Day 680 - Biking the banks of the Mekong

With nothing much to do in town we hired a couple of motorbikes and headed north, following the Mekong River along bumpy roads that are home to many small villages. Our first stop of the day was as Sampong Temple - a temple on top of a mountain that provided splendid views out over green, tree-lined fields and out over the Mekong. After checking out the temple we sat down for a cold drink and "chatted" with the drink ladies while our sweat pooled at our feet! So without much convincing we were soon back on the bikes with the wind in our faces. Kratie is famous for being a good place for spotting river dolphins, so we stopped off to check out how much it would cost for a boat ride out to see them. Unfortunately the price for foreigners has tripled since our guidebook was written, which would have left us short on necessary funds to complete the day. So, plan B was created and we motored a further 20km north and deeper into village life. We wanted to visit a riverside market/picnic/swimming spot, but they wanted to charge us 4 times the price of the ticket - curse these white faces of ours!!!

As we rode north we enjoyed watching New Year's celebrations going on in every village - all the villagers get together in one place and blare music from a wall of speakers. Our particular favourite was the party at a temple with little kids dancing away to terrible American hip-hop!!
We ended up at the biggest temple in Cambodia - famous for its 108 pillars, where we enjoyed watching people get their fortunes told by the monks inside, while youngsters played a jandal-kicking, money-betting game!!! Across from the temple we got our first good Cambodian meal, while we lazed in hammocks overlooking the river. Adam got fresh meat noodle soup, while Liv had a delicious egg pancake filled with sprouts, peanuts, and cucumber. All this was washed down with an icy sugarcane juice!
Before heading home we detoured down a dirt track and found ourselves on a wide sandy bank that slipped into the muddy Mekong - though not muddy enough to prevent us from diving in for a swim. The only other stops on the way home was for fresh coconuts and to check out the sunset that was burning its image onto the glassy Mekong.

Adlibing good Cambodian food - finally!!