- Vely Dangeles -
This was another day over 38 C.
As we were getting our bikes ready, I started to get some verbal exchange going with who I believe were the cleaning women. They were hanging out in where our bikes were stored. They were trying hard to help me.
It’s funny their language is so tonal that you can say all the correct syllables and vowels, but if you don’t change the tone of your word, it could be totally wrong. You cannot be shy when trying to speak their language. You must make the intonations correctly or you might be trying to say “water” and they might hear “zebra”. I used whatever I could of the Lonely Planet Guide’s language section. Some of the wording was kinda small, so I photographed them and would show the words to someone on my camera (zoomed in) and it really helped.
Breakfast was at the same outdoor food court that we went to the night before. It did not seem apparent to me that the menu was different. Again I had veggies and some meat on white rice. We also had some fruit. I was a bit nervous of it because it was already cut. It’s always risky to eat fruit that has been cut by the locals. One will often have to hope that the bacteria on the knives and serving dishes etc, don’t have enough bacteria to harm you. It’s best to peel your own fruit.
Today the route was a bit more hilly as we continued east. We also had to buck a head wind. Ward did a great job drafting for us. We did not ride fast. We roughly rode at 20-25 km per hour. I liked that the road had kilometer stones. We could not read the name of the city, but the numbers were Arabic. AM’s butt and mine still hurt. I put on a good helping of Vaseline.
Seems that all vendor’s buildings had some type of shrine to Buddha I believe (Buddism is quite predominant here). And there were signs that people were getting ready for the Chinese new year, which I think was on January 26 of our calendar.
At one point we made a right turn onto what I think was Hwy 359. The traffic dropped noticeably and I really wasn’t all that bad in the first place. I remember though, being frustrated with those trucks/busses that had those real loud honks – kinda like those things they use at hockey games. As we headed east, the surroundings seemed to be getting a bit more green. I drank more Fanta to stay cool at a roadside stop. A very helpful man told us that the road to Poipet is “Vely dangeles”. It took me a moment to figure out that he was telling us that it was very dangerous.
Near the end we made a left turn (north) which took us an even lower traffic road. We passed by a lovely looking little village only a kilometer or so before Sa Kaeo. There was sometime about the home structures and vegetation that enchanted me. It only took one minute to ride past. I wish I stopped and took a photo.
We decided to stay the night at the second hotel that we checked out. If I remember right, the cost was $20/room. Again the rooms were quite adequate and clean.
People often had their faces covered. I think it was to keep from getting a dark tan. Also people wore what looked like surgeon masks. I think maybe because of the pollution.
Unlike the night before, we first cleaned up before heading out for dinner. In the dark (sundown was roughly 6:15-6:30pm – and sun up about 12 hours later). We headed across the street and were not sure what or how to order. There was raw looking meat/seafood behind a glass counter, but couldn’t really figure it out. A very busy looking man/waiter eventually came to us. We pointed to “what they were having” and we had it. Whatever it was was pretty spicy hot. I hung in there, but definitely did not fill my tummy.
When we returned to the hotel, Anna-Marie encouraged us all to have a Thai massage. So Ward and I complied while Jacky decided to catch up on some journaling.
The massages costed 300b for 2 hours (about 9 bucks). They came to our rooms. Two in our room and one in AM’s. I said that I wanted the one in the pink top. Anyway, it was an interesting experience. My masseuse turned on the TV to a soccer match.
Ward and I stripped down to our undies. When my masseuse started on my feet, she started gagging. She took me to the bathroom and washed my feet! The hilarity of the situation overcame my embarrassment. When she got started, she got her whole body into it. She was doing leg presses on my quads. She also stood on me sometimes. Sometimes I’d hear Ward groan in pleasure – then in pain. At one point her feet were very close to my hands, so I thought – “what the heck” – and started massaging her feet. She didn’t not argue. Then a few times she seems interested in my nipples and flicked them. The other masseuse also came and flicked my nipple too. I did not understand, but it was fun. And at one point where it was at a relaxing point, I fell asleep. Ward did not call me to wake me up and I guess the masseuse was OK with it.
We paid them and gave a tip. $15 each in total. I might have been too generous. I got a kiss on the cheek.
AM told us that her massage was pretty good, but when her masseuse stopped after an hour AM said, “Hey, I’m paying you for two hours”. The masseuse did not want to continue, but AM insisted. So her masseuse started to be really brutal. She stood on her back and yanked her arms back, and did weird and aggressive pulls on her neck to the point where AM submitted and said, “OK fine we’re finished”. I know that you could drop a house on AM’s back and it would not disturb her, so if AM submitted, I truly believe the woman must have been brutal to her.
AM and I tried to explore the street but it was kind of quiet, so we just shared a beer outside on the hotel steps. I noticed some moquitoes for the first time.
0 comments:
Post a Comment