Siem Reap - Quad Adventure Tours

3/27/2012 7:54 PM

As many people know, for the past few days I’ve been feeling a bit bummed. I find this tends to happen when I become static in one place for too long. I don’t have enough time to go to Phnom Pen, limiting me to the Siem Reap area with a few too many days with nothing to do. Today, I opted to try something new; forget the sightseeing; forget being a tourist for a few days and just have fun. I think it is just what I needed because tonight I am ecstatic. This morning I woke up with few plans in mind other than I knew I needed to get some work done on my registration. I was up at about 6 AM this morning, so I was finished by that time around 9 AM. Of course, before doing anything I picked up a few cans of iced coffee and a nice croissant (there’s a really good bakery next door to my hotel….. fresh croissants are like 20 cents!). So with my registration done I decided to go out and wander around the old market. This is not entirely a tourist site as the locals do shop here, but some bargaining is definitely needed if you are of pale skin; a skill, I must say, I have became rather good at. 

I picked up a few odds and ends; some stuff to bring back home and headed back to my hotel. What I didn’t realize until this morning was that my hotel has free booklets on things to do in Siem Reap…. Yes, I know, I’m stupid for not realizing it earlier. Anyways, there was something in it called SkyVenture, which is a company owned by an American who takes you on tours of the Angkor area in an ultralight aeroplane. So I took a tuk-tuk out to the airstrip, upon arrival, I was notified that he was unfortunately not flying this month due to paper-work problems with the government. 

Finally, my Tuk-tuk driver asked where I wanted to go instead, so I told him to take me to the hot air balloon. This is not your traditional hot air balloon; instead it is tethered to the ground and goes straight up to about 180 M. It’s a $15 ride so I figured I might as well do it and see the world from a different perspective. It was cool. Not amazing, I’m not sure I would recommend it to anyone, but it was fun nonetheless.

My  Tuk-tuk driver took me back to my hotel where I chilled out for a bit, went for lunch; had a bowl of noodle soup…. Pretty much all I’ve been eating in the last few days. So I came back to my hotel and was looking through said tourist booklet again and found Quad Adventure Tours. 

This is a company that organizes trips from a few hours to a few days on ATV’s. It was pretty cheap, so I opted to do the “sunset tour”. I had my personal guide, so straight off I pretty much told him I had no interest in seeing the sunset as I’ve done it many times before from far more spectacular places: instead I told him to take me off the beaten track. He was more than happy to do this. 

So we spent a couple hours literally speeding through rice fields, little villages, over bridges. One could compare the trails to a Jeep trails I guess…. Not that Jeeps exist here. Anyways this was SO much fun. So much fun in fact that I meeting the same driver tomorrow afternoon to do a much longer trip all afternoon. I am SO excited.

I guess what I’ve come to realize while traveling for such a long period of time is that sometimes you need to forget where you are and just go and have fun… even if it takes a few days. Right now, I am so excited about tomorrow and the rest of my trip. I have, unfortunately, begun to countdown the days until I have to return home. As much as I miss home, I think I could stay a few more months.

All for now, Gotta get the pics up!