Lost On A Bike: Siem Reap

Arrived 17/5/2011

Which way would you go to get to Phnom Penh? Head east?

Or head West?

Day one from Battambang to Siem Reap was a biggy. Arrived at my initial destination quicker than expected so thought I’d continue on and find somewhere 10km or so down the road. 50km later and some reasonably smashed legs I found a guesthouse, the only one before Siem Reap I reckon. Most of that afternoon I kept thinking about the ferry ride I should have taken!!! Slow but relaxing. Oh well I ended up coming across a couple of cycle tourists so there was a payoff for the long slog. One of these guys was Mike Schademan who was heading for Siem Reap that day. I was wasted enough and wasn’t going to be able to make it that far so we parted with intentions to meet up in Siem Reap.

Day two was made much smaller from the long day previous which was good because my legs didn’t want to pedal. Siem Reap emerged and is a full on city, bustling with tourists which is both nice to meet people but also very in your face and I starting missing the peacefulness of small towns.

So I caught up with Mike and we partyed to the wee hours at the Angkor What? Bar (see what they did there) with its great range of pop music and I think cheap beers. Mike got some local rocket fuel so mixing that in you didn’t need many beers anyway! Yarned away for ages and exchanged stories but he has a lot more than me! He has been going for something around 2 years and the stories he had were incredible. He started in New York and is making a slow track around the world. He has a budget of next nothing and has progressed from home stays to sleeping in a tent to now sleeping in a hammock wherever he may end up – middle of a jungle, side of the road or invited into a local’s house. He has a great belief in himself and peace about what he is doing, nothing fazes him anymore. He has waded out a case of malaria in the middle of nowhere in Borneo, I would not be a fan of that!

The Temples:

Angkor Wat Sunrise

There are so many around the Siem Reap province it’s not funny. This place back in its hay day use to be a big city of something around 1 million people with a large number of

I had sorted myself a tuk tuk for the day starting with the sunrise at Angkor Wat – after too many rocket fuelled beers the night before. An early start and when I got up it was pouring down. I went out to meet my driver and I couldn’t see him so I just headed back to bed and had a nice big sleep in thinking he would have thought it was too wet to go anyway. Well I saw him later that day and he said he had waited for me until midday… whoops. I had already paid him so don’t think he would too mad and we arranged it again for the next day.

Where there's a sunrise people will flock to it!

The staircases - you have walk sideways
down them

Clear day, 5:15am we arrive at the ticket office… and I have forgotten my wallet. We putt-putted back to the guest house with every minute passing it getting lighter and lighter. I think I missed the initial part of the sunrise but I still managed to see some of it. The next 10 hours it was temples galore. A long day wondering around all the temples (well the ones I saw anyway) but having a tuk tuk to take me around was a saviour as I could have some sneaky naps between sites. There were moments of it’s just another temple but each temple has its own character and uniqueness and then there is age 1000+ years! A difference in carvings, size, layout, design, how many stupidly steep staircases you could put in, it was all just incredible really. Being able to walk through and touch these pieces of history was an amazing feeling. Seeing them up close and personal gave me a huge appreciation of the unfathomable work force, time and precision put into constructing them.

One that I visited looks completed but apparently it got close then it was found the sun didn’t pass through one of the towers so it was abandoned. You’d be gutted after sooooo much work. They should have spent some gold on a surveyor!

Angkor Thom - Bayon Temple

The Budda face carvings all over Bayon

The row of Khleangs - 7 all up I think

Although Angkor Wat is the most famous temple my two favourites were Ta Prohm and Banteay Srei.

Ta Prohm is known for a whole lot of trees growing through it (and where Tombraider was filmed) largely causing it to collapse but making it look cool in the process. Succumbing to nature even though it is destroying history.

Banteay Srei was a very small temple but had incredibly intricate carving details all over it and the whole area was a rich orange colour – different to all the other temples. Also being so much smaller you felt you could take longer looking around and it made you appreciate it more.

On my way back from all the temple viewings I stopped in at the Cambodian Landmine Museum. Previously it was a couple of shacks then it got some recognition and they built a proper museum - well close to anyway. The walls were filled with stories of young kids and those who fought in the war against the Khmer Rogue and their encounters with landmines. It changed so many people's lives and they continue to take lives today. the number of unaccounted for landmines in Cambodia is scary! You don't want to be ploughing a farm in the back lands.