26km of wats, and wats and wats

Today was the 3rd day of Wat spotting, they are really easy to find, you just follow the road and maybe a little bit of a walk and you will find a wat. At Angkor there are two tours that you can do the Little tour and the big tour, ones 17 and ones 26kms, it was my day for the big tour, I jumped on the bike and headed out around 9:30ish and after the check point managed to get in behind some motorcycle ricksaws and slip streamed them out towards the big circuit.
The weather was getting hotter and there was only a slight covering of clouds, My rickshaw buddies turned off towards the little circuit and left me with a 5km ride out to the first of a lot of wats. The first Wat of the day was Pre Rup, what is special about this wat it is where they cremated people, they had the area for burning them and a area for the ashes. I only found this out because a local guy who was waiting for his rich tourists, now I call them rich because not only did they have a Guide they had a car too. I am still sure it is as good as my bike, I mean how much fun can it be sitting in a air-conditioned car and just be driven from one Wat to the next and having some guide yammering on all the time. I got a bit of free education from there driver anyway.
I was off to the next Wat, have to say they are a lot alike these wats and after the four or fifth one the only thing that distinguishes them is how run down they are and how many trees have grown up through them. The ones I have liked the most is the ones that are the most over grown.
On I think it was the fourth or fifth temple I picked up a guide, he just started talking to me and then explaining the temple, I realized this was a move to get some money out of me, he was a cop also, so I let him woffle on about the temple and everything, some of it was interesting and some I just did not really take in, by the time we finished the circuit of the temple I was pretty glad to have rid of him, it cost a $1 US for maybe 40 minutes of woffle. Another guy stopped by me on the way out and asked how much I paid him, he said normally he would get $3 so I’m a stingy bugger then. I am riding a bike around if I had lots of money I would be in a Air con car with a guide.
By the time I got to Angkor Thom which I had already seen on the first day I was pretty tired, in fact with all the walking my legs were knackered and I was ready for lunch and a bit of relaxation, I headed off into town and picked up a sandwich from one of the local ladies, it was a Cambodian sandwich which I could only eat half of because my mouth had become an inferno and I had run out of water. Where I was sitting eating my sandwich I was just down the road from some cops who were pulling people over, they signaled for this car to pull over and I think the guy was going to make a run for it, but the cop just stood in the way, the guy in the car did not stop in time and hit the cop, not very hard but enough to get the police man in a bit of a bad mood. At this point I was trying to watch and not be seen.
They knew I was there though. The coppers got the guy out of the car and there was some pushing and shoving and then two more from the looks of things senior cops came alone, it was not looking good for this guy, I think the only reason they did not ruff him up more was because I was there as they kept looking my way. In the end one of the cops jumped in his car and drove off and this guy was left taking to someone on his telephone. As he was walking away the cops were following him, at this point I headed away as I had to find water to quench the fire in my mouth.
Temples seen in the three days so far,
Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm Kel, Phnom Bakheng, Baksei Chamkrong, South, North and West Gates Angkor Thom, Beng Thom, Bayon, Baphuon, Terrace of leper King, Phimeanakas, Thommanon, ok was going to write them all out but there is way too many, I have pretty much done them all except the Roluos Group which is on the cards for tomorrow. After this I will not be looking at another temple, unless there is something so Amazing that I just cannot pass by.

