Easy Riders: January 2012

Monday, 23 January 2012

All the temples had steep steps

One of the towers at AngkorWat

Angkor Wat

Siem Reap – Angkor Wat

We bought a three day pass for Angkor Wat The first day we hired a tuk tuk and the driver took us

out there and waited while we visited the temple and then drove us to the next one. Angkor Wat is

the largest religious construction in the world, built at a time when Cambodia was a rich and

powerful nation. The capital was move elsewhere and the area was abandoned for 5 – 6 hundred

years , overtaken by the jungle and discovered about 100 years ago. Angkor Wat is one of many

temples in the area, some date back to 900 all built by kings as temples to themselves as king gods

and their final resting place. Angkor Wat is most impressive, surrounded by a moat the entrance is

across a causeway where there are steps up into the temple. There are many steep steps in all the

temples. In Angkor Wat every piece of stone is carved. From high ceilings, doorways walls, there is

not a part which does not have intricate carvings on them. Scenes depicting wars, heaven and hell,

mythical creatures and mythes are truly amazing. There are five towers, all very steep to climb, the

largest in the centre where the King was laid to rest. Next temple to visit was Angkor Tom,

crumbling in parts and being restoredwe felt like we were in an Indianna Jones movie set, we had

great fun climbing up towers and along walls that would never meet Australian OHS standards. Next

was Ta Prohm a temple which nature has overtaken, trees grow through the structure of the temple

in some places holding it together, in others causing it to crumble. The next day we rode our bikes

out to the further temples. These were not as busy, yesterday was very crowded, so we could take

our time to look, climb and walk around .We really enjoyed exploring these less popular temples

and our favourite of all was Preah Khon, a large temple with many carvings and statues in quite a

bad state because of trees but being restored.

Cambodia theborder to Siem Reap

Poipet is the border town in Cambodia and as we were warned by the Lonely Planet, it does not give a good first impression of Cambodia. Poipet is a market town and also a place where casinos have been set up, it is busy and dirty. We now have to ride on the right hand side of the road and it will be this way now until Europe. All prices are displayed in Thia Baht, USA dollars and Cambodian Reil which is very confusing as we may pay in one currency and be given change in another.

It is very obvious Cambodia is a poor country compared to Thailand. There is a lot of rubbish, the streets are dusty and smog is ever present. Housing is poor. The smiling children riding their bikes to school give us a boost, they usually call out ‘hello” and wave. There are a lot of schools along the highway so this is enacted every morning, many young children riding adult size bikes often with a brother or sister sitting on the back. The road is good with a shoulder for bikes and motorbikes, fairly flat most of the time, just an occasional hill. There are less cars and more motorbikes which are used to carry whole families, loads of hay, pigs and anything else that will fit on. This area is rural, many rice paddies and other crops. The map indicates a town but all we see is markets along the roadside and perhaps a government building, obvious because of their opulence compared to the housing around. Chickens range free as do the cows, it is the dry season and there is not a lot of feed and the cows are scrawny, they wander across the road and the vehicles stop for them to cross, as we do. As we approach Siem Reap it is obvious it is market day. There are small pigs carried in bamboo cages, large pigs laying docile on their backs with their feet in the air and chooks hanging upside down on racks – all alive on the back of motor bikes. When we stop for a drink it is not cold, the stall holders are poor and not many tourists stop here to give them a reason to cater for hot, thirsty cyclists. We did meet another coupling cycling the opposite way, they were from China . We swapped maps, they took our Thailand map and we took their Cambodian one and exchanged information about road conditions. There were police checks along this part of the road, they normally waved us on but we were stopped once and we explained we were tourist before we could go. Just a few kilometers before we reached Seim Reap we felt spots of rain, very light rain fell but we must have just been on the edge of it because as we rode on it was obvious heavy rain had fallen ahead of us. We stopped for a drink when we got to Seim Reap to check our map and find where we might find a guest house when we got talking to an Australian man Peter and his daughter Bernadette. Peter worked for the UN and was in Cambodia for the first elections after the overthrow of Pol Pot and was showing Bernadette around. Peter gave us a quick history of that era and shared a few stories of his time here. They were enjoying themselves and Peter was very happy to see how the country has progressed since those terrible times. We found a guest house, the best we have stayed in so far which is good because we plan to stay here for four days, spending most of that time visiting Angkor Wat.

