Day 20 Siem Reap

Siegels and Cohens met in the lobby for our TUk-Tuk ride to Angkor Wat at 4:50 am.  Fortunately, the hotel had the foresight to put out coffee, tea, croissants and fruit for us.  Roger also showed up.  We now had 5 for a Tuk-Tuk with a 50cc engine.  The driver tried to dissuade us, “too heavy, go slow”, but we would not relent, so he gave up and we all piled in.  He was right, Dave and I decided we would have been better off renting bikes.  We even got passed by a little old lady walking (not really).  But we still made it before the sun came up.

                                    

Unfortunately, so did about 5,000 of our new best friends.

We were about 10 rows back from the reflecting pool which made photos quite difficult.  I new there was a reason I brought Dave along, though.  His height and go-go gadget arms came in handy.  He was able to get a few good paparazzi photos.

                                      

                                       

 Our guide, Leak, had given us directions to try to avoid some of the crowds, so we started toward the back of the temple.  It was certainly less crowded and we got to see the East side of the temple as the sun was coming up, lighting the main towers.

We had to leave by 6:30 to get back to the hotel for breakfast.  The light on the way out of the temple grounds was perfect.for photography but our time was limited.

We made it back in time to change into bike clothes and get some breakfast.  Anne and Phil had their Vietnam bike shirts on, and I suggested to them that they might want to change if they wanted to survive the ride.  Leak had told me that there was a lot of animosity toward the Vietnamese (even though they are the number 1 tourist country for Siem Reap) due to Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia in the 90’s.

We were glad to drive out of town to get our bikes.  Driving in Siem Reap would not have been pretty.

The terrain was very easy for cycling and the equipment was great (real Trek bikes, not the Chinese knock-offs we had in Vietnam). 

We were on dirt roads for the most part that were well maintained

We passed rice paddies and water buffalo,

people doing laundry,

country Cambodian style Good Humor truck,

and rural farmhouses built on stilts. 

                                      

The raised houses served several purposes, helpful during the flooding of the rainy season, good for keeping out snakes and rats, and an excellent open air barn for the cattle and buffalo.

We stopped at a local elementary school

and had a chance to interact with the kids at recess

as well as in class.

In their English class, the kids got to hear an American all-time favorite, “Old MacDonald” from the National Geo All American Band.

                                      

The school had 550 students and 72 teachers for grades K-6.

We continued riding to our first (the group’s first, Molly, Dave, Jeri, Roger and my second) temple, Bakong, a 9^th Century Buddhist temple with a newer monastery adjacent to it.  Bakong is the first temple mountain of sandstone constructed by rulers of the Khmer empire at Angkor. Before entering the temple, we were treated to Khmer pastries and drinks at a local house.  The family made quite a spread for us that included a ton of fresh fruits, fried banana, and fried sweet potato.

It was hard to stop eating, and as soon as a dish got low, it was immediately refilled. Three generations got into the act. 

The little girl was quite the chef.

We left our bikes here, and hopped on our bus for a 2 walk to the entrance of Bakong.  The temple has  two moats and between the moats there are the remains of 22 satellite temples of brick.

                                       

The temple itself is one of the early stone rather than brick temples.

The architecture represents the first temple mountain formula that set the style for about 400 years.The pyramid itself has five levels and its base is about 190 feet squared and the top is 45 feet in the air.

Large stone statues of elephants are positioned as guardians at the corners of the three lower levels of the pyramid.

Statues of lions guard the stairways.

We drove to the next temple, the ancient Ta Prohm Monastery also known as the “Jungle Temple”.  On the way in, we spotted the guardian of the temple.

We half expected to see Angelina Jolie jump out from behind a wall, scantily clad in her Lara Croft (“Tomb Raiders”- now that movie poster is NEVER coming down in our media room) outfit.  This is where the movie “Tomb Raiders” was filmed, and I think, gave us the misconception that this was Angkor Wat.  It was an amazing temple ruin with huge kapok trees growing out of and through the walls of the temple. 

It was a real maze, and Jess was adamant about us all staying together (especially Katherine, Roger, Dave, and I who all seemed to get lost taking photos). 

We made it through without a single MIA.

But we did have a casualty.  Rick was accosted by a band of persuasive kids and he wound up with an entire Cambodian band for his grandchildren.  They hit him so hard, Rich and I had to float him a loan.

Jeri found this all hysterical!

Lunch was our next stop.  The bus kept driving deeper into the Cambodian jungle from main roads, to one lane dirt, finally to off road.  We wondered if we were being kidnapped.  Jess got us off the bus and after a short walk, we stumbled on a small deserted temple ruin.

Lunch was served here at our own private archeological site.  It was a pretty cool  touch by Jess and National Geo.

After lunch we began exploring the city of Angkor Thom from the south beginning with the Bayon temple.

This was built in the 12^th Century and featured 54 towers and 216 huge stone smiling faces of Buddha.

Lining up your shots right can be quite interesting.

Having a bit of fun in the maze of corridors.

Nearby was the Elephant Terrace, a reviewing stand for the king.

Adjacent to this was the raised terrace of the Leper King with beautifully preserved friezes of Apsara, a female spirit of the clouds and waters.  This was thought to be the royal crematorium.

Naga, the nine headed python, also figured prominently.

On top of the terrace, is a statue of Dharmaraja, a legendary king of Cambodia who supposedly had leprosy.

When we returned to the hotel, the doorman pointed out a huge bat colony that spent daytime hours in the trees in the park across the street from the hotel.  At 6:30 in the evening, they fly off en masse to the ruins to eat mosquitoes.  I wish they would stay here and feast to help keep us from malaria and Dengue fever.

Up tomorrow once again at 4:30am to see the sunrise.  Hope we get a better position than this morning.