This week for my long bike ride out of the city I decided to try something new, have a destination. I rode to Uodong, a small mountain about 25 miles north of the city that has various temples dedicated to different kings. Since I live on the Southern boarder of the town I had to ride all the way across town to get to highway 5. Traffic was a little more hectic than usual because the campaigning has kicked off for the upcoming election.
Once I got out of Phnom Penh the ride was nice. Just on the Northern outskirts of Phnom Penh there is a Large Muslim community that I passed through. Lots of Mosques and women in Muslim clothing. I think only about 5% of Cambodia is Muslim. The land is so flat I could see the tiny mountain I was going to for the majority of the ride, making it seem a lot closer than it actually was.
Once I got near the Mountain I took a short cut on a red tree lined dirt road, very beautiful. The temples were nice, but not over impressive. I climbed to the top of the Mountain and stayed for a little over an hour. I later found out that some of Buddha's ashes are in the one of the temples. A kid who spoke decent English showed me around a little bit. I thought he was just trying to practice English but then at the end he hit me up for cash, what a disappointment.
I stopped at a restaurant and had some good spicy noodle soup with pork for a buck. This way by far the longest I have ridden in a day and I was pretty soar on the way back. When I got to volunteer house I knew what I had to do, get a Thai massage. I haven’t had a massage since I have been here on this trip, but I know a really good place next door to the hotel I stayed at when I came here with CSULB. I figured I had peddled enough for one day so I took a moto taxi to the spa. At $8 for a hour it is more expensive then the other massages places in town, but I have tried a few of the others and none of them compare.
After the massage I felt like a new man, completely revitalized. I jumped on a moto back to the house where we were having a party. We had a BBQ to celebrate Nev’s 63rd birthday. Nev is one of the volunteers that doesn’t live at the house. He is an interesting and great man. He is an Australian Vietnam Vet, and he is damn hard to describe, he is a true original. He is one of the most generous people I have ever met in my life, just this week he and one of his friends bought a top of the line refrigerator for the volunteer house.
In true form Nev showed up with tons of liquor for the party. I think we all felt bad because it we were trying to throw him a party and he obviously spent more money then all of us. But that is just the type of person Nev is.
El vino did flow. Everyone had a good time, the food was great. A perfect end to a perfect day.
