Exploring the Temples of Angkor

Some people spend three days, or even a week exploring all the temples of Angkor, the ancient Khmer kingdom. At $20/day, though, we tried to wrap it all up in one. There are several major complexes of ruins that can be quite far apart. Most tourists hired tuk-tuk drivers for the day, while some rented cars and a few rented motorbikes. I was surprised, though, how few people chose to explore on bicycle. Although some distances were far and it was hot out, the terrain was flat, and the riding itself was so peaceful.

It was about a five or six mile ride to the ancient walled city of Angkor Thom, constructed by Jayavarman VII, Angkor’s greatest king. At its peak, the city is thought to have supported over a million people. We arrived at the main gate, where large stone heads stared down at you ominously. From our vantage point, the 8-meter high walls extended as far as we could see through the encroaching jungle.

Entrance to Angkor Thom

We rode our bikes into the walled city, being passed by puttering tuk-tuks and a few cars. Monkeys played in the grass and trees on either side of the narrow, crumbling road. We soon arrived at Bayon, Angkor Thom’s central temple. Although it is large and one of the area’s most famous temples, quite a bit of it was decrepit and unrestored. We were surprisingly free to explore the piles of ancient stone and climb to the top of the multi-tiered structure. Although the tourists were mostly camera-wielding westerners like us, there were also pilgrims of sorts from India and Southeast Asia, making offerings of incense and coins to Buddhist shrines.

Inside Bayon

We continued along through Angkor Thom, seeing a few other temples, and monuments. One of the more obscure ones, Preah Pilalay, had a terrifyingly steep set of stairs that made me procrastinate going back down for fear of tumbling to an embarrassing death. For lunch, we had some over-priced “nom pang” (sp?), a type of local sandwich, and a couple of coconuts. It was getting uncomfortably hot, but we soldiered on.

The last major temple that we visited was Ta Phrom, which, after Angkor Wat, is probably the most photographed and one of the iconic symbols of atmospheric Cambodia. And yes, it is the one that is apparently featured in Tomb Raider and, by some, is simply referred to as “the Tomb Raider temple”. Anyway, on the way to it, I told Lise we should go left off the main road and explore a random dirt road. She was ok with it at first, but it just got muddier and puddlier as we continued. I was excited about it, though, because we were descending into some thick foliage where we could make out bits of crumbling ancient wall to our right. Riding through the mud in our ancient, steel-framed bikes was no easy task, and Lise was got annoyed with my decision to continue. Perhaps I was a bit pushy. We eventually reached an entrance that led through the wall. We were far from any other tourists and it gave me that tiny, but exhilarating, taste of adventure and exploration.

We went in and continued through a few of the jungle’s winding paths. We wondered if there was a chance of getting lost, but I just pushed that to the back of my mind. Plus, we weren’t really that far away everything. One of the paths eventually led to a back entrance of Ta Phrom. It was weird to have felt briefly like we were in remote jungle, only to be dumped out in a clearing filled with trinket sellers, khaki-clad tourists and officials inspecting tickets.

Ta Phrom is notable partly due to its lack of restoration, and the fact that the jungle has done a lot of work to re-claim the space in the past several centuries. Thick tree roots creep and crawl around stone hallways and through windows. You can see that the canopy of leaves above is completely anchored in the temples below. As moody as it is (or should be), it has lost a lot of its allure with the throng of tourists taking turns getting photographed on wooden platforms in front of the temple’s more dramatic sections, as well as the couple of trinket vendors that have been allowed to work inside the temple. Still, though, after a bit of exploring and crawling through random windows, Lise and I managed to find our selves alone, and away from the steady din of tour groups. The complex actually turned out to be much larger than we had expected and felt like we were as likely to get lost here as if we had kept wandering in the jungle. Some of the dark hallways were downright creepy, and our path was blocked at least once by a four-foot spider web with a (probably deadly) 7-inch spider chilling right in the middle. Another curiosity we stumbled upon was a couple of Japanese men (professor and student I presumed) who appeared to be doing some sort of surveying or research.

By the time we had our fill of temples, it was getting close to dark. We stopped by a roadside market, had a beer, and then headed back towards home. We were about 12 or 13 km from Siem Reap, but the road was flat and the jungle scenery around us was pleasant. After about five minutes of riding we heard a sharp crack. I think both of us thought back for the most split of seconds to our highway robbery in the Philippines and considered the possibility of gunshots. But no, it was my tire exploding. Having both of us walk to town wouldn’t be practical, but splitting up wasn’t ideal either. Luckily, the next vehicle to come by us (the traffic was less than a car a minute) was a big truck. We flagged it down and found a young, wealthy Cambodian couple from the capital inside. They offered to take us into town, but the back of the truck had a big cover on it, so I didn’t know if our bikes would fit. They did though, and we hopped into the cab with air conditioning and leather seats. This is one of the strange benefits of traveling in poor countries with huge disparities between rich and poor.

I figured that it would not be hard to find a tire repair shop. In Ghana they seemed to be everywhere, since so many people rode bikes on those terrible roads. Fortunately, our rescuers offered to find one for us, but unfortunately, it took a while to find. The repairmen could see our wealth and desparation, and I felt that this was factoring into my price quote. First they said they could fix the tube, but then changed their mind, saying it was too bad of a rip. I looked at it, and sure enough, it was a complete blowout. Then they said they would have to replace the tire as well as the tube, since there was a hole in it. I argued because it wasn’t my crappy tire that had caused this explosion and I didn’t care if it led to another puncture after I was done using it. I convinced them to sell me a used tire, but they said they had no used tubes to sell. In the meantime, Lise and I were late for dinner with Julie’s family. We decided Lise would go back, while I stayed to fix my tire. Ten minutes after she left, while they were out searching for a used tire to sell me, the rains came out of nowhere, and pummeled Siem Reap. The streets filled with water, and although we were under a shelter, the winds pushed it inside onto us. By the time my bike was ready to go, there was four inches of water in some streets, more in others. It was warm rain though, and the 20 minute ride back to Julie’s was actually really enjoyable and fun. I had wrapped my belongings in a plastic bag, so as wet as I could get was fine with me.

I found Lise back at home, soaking wet as well. I thought she might have beaten the storm, but ten minutes in the rain had drenched her. She agreed that the night time rain ride was pretty fun.