It was going to be a huge cycling day today - 53kms! USB recommended that the less experienced among us pull out at around 34kms. A couple of people were sick on and off by now too, so most of us took up the offer. It was just as well as we did lots of other things after the cycling.
Early in the ride, we stopped to look at a lake and there was a lady selling something from her cart. She had this gorgeous baby that John was playing games with.
At the next stop, John played chasey with these kids. He really is a big kid at heart.
We even managed to get them in the group photo!
We always stopped every 15kms or so for drinks and snacks. Van and Ert kept up a great supply of snacks and wonderfully cool water.
Some stops were unattractive - we used fuel stations occasionally. Some were beautiful though. This one had a stunning temple on a lake as a backdrop. There was even a water buffalo grazing in front of it.
It was wedding season and these huge marquees were everywhere. They would often be set up on the main road through the village and we'd have to ride around them.
Four of us pulled out at the end of the shorter option and only John and Doug went on with USB. I had to put this photo in here because John is actually ahead of USB but this wasn't the norm. USB is a competition coach and rider and he's very fast and strong!
Meals were always amazing. They were huge! I'll come back later with more details on the incredible food.
It's a good thing we refuelled well because we still had a lot to do! After the bike ride, we began the afternoon with a 1.5 km hike up a hill. The forest we walked through was beautiful.
Our destination was carvings of 1000 'lingas' (penises) at the top of a (now dry) waterfall. It was ok but probably not worth all the sweat!
There were some beautiful views from the track.
Next stop was Banteay Srei temple. I really liked this one but we were starting to run out of time so we didn't spend long here. The buildings were made out of a pink-coloured sandstone and had incredibly detailed carvings.
The last stop on this good but very long day was the Landmine Museum. It was fascinating and so sad. We were shown around by an amputee. In a nutshell, there are around 6 million unexploded landmines and other devices still lying around in Cambodia, the result of decades of wars. Landmines are usually designed to maim, not kill, because it slows an army down more if you have to take care of injured people. Nobody kept records of where all the landmines were planted so they're very hard to find. As a result, people accidentally step on them all the time. There are aumputees all over Cambodia and a high proportion of them are children.
The guy who owns this museum knows how to defuse bombs and landmines, and has taken it upon himself to remove as many as possible. He also takes in people affected by landmines.
The guide's story was so sad. When he was about 10 years old, he was walking with his brother and sister. He stepped on a landmine, which blew off the lower part of his leg. His brother and sister were behind him and they copped the full brunt of the explosion, and it killed them both.
There has been a lot of funding contributed to landmine removal, and it's working, but there is still so far to go. One of the sad things is that we see amputees a lot but they often just have one crude wooden crutch to get around on. Many don't have prosthetics. The guide at the museum had a prosthetic leg and foot but it was very basic - just a rough L-shape. There is a long way to go in this field.
Some of the many objects defused and removed by the owner of the museum.
Phew - what a day! We were so grateful to have a shower at the end of it. Again, we were covered in sweat and red dust. These are my black runners that I rode in.
Day 6
There was no time for resting. The next morning we were up at 4.30am to get to Angkor Wat to watch the sun rise. There were heaps of people there but we found a quiet-ish space and saw a gorgeous sunrise.
When we visited Angkor Wat a few days previously, it was a religious day and we weren't allowed inside the top floor but today we could go there. We had to queue up to get in but at least the scenery was amazing while we waited.
The top floor is supposed to represent heaven. It might be the closest we ever get to it! The steps were incredibly steep and it was funny looking down on all the guides that waited at the bottom.
There are other temples, gates and all sort sof buildings scattered around Angkor Wat. This one looked amazing.
There were yet more red dirt roads along the route between temples.
Our next stop was Bakong Temple, in the Rolous group. So many temples are near each other. The Khmer Rouge destroyed most of Cambodia's temples but they didn't destroy Angkor Wat because they wanted to prove that they respected people's beliefs and traditions! Work that one out!
