Kampong Cham

In the morning, the owner of my homestay, Tohl, took me for a tuk tuk tour of the local area. Our first stop was Cheung Kok Ecotourism Village, a village where locals are still able to go about their daily lives, but with sustainable tourism brought inas a way to earn a little additional money. I'm not sure if it was because it was off season, but the place was dead, not even any locals around and couldn't really work how the ecotourist aspect of it worked. Was nice for a 10 minute walk, but saw more of local life yesterday cycling around the island.
Next stop was mountains Phnom Srey and Phnom Pros, named woman and man mountain, which are really not that high so are more hills haha. Origin of these ' mountains' was a competition organised between men and women in the area to determine who of the two should propose marriage. One mountain was made by men, and the other by women. They had one day to build, and whoever built the highest hill would become the winner. The loser would be the one to ask for the opposite side’s hand in marriage. The competition would end when the Sirius Star rose. The women lit a lantern high on the hill, so that when the men saw the light, they mistook it for Sirius and stopped building.
Women mountain has a steep staircase leading up to the temple at the top, which was not fun in the scorching heat. At the 'summit' there were a series of quaint shrines and small buildings. The interiors were painted beautifully, and even though a lot of paint had chipped off, it still looked so pretty.
Man mountain you could drive right up to, but when we got there, there was a police officer trying to charge $10 to look around (even though it's free) so we just moved on.
Tohl then took me to a rogue place which was an outdoor venue, which was decorated bizarrely and looked like it could hold a huge party for thousands of people. I didn't eat at the restaurant, but the garden was fun to look around, even if it was a bit random.
Final stop of the day was the oldest temple in the province, Nokor Bachey Pagoda. The small central temple dates back to the 11th century, built around it is a complex of smaller religious buildings and huge family shrines. It was really cool to look around.
We arrived back at the homestay just after midday, and I didn't head back out til late afternoon. I cycled down to an old french colonial lighthouse, down through town and across a huge bridge. This bridge nearly killed me off; there was a steady incline which seemed to last for miles (over dramatic) and my cycling fitness is atrocious. The lighthouse itself wasn't much to look at, but inside was a series of extremely steep metal ladders. They were very scary to climb up, but got a lovely view at the top!
I then met the Aussie dude for dinner in town, then navigated the pot hole ridden roads back home in the dark!Baca selengkapnya