To Town.

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So we biked into Siem Reap yesterday. It took us about 40 minutes to get here (16k away) – at a fairly casual pace – so it’s nice to have that option. Not to mention, it’s much easier to get around town here, we can cover twice as much ground without any money, plus bikes are pretty easy to park.

We had Monday off due to Independence Day, and Tues through Thurs off because of Water festival, so Will and I are taking advantage of this time and having our own little mini vacation in Siem Reap.

We are mostly here for the Water festival. Usually they have really big row boat races (you know with the really long skinny boat and about 20 people rowing it; I’ll try and post a photo of it) – on the Mekong River. The main festival is in Phnom Penh. I guess it’s a really big event and thousands of people go into town to go and watch it.

Being new Peace Corps volunteers, we are not allowed to leave our province for the 1st three months. But – since we are 2 of the 6 lucky volunteers in Siem Reap province, we do get to experience Siem Reap’s version of the water festival.

As we rode into town yesterday, we saw a few teams practicing on the river. One was a whole team of women----- and man were they cookin’. They were moving right along, all in perfect sync – rowing very quickly with precise motions on the very still water. They looked like a machine – the way they were just gliding right along.

Nonetheless it’ll be interesting to see. I’ll write more about it after we witness it, and maybe post a few pics or a video of it if we can get a good spot along the banks of the river.