6/12/12 to 13/12/12 - In the afternoon we took a bus to Siem Reap. On the way we stopped by the roadside for a snack break and saw some big spiders, alive and crawling in a bucket (Paolo, its probably best if you don’t look)...
...about a metre higher dead ones of the same type were on sale for a tasty snack. You don’t get these at Welcome Break...
We resisted the urge to try them and opted for some bananas instead. We arrived at Siem Reap that evening. Siem Reap is a medium size town with lots of restaurants, bars and a massive market. But the most impressive sight was waiting for us the next morning, 6 km from the town, the temples of Angkor.
Those temples date from the 10th century to the 11th century and were built by the Khmers. We had seen many temples since we arrived in Asia, but nothing like this.
Those temples date from the 10th century to the 11th century and were built by the Khmers. We had seen many temples since we arrived in Asia, but nothing like this.
We hired a bike for 3 days and cycled around 60km altogether… this sounds a lot, but it was actually not too bad considering that the roads and paths were dead flat (the most annoying was the “little circuit” on the last day with so many big tour buses passing so close to us when cycling, each time leaving us a cloud mixed of dust and fumes).
Now we’ll let the photos do the talking...
Now we’ll let the photos do the talking...
On the very last day, we woke up early to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise. We thought we’d beat the crowd, but even at 6.15am there were hundreds of people lining the moat for a good view. The sky was beautiful and we made our way through the temple to the rear, where it was quieter and we saw some monkeys swinging in the palm trees.
Later, after walking around some more temples, I lost the key to our bike lock. We tried for 30 minutes to look for it in Bayon temple. It was possibly the worst temple to look for a one inch (2.5 cm) key. I knew we wouldn’t find it, but Dave insisted. He soon realised that it was mission impossible. I went to wake up a policeman and asked him to help us to break the lock (as we had no tools to do so). He gave me a lift with his big motorbike (which reminded me of the 80's american series, "Chips") to our bikes. In 1 minute and 30 seconds, and with the help of a nearby tuk-tuk driver, he broke the lock with a metallic spike and a hammer (I would’ve thought the lock could have resisted at least 5 minutes). I don’t know why we even bothered to lock our bike all the time but we finished our day quite relaxed about it and the lady at the guesthouse we hired the bike from was okay about it too.
The next morning we took a pickup and then a bus to Bangkok. For some reason, we queued for 4 hours to go through the border (Thai side) under a strong heat. We still have no idea why as it wasn’t that busy. We finally made it back to Bangkok where we spent a couple of days stocking up on some essentials (including Visas) and finally enjoying the Burger King we had craved since Danang.
No comments:
Post a Comment