Angkor Wat for Sun rise and sunset

Early start this morning up at 5am to head out to Angkor Wat for sunrise it the thing to do, on the bike again, it’s really nice riding the bike without the trailer, took about 10 or so minutes to ride out there, I thought it would be packed with people hanging off the walls looking for the best shot. When I got there, there was no one there, there were the usual police and assistants but otherwise it was just me. I did stay on the outer edge of Angkor.
Right so people who have been here would know that around the outside of Angkor wat is a moat that goes around the whole thing, it has two bridges one to the west and one to the east, then it has a large wall with towers on it, then after you pass through this there is a walk way a couple of buildings and ponds to either side of the walkway then you come to the main temple.
Everyone goes and sits inside this inner ring with the main temple and takes photo’s, while I stayed on the outside with a view of the moat, outer wall and towers and the temple off in the distance. It was just me there, so I did a few photos, about 40 or so then as the sun got higher in the sky went into the temple proper and took some more. At the time what I did not pick up was my lens was pretty dirty. So out of about a 100 odd photos 50 of them are useless and the others I have had to do some photoshop work on. Note to self check the lens.
After the sun had risen over the back of Angkor wat, which I have to say with the clouds around was pretty good, not the best sunrise I have seen on the journey but still a worthy one. I wandered through the temple and eased dropped on some of the guides talking about the history of the temple, I wonder how much of what they say is out of the books the kids try and sell you, some I am sure are just about word for word.
I left the tour groups behind and worked my way through the temple and out the other side, so I had just gone from the West to east side, the sun on this side was perfect for a few photo’s and the colors were quite dramatic in some of them. I was all by myself, did not wanna be all by myself, no just kidding it makes for good photos when you don’t have 500 westerners in the back ground. I on purpose position myself to be in people photos, just so when they get back home they go who the hell was that guy. Just kidding.
After I had walked around for a good 1 ½ hours it was time to go back to bed, I spent the rest of the morning relaxing and reading my pop up book, those two or three sentences are hard work, so I managed to finish my book and now have to find another one. I did make it out in the afternoon to the local market to look for some chain oil, all they have here is WD40 which will have to do.
Later in the afternoon I headed back out to the wats to climb the hill to Ta Prohm Kel which every man and his elephant climb to watch the sunset, besides the monks doing a mantra as they walked around the temple and a crowd of locals following them there was really not much to talk about, the sun set was very undramatic, there was no flare of light the sky did not turn firey red or golden, the sun pretty much said later and that was it. The main road back was pretty cluttered on the way back so I jumped on one of the small roads that lead back into town.

Single track and some wats

Well for a those who mountain bike Angkor is a great place for single track riding, there are so many paths that cut away from the main tourist trails it’s fabulous. Jumped on one trail, before I go on I was riding with road tires, anyway I jumped on one trail wipping through some pretty slippery tracks, flat running most of it but because of the slicks on the bike and the fact that the area is clay type soil it made for a good ride at speed.
I had gone passed Angkor Wat before this, I have a 5 day pass so today was all about getting lost and having a good time doing it, I did look at some Wats but we will get to that later, so after a quick stop at Angkor which was packed with people, I randomly picked a direction and went, thank goodness my phone has a compass because I did manage to get myself lost. Not much sun direction in the trees.
Back on to what is important, the single track, after jumping off the main drag on to a dirt track, which weaved itself in and out of the trees, I popped out into a open area near a classroom full of kids, I did not want to disturb them to much so cruised on past with a quick wave and then I was gone again. After a few more corners I came across the elephants home, They have these rides for the tourists on elephant back through the Wats, have you noticed how I class myself as not a tourist, well I do the tourist things just not in the normal tourist way. I’m special people, very special. So after zipping passed the elephants I came across one of the little villages, the people doing the usual thing if there not working, I.e. lying in a hammock sleeping, these guys have the right idea.
At this stage I had kinda got myself turned around so had to pull out my phone and find north, yes and I forgot my map so most of the day I really had no clue where I was. North found I headed in that general direction and came across a road and a big gate way with a moat, so headed through then dragged the bike onto the wall, I did do a few photos, then it was off again, what I thought was a north direction but with a check of the phone was east.
So along the wall I went, this was a pretty big wall but did have single track running along it, heading east then ran out of wall and headed north, then found a sign pointing off down a small hill off the wall so headed down, was board with the flat path. Ran down a small rain rutted track and came to a culvert which looked nice so took some photos and got attached by ants, I stood right in the middle of a red ant column. Got a good couple of bits from them the little buggers.
Back on the bike and came to a swamp and some tracks that were to over grown to ride so had to retreat back up to the top of the wall and continue north. Found the West gate of Angkor Thom one of the biggest Wat complexes in the Angkor park. At the time I had thought this was where I was but without a map could not be sure. Followed a road back towards the main area passed a couple of stunned guards, it seems people don’t go that way much.
Did a bit of Wat spotting and then headed north, I did stop and take photo’s it was a nice wat but not the best I would see, so back on the road headed out through the north gate started following the tourist horde doing the tourist circuit, stopped in at Preah Khan, this was pretty cool, had a good look around a took lots of photos, it really is amazing and in it’s day would have been something special, even now as it is falling down it has so much character and a sense of energy and hidden secrets.
Back on the bike, I was starting to get hungry by now, well it was close to 12, stopped outside a wat at one of the eating places, there are so many it’s hard to miss them. Had a really crap noodle meals but I was hungry and it filled a part of the void. Had a look through the Wat which turned out to be Neak Pean which is another big wat. Will have to revisit some of these. After this jumped back on some single track through to another wat and then more single track till I came out beside a lake. Had a drink and by now was felling like heading home had done a few hours ridding and wat spotting.
On the way back grabbed a tow from one of the motor rickshaws, and it just happened to be full of Kiwi’s from Christchurch, so as I held onto the side of the rickshaw we had a chat. They were heading into town as well so got a tow all the way in, sweet. Will probably see them tomorrow as I will be up early for the rising of the sun over Angkor wat, heard it is something to see, so hopefully the sun will be out.
I will retrace some of the Wats from today as would like to spend more time at them, also would like to spend more time at Angkor Wat, just have to keep away from all the kids selling books and little trinkets, they can be a bit annoying.
Have spent the rest of the afternoon fixing a broken plastic bit on my bike hopefully it holds together otherwise I could have a problem with my gears. At the moment I have superglued it back together and put a cable tie around it for more support, tomorrow will let me know it has worked.
Just so you know I took 100+ photos, so be ready for a lot of photos when I get back.. That's just day 1...