As we entered the temple, a religious ceremony was being held. This 'chanting', for wont of a better word, is very similar to the muslim call to prayer. Like the muslim call to prayer, it's broadcast through a speaker. It's slightly more musical but it goes on for hours..... and hours.......
This temple was built in steps. It was very similar to Mexican and central American pyramids in that respect.
Elephants that had lost their trunks long ago guarded all the corners of the temple.
The last stop for the day was Preah Ko temple. This one had been patched up over the centuries by the French and others. Some parts were unattractively 'repaired' in concrete. It's a shame because it's a really beautiful series of temples.
We actually had a few hours to ourselves in the afternoon. Doug had to leave as he had other travel plans so the rest of us set off again, this time to watch the sun set from a nearby hill. It was lovely and John reckoned the beer tasted super-special there.
Day 7 The Final Day
Our last day was technically only half a day - with only 22 kms of cycling which, by this stage, was easy for us. It was basically just a ride through a rural area. We found this water buffalo mother and calf.
We rode along sandy tracks....... and more red dirt roads!
We finished under the shade of a tree.
Van and Ert (we still don't know how to spell his name!) were fantastic. Whenever we stopped they were waiting for us with cold towels, cold drinks and snacks. They were never late and were always appreciated!
We wandered around the nearby market. This lady was selling crepes that were rolled up into cones. Eating them was just like eating an ice-cream cone.
Our last adventure on the tour was exploring one of Cambodia's famous "floating villages". We drove to a point where hundreds of boats were lined up along the river's edge. This guy was waiting to take us out.
When I say hundreds of boats, I literally means hundreds. From what I could gather, all of these boats were for taking tourists out! The fishing boats looked different to these. This was one of those situations where I couldn't decide if tourism was a good or bad thing. The locals were making their living from tourism and fishing. Tourism was helping to preserve their way of life. On the other hand, there were so many boats going up and down the river that the river was just brown sludge. I can't imagine fish even surviving in this. Having said that, it was dry season and they were dredging the river upstream so maybe my criticisms aren't accurate. It often happens that we don't always have the full story when we travel.
The boats were very simple. Ropes ran from pedals to the rudder.
The unique thing about these villages is that they are built near the mouth of a river on the huge Sap Lake. The houses don't really float as a rule. In the dry season, they line the river, towering on stilts. In the wet season, the water rises so much that the houses are now perched on the lake, with water close to the floors of the houses. In wet season, people boat between houses and probably fish from their verandahs.
Our boat took us all the way along the river lined with stilt houses then out onto the lake. Here, a few large floating restaurants were anchored in the still-muddy water. When the water rises they just pull up the anchor and move to a different location!
We went to one restaurant which strangely doubled as a small crocodile farm! Some people hire the small local fishing boats to row around in and they were pretty as they pulled up to the restaurant.
And that was the end of our cycling adventure! We thought the tour ran incredibly well. USB was a fabulous guide and kept everything happening as it should. He was able to adjust the trip a bit to suit us as well. He owns a cafe in Siem Reap that donates profits to a charity so we went there a few times over the next couple of days for great coffees, awesome pineapple shakes and onward travel advice. We met his lovely wife and his kids. This is his youngest.
One thing Cambodia is famous for is the Phare - a circus/music performance group that is made up of street kids and kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. They also do art and other things but the circus is the most well-known part. The remaining five of us all went along that night. We hired tuk-tuks to get there. It was wonderful driving along in the warm evening through the busy streets with the speed of the tuk-tuk creating a cool breeze.
The show was amazing. They had created a rock music-based circus show with a story. The performers were all incredible and the show was very funny. They spoke in Cambodian and a screen showed translations in English and French. There weren't many words anyway. The cleverness was in the facial expressions and the humour.
Some of the performances were very dangerous, such as trapeze-type work, and there were no nets underneath. The performers were all incredibly talented.
After the show we took the same tuk-tuks back to our hotel. Awesome!
Phew! If you're still reading this then you've done well!
We'll be back again soon.
Heather and John
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