In the morning Paul left to Singapore and then Mariana took a bus to Battambang. The three of us left, spent the rest of the day chilling and shopping and in the evening we had a fish feet massage. Andre left as well late that night, the next morning Aline took a bus to Battambang, where she reunited with Mariana for a while, and later I left to Vietnam. This was a very personal story which may not have a special significance for anyone other than me, but it’s a story I had to write down and share while it was still fresh…

We rented the bikes right from the hostel, very cheap, but they were really old bikes with lots of problems. We managed to make them work somewhat, with a few tweaks and some air pumped into the tires and left at about noon. That day we rode separately. Paul left early in the morning, I rode with Aline and Andre went with Mariana. We didn’t see Paul all day, but we met with the others later and had lunch together and then we spent the rest of the day exploring the surroundings. After catching the sunset at Angkor Wat, we headed back towards the city. Cycling after dark wasn’t…

After a quick refresh at the hostel, we went out looking for a place to have some dinner. Me and Aline were a little bit behind the rest of the group and, while we walking to rejoin the others, Aline got tricked into the infamous powdered milk scam. We were approached by a young mother, with a helpless look on her face, carrying an infant and an empty baby bottle: “My baby is hungry” she plead, “I’m not asking for money, just formula for my baby.” I suspected something fishy and I think the whole scene triggered off something in my subconscious mind (something I’ve read on the Internet or have seen…

The next morning, after a quick breakfast, we squeezed all 5 of us in the back of Kong’s tuk-tuk and headed out to explore more of Angkor’s wonders. As it turned out that Kong wasn’t a better guide than our previous driver, we decided to designate Mariana as our guide book reader. In real life she works as an interpreter and translator, therefore she was perfect for the job. Her English very good and she also speaks German. As a matter of fact, I was approached in German by German speaking people several times, because we probably seemed to be all Germans: “Hallo wie geht es? Gut,…

We started the 3-day Angkor tour, very early in the morning to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. We rented a tuk-tuk for the day and explored the Khmer ruins on what is called the “big circle”. In the afternoon, we decided to veer off the beaten path and after a bit of negotiation with our driver, we headed east towards Phnom Bok hill, with a prasat (temple) of the same name built on it. There was a bit of a hiking path up to the top and  as the afternoon heat was at its climax, we burnt some calories and we got soaked with sweat by the top. Up there, on the top…

You may wonder why I named this post “Fried Friends…” which may sound a little weird. Well, I borrowed this title from a mistranslated menu in Cambodia on which instead of “french fries” is was written “fried friends”. We laughed so much about it so that eventually has stuck into our minds and we used to repeat the words and giggle. More than two weeks had passed since I left Vietnam, when another serendipitous event had happen, leading to some utterly charming and enjoyable time that I will not forget for a long time. Even though I never hold out too much hope to reunite with any of the people I meet on the…