Cambodia Day 2 (Siem Reap) : Happy Ranch Horse Riding + Red Piano restaurant

5D4N Cambodia Feb 2014 : Siem Reap

Second part of Valentine day was spent with 白马王子!

I almost fainted when she initially suggested to go horse riding 5.30 in the morning.. It was a straight NO answer from me. Either she wants to watch sunrise while riding the horse (I highly doubt so) or she wants to see me fall off from the horse..

Anyway.. We booked our horse riding in the late afternoon 4pm for 2hour countryside trail ride just nice to watch the sunset ^.^ They provide tuktuk services from your hotel but there is no free lunch in this world. U$3 to U$5 each way depending on the distance. They quoted us U$10 both ways but we decided to take Sam tuktuk services as their price was lower (U$7 both way).

I was sharing with my friends earlier that I was hoping to ride a white horse just like the one in Cinderella then she totally crashed my dream by saying I might look like Tang San Zhang from Journey to the West. 

This horse quite cool.

Our horses were getting ready~

Coincidentally, I got what I wanted! 

From left to right: Oli, Diamond, Cisco and Barney 

There was one assistant assigned to each of us to take care of us during the whole ride. My assistant was a little boy who only around 15 years old.

Each horse has their own personality:
Barney likes to be the second in the lead with the tour guide and his horse in front. He is a follower, not a leader.
Cisco is a very lazy horse. No matter how hard my bf kicks or click his tongue to make the horse trots, he got nothing.
Diamond is a cool and calm horse. His eyes only himself and himself. He is not easily distracted by other horses or human being around him.
Oli is a greedy pig. He only moves his butt when there is food. My assistant has to feed him with nearby grass or fruits to lure him to walk.. probably that was why I was arranged to be the last, afraid to prolong the ride from 2 hours to 3 hours.

This horse tour takes us on a journey to unreachable places by tuktuk or walking, eg. local countryside villages, scenic rice fields and tourist-free temple ruins. This is a good way to experience the real Khmer lifestyle and see the places where the locals stay. Some of the Cambodia children were so used of seeing tourists on horses that they do high five with us when passing them.

Our tour guide was sharing stories during the whole ride but he was so far away from me that I could barely hear his voice.

My Oli~

We stopped for 20min at an open field before we return back to the ranch. 

Back to the ranch.

The Happy Ranch

Address: Group 4, Svay Dangkum, Siem Riep Angkor, Kingdom of Cambodia

Web: http://www.thehappyranch.com/ 

2hour countryside trail ride for U$46

We then proceeded to the famous Red Piano for dinner. We made reservation online thinking it will be crowded but it was quite alright. The waitress's attitude was a little unfriendly when I told her we have made reservation online. Either she could not find our online reservation or she could not understand my english or she was having bad hair day. I chose to believe it was the first reason.

This restaurant was famous because of Angelina Jolie went there for filming for Tomb Raider.

It totally tarnished the good reputation of the restaurant for the waiting time and the food quality.

Tomb Raider Cocktail...... it looked like the lime juice in the background but only tasted more fizzy...


The Red Piano
Address: No 341, 50 m Northwest of the Old Market, Svay Dangkom, Mondul I, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Opening hours: 7am to 12.30mn
Web: http://www.redpianocambodia.com/
Email: redpianocambodia@yahoo.com 

We returned to our hotel and went for leg massage again opposite our hotel. This time, the shop blacked out again twice during the massage and the masseuses still continued to massage us like nothing happened...

Angkor literally 

means 

"Darkness Capital City".