Posts tagged 'Monkeys'

One of the goal I set for myself that I wanted to achieve in my travels was to learn a second language. Years ago, right after living in Europe (where every other person you meet seems to speak 4 languages) I had a go at learning Spanish in Melbourne but I never found the opportunity to practice outside of class and my interest waned. Being in Latin America it seemed like a good time to try again.

On my last day in Siem Reap I decided to rent myself a mountain bike and pedal myself out to the ruins. The flatness of the countryside made riding a little easier, but the heat was certainly challenging. I rode in to Angkor Thom, the largest of all the ancient sites, and headed for the east gate (not the victory gate, which is also on the east wall, which is the one the roads pass through).

The trail leading up to it was rough and bumpy with lots of large rocks and didn't seem like it got too much traffic. Upon reaching the gate, I was met by the spectacular sight of the massive gate poking out of the jungle, without a huge clearing around both sides as all the other gates seem to have. I got off my bike and explored for a bit, and sat down to reapply sunscreen and got hassled by a bunch of butterflies that just kept on landing on me and my stuff, the bullies!