Cambodia Day Two

Today we learned of a constructive way to fend off street vendors

The journey so far had been one of hard cycling and painful body parts.  So far we'd managed to keep up with a group of cyclists that certainly had a core element of trained and fit individuals and we were happy for that; but we were definitely ready for a wee break, which came in the form of a couple of days in Siem Reap.

It's a strange town.  On the one hand, it's a town steeped in masses of history, with monuments and ruins galore.  On the other hand, it's like a tourist's dream.....with names like Pub Street you can imagine the bright lights and westernised menus that were on offer!  Somehow though, it all came together in a way that worked.  Maybe it was the fact we'd spent a few days on the road and in some fairly remote places, but some beautiful ancient ruins, a well stocked supermarket and a bit of night life balanced the scales in Siem Reap's favour in spite of the gaudier elements.

If ever you wanted evidence that nature will outlast humanity come to Ta Prohm

Today was only a 35km day and first up that morning was a Jungle Temple, called Ta Prohm.  For Julia and I this was a place of wonder.  The way the jungle and the ruins had morphed or rather melded into one whole, kind of hammered home the ancient and sacred nature of the site.  Our tour guide did a good job of taking us through the architectural and spiritual elements of the place whilst avoiding most of the crowds and frankly there isn't enough space here to be able to show you all the beautiful photos we managed to take.  For me certainly, this was my favourite temple of the three we were to visit.  For the movie goers out there, this was also where they filmed bits of Tomb Raider.....though when the tour guide told us this I kind of wish he hadn't - somehow I just didn't care or want to know.

Wonderful setting.......searing sun!

After this we had a shortish ride over to Bayon Temple...a Buddhist temple set in a squarish clearing of the surrounding forest.  By now the heat was increasing and we left the main group with the tour guide to wend our way through the temple ourselves.  Larry (one of the group) had a similar idea and so the three of us wandered through another example of humanity's vanity; all this energy devoted to religion inevitably left me wondering what would have happened if they'd spent a little more time on the people, rather than dragging ridiculously sized chunks around in an over-sized game of Emperor's Lego.  Still, would have made for a crappy tourist industry and we'd have had nowhere to visit ;o) !

Then on to Angkor Wat.  Julia had always dreamed of seeing this place and up until I arrived....I hadn't.  Not that I wasn't interested, but I had never really thought about it.  When I saw it for the first time I felt ashamed - it's incredible.

The causeway over the moat alone is worth a visit, then you enter the grounds, then a loooooong walk up another causeway to the temple itself, a wander around and a steep climb up some stairs behind a queue of fat Italians and pushy Chinese/Japanese photo-hounds, before we realised that midday was NOT the time to be here.  The heat was intense and between Julia's anti-malarial induced photo-sensitivity and my ability to sweat my own bodyweight, we were getting pretty uncomfortable.  So we both agreed to come back for sunrise the next day and call it a day.  We had already agreed to spend a shorter amount of time here than the rest of the group and boy were we glad of that.

We joined Nee and a few others back at the bikes and then followed one of the highlights of the tour for me.....the best salespeople on the planet.  First off, let it be said that at no point on this trip have the roadside beggars/sellers been as bad as in the Middle East/Africa......no IS a response they accept, but we learned something better:

Tay Sah Lah Rrree-en ...which means - "No, get off to school!"

You should have seen their faces!  Huge white man tells them in their own language (albeit badly) that a) he wasn't interested and b) they should be at school.  Some pouted, others smiled and some engaged in conversation, which is how we also learned:

Some Cambodian street sellers (children) know more about English prime ministers (all the way back to Callaghan) than I do.  Now I am no politics boffin, but I know my fair share.  To hear a 12 year old Cambodian boy trying to flog me a postcard for a dollar talk his way through our Prime Ministers was something that made me question my (our?) pre-conceptions once more.....who am I to think badly of someone trying to earn his money at my expense, no matter how annoying?  If the guy has the decency to know about my culture, then shame on me for being so ignorant of his!

Then immediately after this one child's slap in the arrogant white-man's face, another gave us a lesson in flirting....charming the pants of our guide Nee, giving her a beautifully carved wooden ring (he swore his name was one of the carvings!) and then getting her email address and Facebook page off her!  Genuis!  Tongue like silver and as smooth as silk.

So with a massive smile on our faces, we mounted up and rode the short journey back to the hotel through the crazy traffic of Siem Reap.  This evening a few of us joined up for a nice quiet dinner and then back to the hotel to prepare for tomorrow.....Julia's birthday, sunrise at Angkor Wat and a 70km round-trip ride to Banteay Srei.