Pigs on bikes, and some place with wats

Late start this morning, I had a feeling my washing would still be damp as it had rained most of the night, and guess what I was right, picked it up anyway and went for some breakfast, put the cloths I was going to wear on a couple of chairs to dry a bit, then went about the task of getting breakfast, noodle soup, it seems the only thing they eat for breakfast in asia is noodle soup. Now don’t get me wrong here I enjoy the noodle soup but after 4 or 5 days you just want cereal.
Packed up and hit the road about 8:30am so latest start so far, should have just done my own washing, that’ll teach me. The roads in the cities, or towns are fairly crazy and you really have to think about which side of the road they drive on. Bad move if you get it wrong, but people will just beep and drive around you. Not that I am saying I got it wrong it’s the locals who drive down the wrong side of the road.
It did not take me long to leave Sisophon behind, I had managed to find a big 1.5 bottle of water before leaving, it seems most places only sell the small bottles. Back out onto those straight flat roads, 90km to Siam Reap, should not be too bad. The day was warming up, and the humidity must have been in the high 90’s I would say, black clouds were building on the horizon but I had blue sky above me.
20km outside of Sisophon I came across something unexpected, a hill of all things, not a big hill but a long slow rising hill, I powered up it nicely and it was a good opportunity to do a photograph of where I had come from. Headed over this hill and there was another one, Katie you said Cambodia was flat, there’s hills on these here plains. As I went up the next hill I came across some big rock work factories, where they were chopping up yep you guessed it rocks, but you may ask what for, come to Cambodia and find out for yourselves, sorry no I realize Terry live vicariously through me so have to tell you. Buddha’s, They chop these massive boulders up and then these guys further up the road chisel them into sitting or standing Buddha’s, I has to stop and has a watch. Some of them use machine grinders some chisels and hammers. On the big ones, now these are maybe up to 2 meters there are three of them working on it. It was interesting to see but I still had a lot of riding left.
I left them to their work and carried on over the hill and back onto more flat straight road. Have to also say this is all new road and in very good condition. I came towards a small town hugging the road, and this is where I saw it, pigs on a bike, now I am not talking about small pigs, I am talking about big pigs, Sows and not sure what they call male pigs, but these guys had them loaded up on the back of their motorbikes and were off down the road. The pigs are tired into these brace type things, and loaded on their backs, their legs are free to move. Not sure what happens if these guys crash the pig gets up and runs away if he can I suppose.
It was getting on towards lunch now and the beast was hungry again so stopped in for Fried rice and beef for lunch, the lady cooked me up a huge amount which I have to say I thought was sweet. Munched through that in no time at all. They were having a big old chat about my arm and the graft there, pointing and all that so I showed them were it was. One of the older ladies was fascinated by this, so showed her me leg graft as well. Not really sure what they thought it was from but they had a good chat about it.
Had 30km to go and those clouds that were on the horizon this morning were now starting to pass through. I grabbed my jacket out of the bag all ready for the rain to arrive and much to my joy it passed in front of me so just had a wet road to ride down. Of cause about 10km down the road it poured down, monsoon style, buckets and buckets of water came down. So I asked the local guy to stop throwing the buckets on me they were starting to hurt.
This down pour lasted till just outside of Siam Reap, when it finally stopped, by now I was soaked through, great arrive in another town wet, it seems I do this a lot and that’s what you get when you ride through Asia in the monsoon season. I have found a nice place and will sort out my five day pass of Angkor wat, I think this is a place that you should take your time to see, I will have my bike so will just cruise around and enjoy a few temples a day, will also look for good spots for morning time photo’s as I won’t be watching the sunset over Angkor Wat as it rains most nights here now.
Well wish me spiritual enlightenment.

