Cycling around Angkor Wat

Whoa. Lots to catch up on. I’m in Siam Reap, Cambodia! Arrived yesterday via air from Saigon. My two days in Saigon were good. I actually found the Vietnamese people to be nicer there than anywhere else in Vietnam so that made for a good last city to visit. The Mekong Delta tour was good. Best part was when we took a little boat through some of the canals. Also went to a pineapple plantation which I thought was going to be a complete tourist scam (ie, let’s stop here – you buy something) but it turned out to be pretty interesting.

So yesterday was my last day in Vietnam. My flight left at 12:10pm so I left the guest house around 10:30am to cycle the 8km to the airport. Siam Reap Airlines was not exactly thrilled to see my bicycle because it was a smaller plane and well they were just being lazy but in the end the bike got on. Just had to take the wheels and handlebars off.

Ironically enough on the plane ride here I sat next to a guy who runs one of the cycling tour companies in SE Asia. Really nice guy from California. Anyway he was telling me that he had just run a tour in Vietnam (his last one for the company) where an American woman was killed on the tour. At first I thought this was the same accident I had heard about but eventually I realized it was a different one – this woman was hit by a motorbike near Qui Nhon. It was such a traumatic experience for this guy and his partner that they’ve decided to sell the business and get out. He’s been cycling in Vietnam for 10 years now and told me that he definitely feels it is no longer a safe place to cycle because the traffic is just so bad. In the last year alone he thinks the number of motorbikes on the roads has doubled. Well I took all of this as a sign that I positively did the right thing by bailing when I did. The guy also told me that there have already been 4 foreigners killed while cycling in Vietnam this year.

So, I arrived here yesterday, rode the 6km into town from the airport, and got a room at the same guesthouse where Peter (the Swedish cyclist) is staying. We met for the first time yesterday evening and went out to dinner with a Dutch woman who is also cycling through Asia. Everything went well and first impressions were good so I hope that we will cycle well together.

The Dutch woman left this morning and Peter and I got up early to do some Angkor temple touring. Since he’s been here 4 days already, he was able to show me around and take me to some of the nicer temples. We cycled all around and wound up doing over 27 miles – it’s amazing how large the area is. There really is a lot to see which will hopefully be worth the $40 3-day pass. We seemed to like the temples with trees growing through them the best. Also managed to get to the top of one temple, Phnom Bakheng, to watch the sun set over Angkor Wat and the whole valley below.

Tomorrow we are hoping to get up early and take a motorbike around, first to see the sunrise over the temples and then to ride around to some of the further out sites.

Temples Visited Today:
Angkor Thom
Preah Khan
Ta Som
Ta Prohm
Elephant Terrace

One of the gates into Angkor Thom

Ta Prohm

Sunset at Phnom Bakheng, looking down on Angkor Wat

Add comment February 21st, 2002