So long Angkor Wat and a story about a Camry

Was up early and the owner of the hotel asked me to come back for a free breakfast, not one to pass up the free breakfast I said yes, so headed out to Angkor Wat, wanted a photo of me and my bike and trailer in front of the Great Wat, and I got it to. It is a shame the sunrise rubbish, it was cloudy so there was not much of one, but I got my picture so I was happy.
Headed back to the hotel and had breakfast and then headed off, I thought for a second when I was leaving the owner was going to hug me, but no I missed out. Out on the road again and 147km to go, it was now about 10 to 7 so really had to get underway, at least with the cloud cover it was not going to be too hot for a while.
SO out on the road and heading through town, caught a tow with a truck as it slowly made it’s way through the thick traffic, had to let go a couple of times as the truck nearly ran me into a few people on the side of the road. After this had to use leg power for a bit, I had done maybe 20km and was going along pretty well when I came to a village and managed to catch another tow with another truck. This one was a lot longer and a lot faster, had to let go in the end as we made it onto the open road again.
I was having a good morning, I stopped at about 10.30am for second breakfast and then back on the road again, now this is where it got even better, I had done about 50km so was making good time, then a people mover type Moto came passed, it was going faster than me so I speed up and jumped into the slipstream, and this is how we stayed for the next 40km I managed to keep up, and it was great, I was able to rest a little, it all finally came to an end at the next town we came to, the whole Moto waved good bye to me which was sweet, then I carried on down the road a bit and stopped for water and a sweet drink.
After getting back on the road I had no tows for the next 10km then you would not believe it the Moto carrier came up beside me and the driver pointed at the bar at the side so tow it was, and I stayed like that for about 10km and then they stopped in the next town we came to, so it was turning out to be a good day. The rest of the trip to Kampang Thom was just hot and sweaty, my knee got a little sore at the end but it was at the end so I survived.
Now let’s get down to business, CAMRY’s, that’s right people Toyota camry’s there a classic car, built with water bed suspension and a ability to cruise at 110 forever. Now I am slightly byist as I owned one, but I was correct in buying one, because 2/3 of all cars on Cambodia’s roads are Toyota Camry’s that’s right I have done two counts now, one between the Cambodian border and Siam Reap and again today and 2/3 of cars are Camry’s. The other 1/3 is made up of Toyota landcrusiers and a smattering of everything else you can think of.
So 2/3 of Cambodian drivers can’t be wrong. Or Toyota dumped a boat load of Camry’s in Cambodia at sometime, O yes there is a Varity of years and models, so really that just points to a good car.

Wasted journey and the best massage yet

I had booked a moto to take me out to the lake to have a look around and see what it was like, got up had breakfast and then jumped in the moto for the ride to the lake, now my understanding was you could go right to the edge of the lake by road, should have asked more questions. Did not even get to the lake, did not even see the lake, the road ends about 10km from the lake and then you have to get a boat $20US for a couple of hours to go out to the lake. If I had been told this before I left I would not have wasted my time. I could have been on the road heading south. I had wasted an hour and $8, that’s nearly 3 meals, so as you would expect I was a bit pissed.
The moto drive tried to get me to go to some Wats for $5 extra but by now all I wanted to do was go back. When I got back the manager of the hotel said “O it must be under new management”. He did offer me free dinner to make up for it, which was nice enough, in the end I got both dinner and Breakfast free so cannot complain too much.
After this I went for a walk into town to relax a bit, earphones on music playing did not have to listen to the constant moto drivers trying to get work, calling out etc. Walking pasted a massage place and one of the girls asks if I would like massage and that sounded bloody good to me. Yep booked me a one hour massage.
Now as we walked in nothing was set up and there was no one else around, I was taken right through the building to the back, and yep I was wondering what I had got myself into. But after changing into there really bad top and pants the massage started, and it was good, very good. After I walked out all the stress of the morning was gone and the day was looking better.
I went and did a bit of shopping after this, needed some oil for my chain and a couple of other things. The negotiations were fun and we both had a laugh, I had a price I wanted to pay and got what I wanted but she tried to throw everything else in for more money, in the end we both left the negotiations happy.
After this it was lunch time and then spent the rest of the afternoon reading my book. I checked the my email to see if the Germans had emailed but no luck in that department so will try and meet up with them in Phnom Penh.

