Siem Reap

First impressions of Siem Reap, and the journey from the Thai border, where all very good indeed. Everything looked so clean, neat and tidy, the road was in perfect condition and had very little traffic, so we zipped along. Nobody seemed to be beeping much either, which was a great relief after four and a half months of it in India and Nepal, so everything was so easy and just a real pleasure.

The first thing I noticed about the town of Siem Reap was the number of fancy hotels all along the main approach road. They all looking the same though, with none of them having anything distinctively characteristic about them (at least from the outside). So after getting settled in the lovely Jasmine Lodge and watching a rerun of the Champions League final I strolled into the town centre. Again here everything seemed really well kept, with the bars, cafe and restaurants all looking very swish. I settled into a nice looking place for a beer (US$0.50) and stayed when I say how good looking the food was that other people were getting. It was a delicious Cambodian soupy dish call Amok, and so my positive first impressions just kept on coming.

Although tourism numbers are well down in Cambodia (probably like everywhere at the moment), the town had a good buzz about it, so I hung around until quite late. Next morning after a big US$1 breakfast I hired a bike and set off to explore the town properly. The idea was just to potter about really, but it turned out the map in my guidebook was pretty crap, and so I soon lost any idea of where I was and ended up surrounded by lovely forest. But having a bike of course, means you're never too far away from anywhere, and I still had a vague idea of where the city was, so I just kept going.

Eventually I come across this mad arched gateway in the middle of the forest. I stop to take a wee video, and then continue on and next thing I know I'm looking at one of the most famous structures of Ankgor Wat - Bayon! It was obvious I'd stumbling onto the Ankgor site via a side entrance, and not having a ticket I was a bit nervous of getting nabbed and fined. But after riding about for a bit it was clear that the ticket inspectors only check for tickets if you actually enter a temple - just riding around the site seemed safe enough (in fact, the whole complex is so large that many locals pass through various sections of it as they go about their daily business).

So I spent the next couple of hours riding around the complex just getting my bearings. It was great, as this meant I could now just get a single day pass (I had planned on getting the 3-day pass, as there is no 2-day pass) the following day, and I'd already know my way around. I did get the worst sunburn of the whole trip though. I had applied suncream of course, but it was just so hot and humid all day, that I should have re-applied it a lot more than I did.

So very early the next morning (5am), I get up and set off for Angkor Wat again, hoping to get there for sunrise. I had to cover up as much as possible after getting burnt the day before, so I looked a bit stupid wearing a rain jacket on such a hot day (to cover my arms), and with my T-shirt pulled up over my mouth and tucked in behind my ears (to protect my burnt neck). But luckily since SARS a few years ago, the swine flu now, and general traffic pollution, a lot of people cycle and ride their motorbikes with face masks, so I actually looked pretty normal really!

Unfortunately, on the way to the site I took a wrong road (again my guidebook map was wrong), and it meant I had to backtrack about 10kms to find the one and only ticket office. Having gotten my ticket I arrived at a recommended temple a little after sunrise. There was just one other couple there, so it was nice and relaxed, but the view of distant Angkor Wat itself wasn't as impressive as I was expecting.

Next I strolled about the main temple of Angkor Wat itself. Again the whole site was relatively quiet, something I've now noticed all over Cambodia - I even read yesterday in the paper that the tourism board of Cambodia is asking operators to reduce prices to get more tourists. Anyway, the murals were impressive (although most of the most famous one is being renovated at the moment), but all-in-all I wasn't completely blown-away like all the hype seems to imply.

So I spent another few hours riding about and checking out various temples before riding all the way to the town (about 8km) for a shower and another really tasty lunch. While I was eating the daily thunderstorm struck, so I just relaxed and sat it out - within an hour it was hot and sunny again. So I rode back to the site to ride around the major sightseeing route and see more of the famous temples, including my favorite one with huge trees growing up, over and through the ancient stone buildings.

It started to get dark while I still a good bit away from the entrance (the site really is huge, which is one of the most impressive things about it all I suppose), so I had to race back towards the town, not wanting to crash into a big pothole in the dark. As darkness set in the cicadas started, and at first I got quite a fright - I thought it was some weird kind of air-raid siren (they are one of the loudest insects in the world). Then millions of them started their piercing calls, and it was quite amazing really. As it got really dark the whole surrounding jungle seemed to completely come alive with loads of mad-sounding insect calls, it really was amazingly atmospheric.

So back in the town, it was yet another delicious dinner that night (it seems you just can't go wrong with Cambodian food), and a well deserved early night after the serious number of kilometers on the bike over the past 2 days. I was seriously tempted to stay on another day, as I really liked Siem Reap, and I could have just ridden through the Angkor site again at my leisure, but instead I decided to move on down to the capital Phnom Penh.