cycles and bikes

I know that I am in Asia when cycles and bicycles are more plentiful than cars or trucks. Two or three people at a time ride cycles, often carrying bundles, packets, or whatever. One I saw today had three people carrying a clothes rack and last night one was a two people cycle but the second person was sitting on a bed frame balanced on the back of the cycle; how do they do that? [In the photo note the gorgeous flame tree in the background. Spring has arrived here so the flowers are wonderful.] While walking along, 'tuktuk' drivers, or taxi drivers constantly offer us rides to show us the city and women offer us massages for foot, hand, or whole body. So far we have resisted though the massages sound great to my 'try to sleep in the airplane' neck. 'Tuktuks' seem to be made to carry 2-6 people but more can be stuffed in. The local ones are powered by motorcycles not leg power.

The other sure sign of Southeast Asia is the 'tuktuk'. While out for lunch today, I, Mary got us lost. Usually I keep track of direction but I forgot one turn so rather than walking in the wrong direction any further, we hired a 'tuktuk'. Unfortunately, the driver didn't really know where he was going and tried delivering us to the wrong hotel. Fortunately, Mark tried again to give him the card from the hotel with a map on the back (since neither Mark or I speak the local language). The second time he really looked at the map and we arrived in no time. I had just missed a right turn and we had walked past our hotel on the backside. My mistake cost us U$2.

I wish that I had a photo of when our tuktuk driver pulled out and traveled on the wrong side of the street for awhile until he could move to the correct side. I think that we should rent a bicycle but Mark thinks it would be hazardous to our health. Once again as in Thailand, I think things like lanes of traffic, speed limits, and one-way streets are just suggestions for few cycles and bicycles adhere to such rules.

A friend of ours who works for TEAR [The Evangelical Alliance for Relief] just returned from visiting Cambodian TEAR partners (they work with the poorest of the poor) and he told us about the gas/ petrol stations. Now I have seen it with my eyes. Plastic or glass bottles filled with gasoline/petrol on racks along the side of the street along with the large funnels are ready to fill the cycle tank. As in parts of Korea, footpaths or sidewalks are not just for people but are excellent parking spaces for cars, trucks, and cycles.

It only took us 24 hours, door to door, to get here but that included several stops that we didn't expect [our ticket said one stop]. We had a 1 1/2 hours in Brisbane where we picked up more passengers. Then the 5 hour scheduled stop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and a change of plane before the 1 hour stop over in Phnom Pehn and finally getting to Siem Reap.

Last night we decided to have supper/tea in the hotel for it showered on and off during the whole meal. We had a delightful four course French meal with tasty breads (must have been the French influence like in Vietnam) for U$15 each. So today we were a bit more adventurous and found the Happy Special Pizza Restaurant which also served Khmer food. The Khmer food was bland compared to the Korean food we had for three weeks but inexpensive, only U$6.50. This type of shop lines the streets around the old city market area. Even though the humidity is very high the fans created a breeze so that our repast was consumed comfortably.