A few days around Siem Reap

December 29, 2016 to January 1, 2017

Thursday

I switched guest houses this morning. The one I was in, the European Guesthouse, wasn't terrible, but the room was dark and dingy, and didn't include things I would expect like bottled water and soap, and didn't have Wi-Fi in the room. It has a swimming pool, and I suppose that's how it justified the $15 price, but other $15 places are nicer with better amenities.

I moved to Seven Candles Guest House. It had the advantage of having a room available, which other places with decent reviews did not, but at a higher price of $22/night. The guest house supports a foundation that helps keep Cambodian kids in school, provides books, and generally supports education, so I feel good about that. The staff are friendly and helpful, too. I even borrowed a floor pump and added air to my bike tires.

I spent several hours today in The National Museum. It's quite good, if somewhat too big, and I think will provide a good foundation for my upcoming visit to Angkor Wat.

I had contacted a Warmshowers host here in Siem Reap for advice when I was trying to figure out how best to get to Siem Reap. I'm having dinner with him and his family tonight.

Friday, December 30

Dinner last night was fun, but also chaotic, as most things seem to be here. Seyha picked me up at the guest house, and drove to his home, about 5 km outside of town. The roads are red dirt and bumpy! He is newly wed, and his wife and mother cooked dinner. He has a 13 year old boy from Laos staying with him over the holiday. His brother is travelling for work, so his sister-in-law and young niece were there. And his father. Dinner was informal, with people coming and going from the table, consisting of fried rice noodles which were cooked with some scallions and something else green, with a light peanut sauce, some fried spring rolls, and some palm fruit for desert. It's the first time I've had palm fruit. It wasn't too sweet, and I only made a small mess peeling it and dripping juice. I didn't stay too long, but we agreed to do a bike tour of Angkor Wat and some of the other temples today. Seyha's business is a tour company, Goshen Adventures, and is highly rated.

So this morning I was up before the crack of dawn, for a pick up. We would be biking later on, but to avoid an even earlier start and a ride in the darkness, we drove to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise. That's on a lot of "must do" lists for travellers. It was something I could have missed out. It was a mob scene

And the sun didn't rise so much as it just got light out.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat was a bit of a disappointment.

I understand that the sunrise is best during the hot season.

The day got better from there. I walked through Angkor Wat with Sukha, my guide for the day, admiring the bas relief on the walls that just goes on and on. Angkor Wat and most of the temples in the historical park were built as Hindu temples, so contain lots of Hindu imagery, but were converted to Buddhist temples when the Cambodian monarchy converted. That was back in the 1200's, give or take.

I climbed to the second level, and then the third level.

Lots of steep stairs to the upper levels at Angkor Wat.

Visitors are limited to 15 minutes on the 3rd level, with only 100 people at a time. This is to limit the stress on the structure! The view makes the wait to get up there, and the climb up the stairs, worthwhile.

After seeing Angkor Wat, we had some breakfast. There is no shortage of restaurants and other vendors nearby. Then we got the bikes out of the truck and got them set up. I had agreed to use one of Seyha's mountain bikes, as we would be off road quite a bit.

We rode short sections of tarmac, some dirt road and some single track. It was quite sandy in places, and I lost traction in the sand a few times.

The first stop was Ta Prohm Temple. This is one of the temples that still has tree roots wrapped around some structures, collapsed buildings that are piles of stones, and general decay. Some people call it the "Temple of Doom" in reference to the Indiana Jones movie.

At Ta Prohm Temple there are lots of tree roots that have damaged the structures. This is one of the "Indiana Jones Temple of Doom" temples.

Ta Phrom Temple, lots of piles of stone not yet restored.

Restoration is in process for part of this temple.

Next stop was Ta Nei Temple, also mostly unrestored.

Sukho let me wander around these temples on my own, as he sat and watched the bikes. He had not brought a lock, and didn't want to leave them unattended. I'm really not sure of the risk, but it would be a real problem if they disappeared and left us stranded.

After Ta Nai Temple we got onto some trails that seemed more remote. We crossed the river on a bridge that was part of a dam structure. Sukho emphasised that it had been built by the French. I was disappointed that it is not used for hydroelectric power.

