The temples by Bike- Siem Reap pt 2

Today we're planning on renting bikes for $2 and hitting up a decent amount of temples. Its probably against better judgment to do it in the heat, but we're determined to beat the heat and sun for once. I'm feeling well hydrated and we pack two huge waters in the backpack. I even put on long pants and long sleeves which sounds crazy, but the sun will destroy you much faster than the heat or humidity. Load up the sun tan lotion and we're off. We rent some mountain bikes that look decent, but again they are seriously impaired. Luckily mine is stuck in about 8th gear so it will have to do. Cramer's is the same. The whole trip will be about 12 miles which doesn't sound like a lot, but with the crappy bikes, the sweltering heat, and blazing sun it will be a test. By the time we hit the first little temple we're both completely soaked.

Grab some pics and continue. At Banteay Kdei the first bigger temple we're greeted by the kids selling again. This time we manage to get by. Pound back some water, check out the temple, and take off again. The kids here will be your best friends until you don't buy then they're suddenly super pissed. Its probably the teacher in me, but I am enjoying the interaction with these kids. I miss it now... hahaha.


It makes me realize how brilliant some of these kids are. At the next temple we purchase a few more souvenirs from a funny girl about 13. She has us cracking up. Ta Phrom is a really cool temple. It has a bunch of trees growing right out of the ruins.

It gives it a very cool and ancient feel. The jungle reclaiming its territory. We decide to grab luck across from the temple because its now about noon and we want to avoid the sun for a few hours. We get some lunch from a girl named Kroch, which means orange.

She is 29 and can speak pretty good English. We sit and talk with her for a good hour and a half. She tells us her whole family is named after fruit. That she would love to visit the US, but tickets are way too expensive. (She is probably only making $50/ month) She tells us she started out selling bracelets and stuff too. She said she didn't know any words except bracelet and one dollar. She says I just kept saying it over and over until they buy or give me money to go away. She laughs. The farthest she's been is to Phnom Penh once a few years ago. She is also bundled up with hat, long sleeves, gloves, and pants even though its 90 degrees out. Everyone over here wants to have light skin she says. So almost everyone wears long pants and long shirts all the time. I crack up and tell her every one in America wants to have tan skin. The whole time some little kids are hovering around me trying to get me to buy some bracelets. I have my notebook with me so I start doing math with them.

I tell Kroch "Orange" to give me her address and I will send her a letter sometime in the future. She really wants to see a picture of snow, so I tell her I'll send her one. We take off again waving. Next we hit up a really tall temple called Ta Keo, which Cramer and I think is pretty cool, but apparently it was never finished and doesn't have many carvings and decoractions on the stones.
Cramer on top of Ta Keo.

We continue riding sweating profusely the whole time. We're being smart because we're drinking water as fast as we sweat it out. I think Cramer is feeling the heat of the sun a little bit, becaue he doesn't have a hat, long sleeves, or pants plus he's carrying the backpack now and that makes you sweat even more. We stop at the legendary Bayon. This is a temple with 100's of huge faces carved all through out the temple. I think this was in the movie Tomb Raider, which I never saw. Two of the faces at Bayon.

Cramer and I should have our faces here too.

The beautiful Apsara dancers. Big busted carvings of them adorn many of the temple walls.


We contiue on our way until we get to Angkor Wat.

Its about 4pm or so now. Depending on the time of day its much better to see certain temples. Usually its best to see the really epic temples at either sunset or sunrise due to the fact you get way better lighting on the temples. When its directly overhead the pictures seem to have that washed out look. By this time we're exhausted. We snap a few pics and decide to come back the next day to finish up, this time by tuk tuk. Today was Saturday so when we get back is about 6pm. I saw that there was a Catholic Church in town that had an English mass at 6:30pm on Saturday. I get the urge to check out what this will look like. Cramer stays at the room and chills. I arrive at the church and its a very simple and elegant wood building. They have some chairs lining the walls, but the floor is covered in mats. I take a seat on the floor. Its amazing to see the diverse amount of people here: Koreans, Phillipinnos, Europeans, local Cambodians, probably other asian ethnicities and an American (me). There are 3 priest in attendence. 1 is the main guy who is Indonesian, another guy is Indonesian but living in Taiwan, and the last guy is from France. It was a great service and the music was just a few girls playing guitar and singing some good songs with everyone singing along. Definitley a great experience, I wish I felt this way back home. Back again Cramer and I hit up the pub street in Siem Reap, which is two blocks with tons of bars geared for tourists. Good food and drinks, but much more expensive. Cramer gets the bacon cheeseburger and I have the fish and chips. I still haven't got my western food fix yet. We grab another massage and call it a night.