Sunday, 22 January 2012

Swapping maps with some Chinese cyclists

Rural Cambodian

Bankok to the Cambodian border

Every time we asked someone for directions how to get of Bangkok to head to the Cambodian border they advised us to catch a bus. We did take this advice on board and made enquiries but we would still have to ride to the other side of the city to catch the bus. Mike had maps and worked out our route but we were a little apprehensive about setting off. As we were leaving the hotel we met a Chinese cyclist who had just come through from Cambodia and he had come the same route that Mike had mapped out which gave us a bit of confidence. The traffic was every bit as terrifying as we had imagined. The road was very congested and sometimes we walked along the footpath because it was quicker than riding in the traffic. There is a wide shoulder for cyclist and motorbikes to ride on which was great, only problem is the motorbikes use it to ride both ways and this took a bit of getting used to, a bit frightening the first time it happened. The cars drive defensively, weaving in and out of lanes and coming very close but there is no road rage and very rarely to you hear the screech of brakes, drivers only give way if they have to so we needed to ride the same way otherwise we would never be able to change lanes. Mike did a great job of navigating and we made it out of the city in one piece and did not get lost once. The traffic reduced in volume as we got to the outskirts but we still had to keep our wits about us. Now after this harrowing day we had to find accommodation and a place where it was safe for us to eat which we eventually did, then found a market to buy some essentials like soap and toilet paper. Toilet paper is not provided anywhere and we need to make sure we have an adequate supply. In Bangkok we had to pay 2 bahtt to use the toilet at markets and another time 5 bahtt when paper was supplied. Now we have discovered Jiffy petrol stations since leaving the city, they have clean free toilets but no paper. Sorry about all this trivial information but it is something that we have to live with. On our second day we are at long last out in the country with rice paddies and open spaces, but still a lot of pollution and traffic. We were riding on a four lane highway, no hills, no wind and high humidity. There is ample opportunity to stop regularly for cold drinks and we do. We have not seen another tourist since leaving Bangkok and we know we are in the country now because locals wave to us and call “hello” as we ride by. No one speaks English but we get by with pointing and gestures and we all have a giggle. The next day we turned off the main highway into a quieter road and rode through a farming area and gum tree plantations. There are few hills, not large ones and a bit of a breeze which is most welcome as it is hotter and more humid today. The smog was not as bad and this was a very pleasant change. We made it to Sa Kaeo,a fairly large town with lovely gardens down the centre of the town, our last stop before the Cambodian border, found a hotel and had a great meal at a market stall, the best we have had since leaving Bangkok. It started to rain while we were eating our meal and we had to scramble to get under cover, it is almost the end of the dry season here. It was a bit cooler as we rode 50ks to the Cambodian border, no markets along the road but there were a few modern cafes to cater for tourists. It took us three hours to cross the border, standing in long queues first to wait for our visas, then to leave Thailand and then to enter Cambodia.

elephant ride

This picture is especially for our grandchildren.

The New Bridge Over The River Kwai

The Kings Palace

Bangkok

Our week in Bangkok was very enjoyable and a lot of fun. Bangkok is a frantic place, lots of traffic, markets on every street and full of tourists. It is also hot and sticky with smog shrouding the city. We stayed in the tourist district where all the low budget tourists stay and accommodation and food is inexpensive. We met a local man, Sewit, who stopped to help us when we got lost . We spent a couple of evenings in his company and learnt a bit about the locals. We enjoyed the food enormously and found some favourite places where we ate regularly. Breakfast was usually at the market near our hotel consisting of muesli, fresh tropical fruit with home made yoghurt then a smoothie, all for 100 baht – about $3.30 for the two of us. We tried all sorts of stir fries and curries and Mike has developed a taste for Singha, the local beer. We used the water taxis to get around where possible, this took us away from the busy polluted streets onto the river and we would get off at the many piers along the way. We also had a ride on a Dragon boat which took us up the canals leading off from the river, Little Venice it is known as locally. The King’s photo is everywhere, in nearly every café and business, huge photos in the street and on every government building – he is very good at self promotion. Buddhist temples are also everywhere, with ornate statues of the Buddha, we visited a number of them. We were impressed with the King’s Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, hand made tiles covered the buildings and many ornate statues of Gods and Godesses adorned steps and buildings. We also took a trip to see the bridge over the River Kwai, visited the war graves there and went for a train ride on the old railway line. We also went for a bamboo raft ride down the Kwai River and had a ride on a Thai elephant. Then it was time to set off on our bikes to Cambodia but were dreading the traffic we had to content with to get out of the city of Bangkok.

Sunday, 8 January 2012

Excess Baggage

The boxes at the back are our bikes

Bangkok

The next leg – Bangkok

Homesickness and a longing for grandchildren’s cuddles meant we booked a flight home for Christmas. There was preparation for the next stage to do, get injections, service the bikes, jettison some of our gear, we had too much, so we did this at home instead of in Perth. It was great to see the family again but we needed to continue our journey.
Mike has lost 15 kls, Heather only lost 3 but has turned grey.

We are now in Bangkok where we will spend a few days before heading off for the Cambodian border.