We crossed the river at a dam, built by the French. This controls the water flow in the Siem Reap River.

On a nice smooth section of dirt road, we paused to take some action photos.

Then we continued on to Preah Khan Temple. I'll admit I was getting sort of temple-overload at this point, but it was an interesting temple, built by the king to honor his father. Supposed his father's ashes were kept there.

Preah Khan Temple, another "Temple of Doom".

The bas relief, even on the temples that have not been restored, is remarkable.

Lastly, we went to Bayon Temple, back at the more heavily visited section of the historical park. Bayon Temple has an elephant field, called appropriately Elephant Terrace, where they used to have elephant fights. The story is that only the elephants who won the fights were taken to war. The losing elephants were left for tasks like dragging the stones from the quarry to build the temples.

The field at Bayon Temple where the elephants used to fight. It's decorated with elephants, both sculptures and has relief.

Bayon Temple was built as a Buddhist temple, unlike the others we had visited, which had been built as Hindu temples.

After Bayon, we rode back to the restaurants near Angkor Wat and had some lunch. It was late for lunch, but the restaurant was crowded with some large groups, and we waited a long time for our food. Then, with full stomachs, we rode back to town, to Seyha's tour agency to leave the bikes, and Sukho gave me a lift back to my guesthouse.

It had been a full day.

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Saturday, Decemmber 31

In contrast with yesterday, today has been a quiet day. I had breakfast at the guesthouse, and then walked into town. I visited Wat Preah Prom Rath, which is a modern wat, but has an interesting story related to it's founding, in 1500 AD. There was a monk who used to travel by boat to ask for food. One day sharks attacked his boat and it was split in two. The piece that he was on moved across the water so fast that it did not sink, and came ashore. The wat was founded at the site he came ashore. The piece of boat was used to make a reclining Buddha, which is behind the main Buddha at the wat. There was a funeral in process when I was there, and I didn't want to intrude , so I didn't see the reclining Buddha, but the wat was interesting even without seeing it.

A boat to acknowledge the story of the wat.

There were a lot of murals on the wall surrounding the wat that depicted the life off the Buddha.

Beyond that, I wandered around town, told a lot of tuk tuk drivers that no, I did not want a tuk tuk, visited the tourist office to ask some questions, had some really good french pastries, and relaxed at the guesthouse. Seyha is expecting some other cyclists today who will be staying with him, and I'm joining them for dinner tonight.

Sunday, January 1. Happy New Year!

There was a small crowd for dinner last night. In addition to Seyha and his family, There was me, a mother/daughter pair that had booked a bike tour of the temples for the next day but were not experienced cyclists, and a Swiss couple who had just arrived on their bikes from the Laos border at the north that I wasn't confident enough to ride. The daughter of the mother/daughter pair was a real talker so it was difficult to get a word in, and I really didn't get a chance to talk with the swiss cyclists. The crowd in the Old Market and Pub Street area was insane, and we got paralyzed in traffic trying to get back to the guest house.

This morning I walked down to Pub Street. There was a big clean up effort in process. It's interesting to see that the tourist areas get cleaned up, but that a small residential alley without any tourist infrastructure has trash piled up. I also stopped by Wat Preah Prom Rath again and got a look at the main Buddha and at the reclining Buddha supposedly made from the wood of the boat in the legend.

The reclining Buddha is supposedly made from the wood of the boat that saved the monk by racing ashore after it had been broken in two pieces by a shark.

In the afternoon I took a tour to Kompong Pluk, a floating village. I booked the tour through the tourist office. My guesthouse suggested that I hire a tuk tuk, and then a boat, just for me, but I thought it made a lot more sense to join a group.

Kompong Pluk is one of 3 villages that are open to tour groups. Since this is the dry season, the lake Tonle Sap is low and has shrunk a lot. The land that is underwater in the subversion is cultivated for rice in the dry season. Although they call this a floating village, it is really a village on stilts.

Houses built on stilts to stay dry when the lake is high in the rainy season.

Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 2,192 km (1,361 miles)

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