I can’t take credit for the title, I wish I could. A bar here beat me to it. And that was probably the biggest surprise of Siem Reap, a small town just outside the ruins of Angkor Wat. We got in late at night and found bucket-sized cocktails, every kind of food imaginable and people literally dancing in the streets. Just debauchery and excess – all of the party poppin’ of Bangkok with none of the overt sex trafficking, mere kilometers from the world’s largest religious monument. It was a surprise. An unwelcome surprise was that despite the balmy 86° weather, it was still cold and flu season, and we were cruelly reminded that the temperature outside alone has no bearing whatsoever on whether you’ll get sick. We got hit hard. It knocked us out for a couple days and we just sort of wallowed in our own filth recuperating. We wanted to bike to the ruins but that’s a hard sell when you’re trying to get over a nasty cold. And who are we kidding, we’re still damn lazy so we compromised and rented a motorbike to get us around. Having never driven a motorbike before, I was immediately hooked. Also, a little concerned, since there wasn’t exactly driver’s ed at the point of sale. Also, this is Asia. It kind of has a rep. Let me be more clear: You know how people say Asians can’t drive? Be honest, people say that shit. I’m not ragging on them, it’s not their fault. Drive a motorbike in Asia sometime and you’ll see. There just aren’t any rules. It is so much fun. We both tried to take a little time and learn how to drive, I think we did pretty well. Though when Shefali dropped it, it was too heavy for her to pick up, so I did most of the driving after that. Also, I’m… let’s just say less risk-averse in certain situations, which actually comes in really handy when you’re driving somewhere that has no speed limit, infrequent signaling and optional lane assignments. We actually extended another day to see more of the ruins, and to be honest I probably wouldn’t have bothered if my chubby ass had already pedaled around for an entire day. It was a lot of ground to cover, I feel like we still had to leave a lot for next time.
Vijay
[1] http://www.flickr.com/photos/97388931@N08/sets/72157640638128385/