Vietnam Velo Vacation

Day 56 was spent last minute gift shopping at the market and lazing by the pool before our final evening meal with Mr Bun and his family. I had been offended by his wearing of Liverpool,Arsenal and Man U football shirts, so as a parting gift we gave him a proper shirt, a sky blue one. It proved lucky as later that evening City thrashed Man U.  An early start and on the road by 6:30 for our 9:50 flight to Bangkok. The airport is 30 miles from Siem Reap and replaces the original airport on the outskirts of the city. It was opened in October and built and paid for by the Chinese. For Mr Bun it is a disaster as when he built his homestay in 2012 it's main attraction was it was close to the old airport. Now he is on the wrong side of the city and it's airport. Many locals are unhappy about the location of the airport. The road to the airport was virtually empty and the airport itself was similarly empty and left us worrying that we had the wrong time or that the airport had been clo...

 Breakfast courtesy of the hotel- coffee french bread & jam and bananas. Packed our bags for our room move later. Strolled over to pub street for our 10 am cooking course. We were the only 2 doing it. Quick visit to the market to show us different herbs and veg and then down to chopping for what seemed like ages. Chilli. Onion. Tumeric (never seen it fresh before), garlic, veg etc. I made a mango salad, veg amok. Pete made fresh spring rolls and a curry and desert was bananas and mango. It was all very very delicious. So full we brought a goody bag back.  Our new room was ready and so much nicer. Bright white, good layout, light with a balcony overlooking the pool. Spent most of the afternoon by the pool reading and watching the younger generation have fun. My bike was picked up by a tuk tuk to be taken to a bus and then transported back to Banlung for BeeBee. Very sad to see it go.  Finished our left overs from the cooking course and ventured to Pub street. Still a b...

 Pancakes, fruit and coffee for breakfast chez Mr Bun and then packed our gear up for our last cycle with panniers to a central hotel in Siem Reap that I booked back in December.  Waited for the girls to finish morning school to say goodbye, although we are dropping Pete's bike off there tomorrow afternoon and staying for a meal so will see them again,  and set off. Our room at Blossoming  Roundel Boutique was very depressing- dull orange, dark, little view! Very disappointing as the photos had looked so good! We counted up the money we had left - thought it was plenty for 2 days but then bought 2 Man City shirts for Mr Bun and Champion, in the market,  a case of beer to take them and lunch out and that was us just about wiped out!  Lazy afternoon by the pool and saw what looked like much nicer rooms with balconies. Enquired and for $2 more per night, we could move into one the next morning.  Booked onto a cookery course for tomorrow in pub street- yep...