Riding on the roof of cars

Trip Start Jan 11, 2005
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Trip End Nov 29, 2005


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Flag of Cambodia  ,
Saturday, October 22, 2005

It is a small little village in the middle of Cambodia. It is about 4 hours from Siam Reap. There is not much to this village. It has one main road and a market place. It will always stand out to me for two reasons. The first happened within an hour of being there. I was with a couple of people exploring the market place when we were crossing the street. Being the last of the four of us, I managed to cross the first half of the street. The second half proved to be a bit tougher as I found a bicycle in front of me and a motorcycle on my right side. I managed to get hit by a motorcycle but it came from the left. Yes, it was turning way early and decided to get into the mix of what moving object was going to hit me. No damage was done, but the group decided I was not allowed to cross the road on my own....for the rest of the tour.

The other great thing about this city is that it is the gateway to some more ancient temples. In its own right, it wouldn't be that exciting of a gateway but the excitement comes from the fact that the temples were over an hour a way and I got to ride on the roof of the minibus. Yes, I was up on top with 5 other people. In between ducking in order not to be knocked off by the trees on the side of the road, we got to wave at little kids and say hello. We also got to hear all of the locals laughing at the crazy barangs on the top of the car.

At the temple, there was a group of about 25 kids that became our tour guides. According to Kun, none of these kids could speak English at the beginning of the year. During our visit, they could tell us what each temple was and some of the details on the walks. It is amazing how much can change over a few months. At the end of the day, they had scarves for us to purchase.

We hopped back up on top of the roof. The way back was much of the same and we had the best seats for a gorgeous sunset.
Kompong Thom hotels

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