take some of the damage to my helmet from the fall.  My second cracked helmet in four months.  Oh well, better than my skull.