Days 5 & 6 – Siem Reap

#Cambodia #travel #adventure

I’m writing this as we start out on a 7 bus journey to Phnom Penh, the county’s capital city. We’ve just had two fantastic days in Siem Reap, exploring some of the most amazing temples Asia has to offer, including the one that most of are here to see, and the most famous, Angkor Wat.

The first morning saw us leave the hotel early to avoid the worst of the rush hour traffic, that said, there was still enough going on to keep you on your toes and not let your guard down for a second. We also had the pleasure of a proper off road section, that took us through a leafy village, covered in banana trees. It was gorgeous. The ground is really sandy, despite all the lush vegetation and those deep sandy patches can easily catch you out if you’re not paying attention. It was so nice to get off the tarmac for a while, being a mountain biker, I’m not in my natural environment here and it feels quite odd at times. The roads are not in great shape though, as you can probably imagine, so despite all the tarmac you wouldn’t want to be on a road bike that’s for sure!

The first temple of the day was the Tomb Raider temple (Ta Prohm) as it has become known these days, due to the fact that the film Tomb Raider was shot here. The trees here have been working hard to reclaim the land and the results are outstanding. The roots are quite literally swallowing the stone, it is fascinating.

Next up was the Elephant Temple, beautiful carved elephants line the outside walls.

We cycled through this archway which was only just wide enough for the smaller buses to get through, even then it was pretty tight.

And from there on to Angkor Thom, the famous Bayon Temple of 37 towers (originally there were 49) topped with the face of the king on all four sides. The height and scale of some of these temples are incredible, and getting up and down the steps is no easy task. This one had some of the tallest and biggest steps yet, fortunately for my knees, they have kindly built some wooden ones round to to one side as an alternative, that are easier to manage. It is also helping to protect the stone, the shear amount of foot traffic going through these places on a daily basis is astounding.

After yet another delicious lunch, we set off to wander around the showstopper that is Angkor Wat. This place is absolutely incredible and did not disappoint. This is the largest temple complex in Asia and it really is massive. The scale of it is huge, and we had a good couple of hours here exploring. Our guide suggested we headed to the top level first, up the steepest set of steps I’ve ever been up. The bloke wasn’t particularly keen on the descent back down again and proclaimed he’d rather ride down them. Fortunately, he managed it, on foot, without landing on his arse or worse, face, because the queue to get up to the top was massive and that would have been spectacularly embarrassing for him. I think we queued for about 15 minutes or so to go up, but it was definitely worth it. The views of the jungle to the outside of the complex were amazing. As we made our way back down and out, we meandered through the passageways that are famous for their carvings depicting various beliefs. These carvings are vast and so well preserved in areas.

After all those steps, I elected to get the bus back to the hotel to give my knees a bit of a rest, and to be honest, I think the heat had got to me today. At least cycling, you get a permanent breeze but the temples are like sun traps and an air conditioned bus was calling.

That evening, our guide Armeen, ushered us in to tuk tuk’s for a bumpy ride across town to a roof top bar for dinner, to celebrate Julias birthday. As its rude to ask a lady her age, we didn’t, but one things for sure, she’ll not forget this birthday in a hurry. Cocktails and cake, with a skyline view of Siem Reap at night. Not bad!

The following morning, or yesterday, (honestly, the days are starting to feel a little blurred now), we headed straight out of town (and out of the main Angkor Wat complex), on the bikes and cycled 35km to Banteay Srei. We cycled through several small towns and stopped to take in some sights, the first being, stuffed barbecued frogs, amongst other goodies, and Pat was straight in there again, he’s always game for it. I on the other hand, was happy to stand back and let them all get on with it, there was plenty of other things to look at and the local kids were keeping me company. They are so smiley, with the most beautiful faces. Many of them like to practise their English, even if they are not trying to sell you something. Many of the villages have set up stalls along the roadside to sell their goods to the tourists. What is amazing is how much sweeping of the dirt goes on, they really take pride in their surroundings and many of the places are extremely clean. But they do have a massive problem with plastic and that is evident in many of the waterways or dumping areas.

One of our stops was at a beautiful village were they made palm sugar and we were given a quick talk on how they extracted it and the products they could make from it. Now that’s one tasting I could get involved with. They had also made lots of small wooden items such as, bowls, spoons and pesel and mortars.

The snacks we have been given all along the way so far, have been both fascinating and tasty. All made from local products such as bananas, coconuts, soy, tapioca and rice. Sweet and carby, perfect for a day in the saddle.

At our first temple of the day, a local policeman tried selling the bloke, along with the other male members of the group, his badge, which made us all chuckle. Apparently he had more of them and it wasn’t a problem. He probably bought a box of them for a dollar. It has become a bit of a joke that everything here costs a dollar. Whenever the kids try to sell you anything, even if it starts out as more, by the time they leave you, it will have become a dollar. Even though they have their own local currency, Riel, they still prefer to take dollars, although they give you change in Riel if it comes to less than a dollar.

Before lunch we visited a temple they refer to as the temple of the women, the carvings here were something else, incredibly detailed and very intricate, leading the men to believe they could have only been carved by women.

After lunch we went on a boat trip to see a floating village. It was fascinating to see a whole village, including schools, workshops, shops, bars (snooker tables included) and a church, all exist on water. And more interesting to find out that the village is divided in two halves, the Cambodians on one side and the Vietnamese on the other. Apparently many floating villagers from Vietnam come to this area but refuse to mix with the Cambodians. We did have a slightly odd experience though when we visited a crocodile farm on water. They breed the crocodiles to make handbags and shoes and the whole thing made most of us feel a wee bit uncomfortable. We did think that if one of them escaped, that might shake things up a bit for the locals. I’m not convinced that’s best idea I’ve seen since I got here, having a floating crocodile farm in the middle of a floating village but who am I to say?!

Then it was back to the hotel for a rare free night. We headed straight to the pool and had dinner in the bar. Ready for a ridiculously early start the next day.