2012 - Greg's Cycle Tour of Indochina: Bangkok to HCM City: Day 8: Thu 15 Nov

Ride: 80km; total: 361km

Depart from the hotel on the main road and cycling through Angkor pass check point. Cycling through the shady road with a little pumping because of the a few pot-holes. There you will begin to see Kravan temple, Banteay Kdei, and stop at the famous Ta Phrom, embraced by the roots of enormous fig trees and gigantic creepers. Visit Ta Phrom (45 minutes-1 hour). It was built in 12PthP century by the famous King Jayavarvan VII indicated to his mother. While clearing back the forest archaeologists decided to leave the vegetation of Ta Phrom in place to serve as a reminder of how the original discoverers found it and the other Angkor temples. Many of the trees have grown around and through the remains and soar high above the temples. Continue the cycling through small circuit passing Ta Keo temple, Chao Say Tevoda, Tommanon before reaching to Angkor Thom city. There you will see, Terrace of Leper King, Terrace of Elephant, Baphoun, Phimean Akas. Stop at Bayon temple and start the visit (45 minutes-1 hour). Angkor Thom built by Cambodia's great king, Jayavarman VII. Overnight in Siem Reap. (B,L,D)

We will enjoy a local ride today as we are staying in Siem Reap for 4 nights. It’s a great feeling not having to pack up. However both Kev and I are really organised and only unpack the absolute minimum so it doesn’t take us long. This motel is first class and the breaky was certainly up to that standard. Although the coffee still didn’t taste like anything resembling coffee.

We noticed how the

$ has swamped the local currency here. It's hard to find a restaurant or shop that has any prices displayed in Riel. I think it's a shame as it must add to inflation eventually and make it hard for the locals who are not able to join in this US$ economy.

Left the motel about 8am on the bikes and headed out of the city on a busy, but safe road towards the Angkor Temple precinct. On the way we did some single track riding through the surrounding rainforest and villages and that was fun. The first stop was the Temple Pass Office where we were photographed and issued our 3 day photo ID/pass. Normally it would cost US$40 but for us it was included in the price of the tour. I cannot believe how much we got for the money we paid. How did they do it so cheaply?

Next it was on to Ta Prohm Temple complex, beautifully restored courtesy of the Indian Govt. This temple was the movie set for Tomb Raider. The strangler figs growing out of the temples give it that ancient look. These temples date back to the first century and were built up to the 12th. There are 100 different temples within an area of 200sqkm. Some temples cover an area of 12sqkm. The restored ones are beautiful and give a real sense of how it must have been, but it would have been hard to decide whether to do the restoration or not as the non-restored ones are also stunningly beautiful.

What surprised most of us was the numbers of what appear to be Chinese and Russian tourists at these sites. The Chinese insist on talking very loud and can be quite rude, often just barging through without so much as a how do you do. Just outside the perimeter of the temples we were hassled continually by the locals as young as 3 or 4 selling all sorts of wares and souvenirs. They weren't rude and we had a lot of fun with them. Some actually had nice stuff for sale. Very few of the kids just beg, so that’s good.

The next area we visited was the entrance to Angkor Wat, the ancient capital of the Angkorian Empire. This area contained many temples (including the mother of all temples, Angkor Wat) and each temple has many shrines, one particular temple Bayon had 54 towers/shrines. In this case each tower represented one of the 54 regions of the Empire of that era.

Lunch was at a local restaurant 100m or so from Angkor Wat, one of the seven man-made wonders of the world. It's the biggest and the most famous of all the temples. There is a 1500m x 1300m x 100m wide moat surrounding the temple. Amazingly the whole thing was completed in 37 years from 1113AD. The workforce must have been massive, all using only basic tools of course. Hard to comprehend how huge Angkor Wat is. I never imagined from photos and movies how big it was. While walking around inside it seems to go on forever.

There was a nice cooling shower of rain just before we were about to finish up and ride home. We took shelter in the local restaurant where we had lunch and then headed out when the rain stopped. A great day and plenty of photos and videos to look at later. Love Siem Reap.