Rest Day Siem Reap: Bike tour of Angkor

December 27, 2006

We get up about six and get the bikes ready to ride to the temples. On the way out we buy two small baguettes and we have a jar of nutella for a picnic breakfast at Angkor Wat.

We get to the temple moat just as the sun rises. While Rachel watches the bikes, Patrick hurries down the causeway to get to the Northern reflection pool and see the towers of Angkor Wat reflected in the water with the rising sun behind it. A couple hundred other people have the same idea. We eat our baguettes with Nutella and talk with a Singapore guy that rode his motorbike out here.

Then we head to the South gate of Angkor Thom and ride to the Bayon.

Patrick walks to the East side to get more pictures of the beautiful faces in the morning light. North of the Bayon is a series of temples and monuments that we visit next. First, the temple Baphuon that is still under restoration. It is being dismantled for reconstruction when the Khmer Rouge hit and the records were lost. Next to it is the terrace of the elephants with nice bas reliefs on its walls. Across the road is a series of towers of Prasat Suor Prat.

Next is the Terrace of the Leper King with more beautiful reliefs and then off in the jungle the Preah Palilay temple overgrown with some trees sprouting from its base. We exit Angkor Thom through the victory gate on the east side and head for Ta Prohm, a huge temple ruin still covered in jungle. We have lunch at a food stall and there first meet a tuk tuk driver that talks us into hiring him for tomorrow to see some of the temples further out on the "big Circuit". Today's route that we are cycling is known as the "small Circuit."

We also buy a guide book to the temple from a boy and then are besieged for a while by small poor children trying to sell postcards, bracelets, books and so on. They are great kids, acting disappointed and even mad when you buy from someone else, but full of humor and street smarts. They can count in five different languages, know the States of America and Capitals of European countries. A couple of girls know "Kijken, kijken niet kopen" (Dutch for "just looking, not buying") and when we say, "sorry not interested," the come back is "sorry doesn't cut it".

We leave our bikes locked up at the food stall and wander through Ta Prohm for a couple of hours. Inside the temple Rachel recognizes the signs on a couple who must be cyclists; the tell tale tans and handlebar bag as a purse. We meet a Dutch couple, living in Singapore, that are cycling in Cambodia. They have cycled Lhasa to Kathmandu earlier this year, since that is on our route, we enjoy hearing their great stories. We arrange to meet them tonight at seven at the "Red Piano" restaurant where we also hope to meet Thomas again.

We ride back to Siem Reap after a good day of temple viewing, clean up, burn all the pictures to a DVD and relax. When we check our email Thomas still has not responded so we only meet with Joost and Remke. We have Indian food and talk about bicycle touring and travel. They lived and travelled in Chile and give us great info on Tibet.

Baphuon Temple, built in the 11th century, dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. In the 15th century it was converted to a Buddhist temple.

Preah Palilay, built as a Buddhist temple in 12th century

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