Borders and flat flat land

Well had a good night sleep, which I think has help, feeling better today, so it was off to the border 50km to the border then 50km to Sisophon in Cambodia. I had a bit of a later start, up at 6am and off by around 6:30am stopped in at 7 eleven as I needed water and some supplies and then hit the road.
The road was pretty flat and I was making good time, so stopped for breakfast, back on the road and the rain started to come down, lucky for me it was not to heavy so carried on, made it to the border in pretty good time. At the border it was manic, trucks, cars, people with carts and all sorts.
Thai border control was easy enough, Locked my bike outside then went in and got my passport stamped and then went back and went to head through the car lane, then someone yelled at me, lucky for me I had left my passport in my pocket, as I realized this might happen that they thought I had not got my passport stamped, so after I pointed to the stamp I headed on through.
Once out of Thai border control I made my way to the Cambodian side of thing, this was completely crazy, there was no real signs on where to go or anything, I started to head one way then someone called me back over in the other direction for a health check, so that done they pointed me to visa issue office. That done with no problems but some off the Immigration guys looked like they had just walked out of one the two casinos after a all night drinking binge.
As you head out you have to ride in between two big casinos with people falling out of them. It is really a bizarre place, one you have these big Casinos and then you have these people pushing rickety old carts full of vegetables, and big trucks belching black smoke all going passed these casinos. Once through all that I stopped at a bank and got some money changed. The Thai baht I had left I got back in Riel and I also changed some travelers cheques which I got in US dollars, so now I have to work everything out in two currencies.
After this it was back on the bike and hit the roads, have to say so far they are really good, straight, flat and went I say flat I mean flat, in fact looking out across the paddy fields you can see the curvature of the earth the land is that flat. I powered out along the roads and got in behind a Tractor trailer combo. It took the guy a while to see me then once he did he started speeding up and then slowing down, the only reason he slowed down was because his trailer started rattling itself to pieces.
I trailed him for a couple of kms then turned off for some lunch, it was point and shoot time again, and managed to get some fried rice with Chicken, well I am telling myself it was chicken anyway. Not really sure, it was tasty though so that’s all that really matters. After lunch I figured it was another 20 or so km to my stop for the night.
I made it to Sisophon in good time and found a guest house it took me a while to find out if this was the town I wanted as there was no English spoken, but they do read English. So I am in Sisophon I dropped my washing off across the road with the help of a young fella I arranged to pick it up at 8pm that night.
I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing and reading, after dinner I went and checked on my washing it was still all wet so have left it there till tomorrow morning, hopefully it won’t be too wet in the morning. Only have 90kms to ride tomorrow so it is a easy day or hopefully will be easy anyway.

117km and 65km rolling hills

Found food, I love these little food stalls that they have in asian countries, we need more in western countries instead of fast food restaurants. Went to bed early because I had a pretty big day the next day, it was the first time I had ridden two days in a while so I wanted lots of sleep. Sleep would have been good, first I had some kids running around outside then when they had gone to bed some people started talking and did not stop for hours. Well it seemed like hours.
After I finally got to sleep I had dreams all night, sorry Terry I lost liam in one of them, don’t worry after we got the car out of the lake where you parked it we did find him. Yep they were those sort of dreams. That was the only one I really remember. When my alarm went off at 5:30am I was not ready to get up, I managed to force myself to get up and out, stopped at the old 7 eleven for a snack as I was feeling hungry then it was off.
The kms passed by and I stopped about 8:30 for breakfast of noodle soup I had been after something with rice but that was not to be, back on the bike the kms were ticking away nicely so stopped again around 10am, this time for some more snack food. This is where my morning got interesting, this old fella was walking passed and took a fancy to my bike and came over for a chat. No English me no Thai this was going to be fun.
He started asking me about my bike tongue going at ninety miles an hour, I did a lot of nodding and trying to explain how it worked, this I must say was to the great amusement of the ladies down the road who kept throwing comments his way, which he would then yell back something and laughter would ensue. I of cause did not understand any of what they were saying. After about ½ an hour I finally made a move to head away, we shuck hands and I headed off with him watching the bike as I went.
The road had been fairly flat so far, but now the rolling hills started, I made pretty good time along this stretch, top gear down the hills and nearly top gear up them as well. Stopped for lunch at 11:30 fried rice with seafood, not sure about the sea food considering how far in land I was but it tasted pretty good. More rolling hills followed after lunch, at one point I caught a tow behind a tractor trailer which was great because it was a long hill, the guy did not seem to mind to much he waved good bye as he turned off the main road.
Saw two snakes today and ran over one of them, not on purpose, he was heading across the road so I cut between him and the grass edge, just at that moment a truck came along so the snake turned and headed back to the grass, I missed it with the bike but the trailer caught it on the way through. I think it survived but will be a bit sore tomorrow.
Also had my first close encounter with a dog, mostly they just go for the trailer but this one came for me, I managed to unclip my foot and planted a nice solid kick to the head, which I know sounds bad but it was him or me that got injured, for some reason after that it stopped chasing me. It’s friends ran along besides the bike but did not come very close and then gave up the chase.
That was really about my day, I don’t feel very enthusiastic about riding at the moment, I kinda am struggling to get back into it really. I am hoping after my spiritual awakening at the temples of Angkor I will get back into it more, it might help if I can meet up with the German guys and ride with them for a bit. Will have to see. Angkor will show me the way.

