March 3, 2017

A relaxing start to the day with breakfast at the guesthouse. Then things went pear shaped!

We headed out to the ticket office to buy tickets for Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples, it used to be on the road to Angkor Wat. We found the ticket office, no it is the wrong one, we had to cycle back 4 kms to the new and fancy dancy ticket office. You can only buy tickets at the authorized office. We knew the prices had gone up – almost double what they were before February 1, 2017. Now we know why they needed to raise the prices, to pay for the fancy dancy ticket office.

The prices went from $20 to $37 for a one-day pass, $40 to $62 for a three-day pass and $60 to $72 for a seven-day pass. We were buying the three-day pass. The ticket price includes entrance to all the temples in the Angkor area, which encompasses an area of 200 hectares (500 acres). The three-day pass has your photograph on it and you can use it over a week-long period. I was really hoping that we wouldn’t be disappointed in the temples, as that is a lot of money to spend.

We cycled back to the first ticket office, the “Angkor Tourist Police” checked the ticket and stamped it.

We do not usually cycle on our rest days, but this is an exception to the rule. It is easier and cheaper to cycle to Angkor Wat than take a Tuk tuk. We could have taken the guesthouse bikes, but I really like riding my own bike.

Angkor Wat was the first temple we visited. We locked our bikes together to a fence in a shaded area.

Angkor Wat was built in 1113-1152, it is built in a large rectangle measuring 1.5 km by 1.3 kms, surrounded by a large moat. Although modern day Cambodia follows the Buddhist faith, Angkor Wat represents the Hindu faith. Angkor Wat is the largest religious building in the world. Approximately one million people lived in this area during its hey day. Remember Pol Pot from Phnom Penh well his desire was to bring back the glory days of this time. He didn’t do so well, and Cambodia is still recovering from his lunacy.

Unlike other temples in the area, Angkor Wat was never abandoned it has been in almost continuous use since it was built.  However, many nations are assisting in the restoration and upkeep of this UNESCO Site.

There are very few signs telling you what you are looking at or what each area represents. You can hire a tour guide to explain things to you, but we were already feeling annoyed that the price had doubled. We felt that there should have been at least a pamphlet or brochure to explain the various temples. Even if they only said the name, the year they were built, and a little bit more information I would have been happy with. A ticket with your photograph on it and encouragement to spend more money on a tour guide.

Yes, we did spot this grafitti carved into a pillar in Angkor Wat!

The temple has three main areas: the moat protecting the central temple. The central area and within that area are several buildings that are smaller temples and “study” areas.

The central temple complex has 800 metre long bas-reliefs running along each quadrant. They depict 37 heavens and 32 hells. The hells on the lower section are in more detail than the heavens above.

The inner temple has a lot of restoration work going on and is more of a quiet reflecting area.

Then the Bakan the principal sanctuary of Angkor Wat’s uppermost terrace – open to the four cardinal points. It is a heck of a climb up, 47 steep steps to the top and there are a limited number of visitors allowed to access the tower at any one time.

We were given a separate pass for this area. When you return the pass at the bottom the next group of “pilgrims” are allowed to climb the stairs.

The stone work is quiet amazing, but then when you think this was built at the same time as some of the great cathedrals in England and Europe, it sort of puts it into perspective. There were great stone masons during that period. The actual building of Angkor Wat was built by slaves, but the stonemasons were the real masters.

After about three hours of wandering around the temple, we left the main temple and got some lunch. Then we headed out on the bikes to explore the area.

Touring cyclists can always recognize other touring cyclists even if they are not fully loaded.  We spotted Chi – the Taiwanese tourer as we were about to leave one of the smaller temples.  Chi is on a \”training\” ride around south-east Asia, before he heads out on a round the world trip.  We asked how many kilometres he had done from Taiwan.  He didn\’t know, he rides as far as he wants to, and doesn\’t record, distance, speed or how high the climb.  His nickname is Snail.  A great attitude.

There is another huge temple called Wat Thom, this covers an area of 10 sq kilometers it was a walled City. There are four gates to this Wat and the walls still surround the temple, albeit a little bit in rack and ruin.

There was one road with lots of small monkeys along it.  I hate monkeys, I always think they are going to jump on me.

We will explore Angkor Thom tomorrow.

We found an active temple.  Ralf went to take photos, I had my cycle shorts on and didn\’t want to be disrespectful.  Although I had my skirt on my rack, I didn\’t want to get dressed.  Ralf got told off by one of the monks because he forgot to take his shoes off while taking a photo of the art on the ceiling.  We chatted to a monk who appeared to be very envious of our bikes!

After exploring the surrounding area, we headed back into Siem Reap. We spotted several smaller temples – for some reason I had to climb the steps up this small temple, Ralf didn\’t want to.  The stairs were steep and the view at the top wasn\’t worth the climb, but it was a fun climb. This is called Baksei  Chamkrong and is the only pyramid temple in the area, built in the 10th Century.  It has sanskrit text on its door jab.

We stopped for something to drink at the lake.  Ralf took photos of these two boys playing a card game and I took a photo of this young girl training the baby how to balance on bike – she will have it down to a fine art by the time she gets put onto the back of a motorbike.

We were going to go back to the guesthouse for a shower, but I suggested stopping in Siem Reap and eating first, smelly and dirty as we were then heading back to the guesthouse for dinner.

We ate at a Mexican place that had 0.75 cent draught beers and nachos for $3.50. Ralf had a Khmer dish which had rice, beef and an egg on top!

We headed back to the guesthouse with our lights on.

Ralf had taken so many pictures it took me the rest of the night to pick some for the blog. I then had to reduce them again, as I had chosen about 70 pictures!

A good day.