Lazy day, and More wats

The 7th what can I say about the 7th not much really, did bugger all, got up late about 7:30am why will my body not let me sleep in, had breakfast by 9:30am and then what the hell do I do with the rest of my day, I did need to get a new book, so had one thing to do, all you people at home doing your 8 till 5 jobs have forgotten how hard travel is. Made it into town about 11am to look for a new book, ended up getting two which means more weight in the bag, good one Steve. Saying that I was contemplating the other day if I could ride my bike and read at the same time so that would get through the books.
Had a look through the markets as well but could not find what I was looking for, cant tell you what it is either as that would spoil things. At about 2pm after some lunch came back to the guest house and read my book and that pretty much was the 7th taken care of.
The 8th came around after the 7th as it does, there is a building site right next to my window and so far they have been fairly quiet until this morning, I did notice yesterday that they had brought in a big crane so something was going to happen, and at 7am it all started. They are laying the foundations at the moment, they have these 5 meter long foundation posts that they are using a hydraulic ram to push into the ground. Lets just say it is a bit hard to sleep through.
Today was the day I was going to head out to the Roluos Wats, three to see, no bike, Moto this time. Moto’s are motorbikes with trailers. The wats are older than the ones at Angkor, and are more Hindu in nature, the and more run down. After negotiating a price with the Moto driver we headed off, out on the road that I will be riding out of in a few more days.
We arrived in good time and were meet by the kids trying to sell books and other things, and ladies yelling to buy a drink from them, of cause there is three or four of them yelling at the same time. It does get a bit frustrating when it is every single temple you go to. But I just walked pasted said no thank you and headed to the temples.
I made it to the third temple which was the best, and most interesting, the only problem was I had this kid who just would not leave me alone, probably because I was the only one there, bugger he was a pain in the arse, when I stopped to take photo’s he was beside me asking for money, yes I realize that these kids are poor and under privileged and yes they have a terrible life and good I’m a bastard but really I can’t help them all. I have donated books to an orphanage, I have brought over price coke, and heroin woops, no just the cans of coke and water off them. I cannot help everyone leave me alone, all I wanted was to walk around the temple and enjoy the afternoon and I could not.
Before I carry on what made these temple so different was they were definitely Hindu, the structures and drawing were so much like some of the temples I had seen in India. Shiva, Vishnu, Garnesh etc. So it would have been nice to spend more time.
Now I know what some of you are thinking, why did you not just give him so money to get rid of him, but do you do that with all of them because if you did around here it would be a short journey. So I got a few photo’s of the temple but did not give it the time it required. After this it was back in to the Moto and back to Angkor to look at a water wheel, not sure why we went there the driver just took me. It made for a pleasant ride back.
Once back in town I headed to get some gelato icecream, I needed something yummy. I have received an email from the germans cyclists so will hopefully meet up with them sometime tomorrow. They well be here for a few days and then they head to Phnom Penh by boat so hope to meet up with them in Phnom Penh and head south with them before I head into Vietnam, and they head towards Thailand. Also hope to meet up with Peter an Aussie living in Phnom Penh, he manages an orphanage there.
Tomorrow is the big lake for a few hours and the relax and get ready to head off south, 3 days 350km to Phnom Penh and everyone has said terrible roads. Will it will be a change because so far there pretty good. The sunset was very nice, it is now just dropping below the horizon, the sky is that beautiful golden color, have to say I think sunset and sunrise are the best time of day, the light is gorgeous, but that could be the photographer coming out in me. Well better think about food, and sleep…

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.