Bangkok mayhem what a ride

My alarm woke me at 5:30am I thought I should start as I mean to go on, early rides finished around lunch time. I had to do 80km today so not so hard. Easy ride to get back into it, I had planned my escape from Bangkok the night before so knew where I had to go and how to get there. Yea I planned it but really would it be that easy.
Had breakfast before I left and then it was off, it is Sunday so the roads at 6:30am were fairly quiet, Down the main drag out and off I went, stuck to the edge of the road out of the way of most of the traffic, made it to the long road before my turn off. Now I had to go down this road for about 10km then my road would be on the left and then all I had to do was follow that out. Sound easy doesn’t it. Two roads both big roads.
Had a look on the map, mine was the fourth big road along, after I reached what I thought was the fourth big road along I thought something was up, it was not the right road and the map I had is pretty basic so it does not have some of the what Thai’s would call smaller roads on it. We are talking duel carriage ways and Tri carriage ways(not sure if Tri is correct here) anyway you know what I mean. For NZ these would be main highways not just city streets.
Ended up doubling back on myself and found a one of the major roads on the map, right had miles to go, back around the other way and off I went, did manage to get a couple of tows of trucks and buses at the lights. Finally after the ten km I found a sign for my road, I still had more to go. Traffic at this stage was still fairly light.
Turned onto Ramkhamhaeng road, now I know what you thinking here, how could he ever not find that road, will I found it all 8 lanes of it, and it was busy, now the fun really began, this is what I had been waiting for. Round the corner the traffic was already starting to back up, so I put the power on, well grabbed hold of a passing truck to get up a bit of speed. Then as the truck started to brake I let go and plunged into the mass of cars. Straight up the middle of two lanes. I weaved in and out of the slow moving traffic. Following motor bikes at some points on to the pavement at other points then diving back into the traffic.
I had my sunglasses on and my bandana around my face, the smoke from the traffic is terrible, it would be horrible to be in it every day, but I was just there for one day. My head long dash through the traffic keep me up with the bikes zipping through, it was a bit difficult maneuvering the trailer around some of the gaps but I managed to make it through with only a couple of hits into buses. As soon as the traffic started moving again I would try to grab hold of a truck or bus to keep the momentum going.
The traffic was like this for a good 15km and then it started to think out as I made my way to the out skirts of Bangkok, I should point out I got squeezed out a few times with buses coming to close together while I was trying to get though. I had to slam on the brakes then I would pop out the back and cut across behind the buses to take a run at the other side. I also had about 3 or 4 cars pull out in front of me and had to slam all anchors on and then cut alongside and passed.
By the time the 15km were up the traffic had thinned and it was now a duel carriage way, I pulled over and had second breakfast of pork with soup and then came across a sign that said I had forty kms to go, so off I went. A bit further up the road I remembered I needed to check my tire pressure so much to the amusement of the service station attendants I pulled in and had my tires pumped up by one of the garage people.
It took a bit to get him to understand what pressure I wanted but once this was done we were away and laughing, much to all involved amusement. I didn’t even have to get off my bike, I rode out with lots of waves and laughter, this is what traveling is supposed to be about. The rest of the ride was just a lot of traffic firing passed me at I would hate to think what speed.
I reached Chachoengsao just after lunch so it became my mission to find a hotel, had a look on the map and there was one located towards the center of town so headed that way, road down the street to the end ok so maybe I missed it, back up the other way, nope not there anymore, time to ask a local. Now this can be good or it can be bad.
My locals for today were the people who owned the local computer gamers shop and they could speak some English, I was on a winner. They told me were the hotel was and I got them to write down the name to, I should point out here I should have got them to write it in Thai as well. Can you see whats going to happen here. That’s right the sign was in Thai. I had ridden right passed it twice, once down the street once up then street, time to ask a local again, after the third local I managed to find it and now have a good sized room, I am off soon to see I can get something to eat at one of the road side stalls and then it will be up early tomorrow for the next leg of my journey to the border.