I'll stick first of all to the cycling trip.
Day 2
Today's ride was long and hot but interesting. We started on the side of a road where there was an appropriately named USB charging station! It was a no-brainer to get a photo with USB in it here.
We pedalled past some gorgeous lotus flower farms.
You can eat lotus flower seeds - they're nice!
We were all given bike shirts with the Spice Roads tour company name on them. It was very easy to spot us!
Showering Cambodian style.
After many hours of sweating, we finally pedalled into our destination. We had ridden 46 kms! I was pretty rapt that I made it. We had lunch just outside this gorgeous temple.
There was a small market nearby and it was great having USB with us showing us what some of the foods were and answering our questions. We tried some yummy fruits we'd never seen before and John sampled fried snails! There were plenty of friendly faces.
Many of the roads we rode along were made with red dirt and it stuck to our sweaty bdies like glue. We were permanantly sweaty and filthy. At the end of the day, all we wanted was a shower! Like all of us, Carlos developed an insant red tan!
Afer lunch we climbed 400 steps to the top of a hill to check out a temple. It was very beautiful. USB showed us how to wash our faces in the holy water.
Much older temples dotted the area.
But wait - there's more! We drove back to Phnom Penh for a sombre afternoon. We visited S21, the notorious school-turned-prison where the Khmer Rouge horrifically tortured so many innocent people. There were some rooms that I couldn't go into. I would find them too upsetting.
We finally returned to our hotel and showered. Heaven! It was New Years Eve so we went out for dinner but everyone was too tired to see the New Year in, even though there was clearly a big celebration building up in the streets below us. We were in bed by 9 or 10pm but I was woken by the fireworks. I watched them from our balcony. Doug was also woken and he got a video of the celebrations.
Day 3
Still shell-shocked by the huge day before, we headed off again. We started by driving to a spider market, a market that sells all sorts of creepy-crawlies, including tarantulas. Of course, some of the braver ones among us had to experience a live tarantula crawling on them (not me!). Apparently they're poisonous but their poison thingies (whatever they might be) have been removed.
I'm not sure that John looks too thrilled with this!
Doug decided to try a fried tarantula. As he bit into its legs, my stomach heaved. My reaction was genuine and instantaneous! Doug decided that a couple of bites of leg was all he needed though.
I have to say here that Cambodians didn't eat these things until their country was ravaged by war. People were starving and had to resort to desperate measures.
A while after we left Phnom Penh, we hopped on the bikes. Omg - our bums were so sore! We pedalled past pretty farms and villages. It was the end of rice season but there were still some rice fields to be harvested.
As we were riding much later in the day than usual, I struggled with the heat. After a while a headache set in and I became the first person to call it quits. I jumped into one of the vans that was following us for this purpose while my bike was loaded into the other van. I knew all along that I might not last the whole day at times so I didn't have many qualms about stopping.
A bonus was that I could now take photos. It was nice watching our group riding ahead of us. They're a good bunch and we get on well.
I love the double-story houses around here. Some are quite fancy.
Soon two of the others joined me in the van. It really was a hot day!
I snapped a photo of Van, the people-van driver and Ert (we don't know how to spell it), the bike-van driver. They're great guys!
The remaining three riders completed the 38km ride and we arrived at Sambor Prey Kuk, a group of temples built in the 7th century. Due to local guide politics, we had to have a different guide here. He was such a dag. He spent most of the tour telling us dad jokes!
Anyway, the site was very atmospheric with few tourists around.
One of the temples had been overgroen by an enormous tree. It was literally holding the building together.
The doorway to the small temple was still clear and it was really cool to see the roots twining through the structure inside.
The back was stunning.
We drove towards Siem Reap and the sun was almost setting as we checked out this stunning old Angkor bridge. It was lined with enourmous snake carvings. Check out how wide it is. It was designed to carry the king's elephants! The main highway has been diverted around it to protect it now but local traffic can still use it.
We arrived in Siem Reap and slept like babies!
Day 4
Today was Angkor Wat day! It also turned out to be one of my favourite days. We started off by riding to the temple complex. It was a really lovely ride. The streets were lined with trees and we rode in shade most of the time. Bliss!
The Angkor complex is huge and we started off at Ta Prohm, the complex where Tomb Raider was filmed. Apprently there weren't many tourists here at all until that movie was released.
I took this photo with the wrong setting on my camera but I really like how it turned out!
This was one of my fave temples. Old trees grew out of the ancient stones, thier roots clinging to the rocks. It was so atmospheric.
Some of the roots were huge.
Look closely - there's a tiny face peeping between the roots.
I bought a bracelet from this old lady. She chanted a blessing for me as she tied it to my wrist. I'm still wearing it.
See all those holes? Each one used to hold a gemstone!
We entered the Angkor complex through an ancient gate. It was only narrow so we had to wait while traffic passed through. We got chatting to a guide on a motorbike and he started telling us the same jokes that the guide had told us the previous day. They all must go to the same guide joke school!
We then rode along a track around the top of the old wall. It was so peaceful and beautiful here. It was hard to imagine we were inside a temple complex.
Angkor Thom was cool.
At last we made it to Angkor Wat. It was huge!
There were huge walls full of carvings.
Inside there were a few places where you could see some paint. It must have looked amazing when it was all painted and decorated with gold.
In the centre of the temple, USB used a compass on his phone to show us that the whole complex faces exactly north, south, east and west.
USB takes such creative photos!
Some other photos of his from earlier in the day.
Phew! That's enough for now! I'll be back later with more.
Hooroo,
Heather and John
No comments:
Post a Comment