recent posts
- Day Of Food – Thailand
- 23,000 Kilometre Photo
- Cambodia By Numbers
- The Hot South
- Day Of Food – Cambodia
- Cycling Flat Out
- Quiet Times At Angkor Wat
- On The Temple Trail
- 22,000 Kilometre Photo
- Laos By Numbers
most read posts
random images
archives
- February 2012 (1)
- January 2012 (10)
- December 2011 (6)
- November 2011 (7)
- October 2011 (8)
- September 2011 (7)
- August 2011 (7)
- July 2011 (8)
- June 2011 (8)
- May 2011 (11)
- April 2011 (11)
- March 2011 (6)
- February 2011 (6)
- January 2011 (6)
- December 2010 (5)
- November 2010 (6)
- October 2010 (4)
donations
Watching yet another slow sunset over the Mekong while sipping a cool fruit shake and gently rocking in a hammock we felt a twinge of guilt at having so easily succumbed to the charms of Don Det island leaving our sense of adventure behind on the mainland. Amongst days of doing nothing much, we planned our onward route through Cambodia with an eye for adventure including another off-road fling and visits to remote temple ruins.
Leaving Laos we avoided the spurious stamp fees the officials asked for and simply ducked under the barrier into no-mans land. I was expecting the hounds to be unleashed, sirens to blare and machine gun fire to strafe the ground at my feet, alas not even a flicker of interest from the Laos border officials.
With Emma feeling off colour after a night spent largely in the bathroom, we were surprised that the obligatory Cambodian temperature test came back all clear and she wasn’t sent back to Laos. We quickly moved on to being taught the Cambodian for “thank you” (aw khun) and negotiating reductions for more spurious “stamp fees” with the Cambodian officials. Its amazing how two dirty cyclists bargaining over a few dollars quickly gets old when a bus full of tourists with shiny new backpacks arrives. We were swiftly waved on.
The road to Stung Treng is sparsely populated and has little shade making for hot cycling. The sizzling temperatures aren’t helped as we pass stretches where the fields either side of the road have been deliberately set alight to clear them for agriculture. With a stiff wind blowing hot ash across the sky and not a soul in sight we wonder how controlled the fires really are.
From Stung Treng we planned to cross the Mekong by ferry, head west on route 214 towards the Koh Ker temple complex then drop south past Beng Mealea and join the main route 6 into Siem Reap. Discussing this plan with a local at our guesthouse, he advises that the 214 road is in very bad condition and we will need to cycle 150km to reach the first guesthouse. With the first ferry leaving at 7am the next morning, we head to bed with our sense of adventure restored.
Timetables, signs and any sense of safety are all absent from the ferry the next morning. As a man signals at us not to board, we insistently push our bikes past him onto the barge. With a grader, numerous motos and foot passengers already on board, we don’t see how our touring bikes will tip the balance. A short while later we watch in amazement as the grader shuffles forward to allow a lorry and a smaller truck to squeeze in. The barge lowers noticeably in the water and I ponder if in a pinch my panniers could double as flotation devices.
The ferry is pushed by a small tug that has seen better days from the Tonle San river into the fast flowing Mekong where the water noticeably muddies and the tug’s engine pitch goes up a few notches. With careful precision the tug captain guides the barge into the far shore where a mad scramble to exit ensues.
We are following some notes about cycling route 214 from cyclists Kate + Jason we met in China containing ominous warnings of construction crews cutting a new road across the old jungle track. Its not long until we see Chinese surveyors dressed in immaculate light blue boiler suits and white hard hats. They stand incongruously amongst pecking chickens and children playing games in the dust as they take sightings for the new road. I wonder if they have a full laundry service at their camp.
Although we find small sections of the original jungle track it has largely been bulldozed out of sight in preparation for construction of what seems to be a dual carriageway. Over the next few hours of cycling we witness road building Cambodian-style. Heavy machinery pushes and pulls the earth apart, workers escape the midday sun in hammocks and small fires slowly nibble away at the jungle under the watchful gaze of guardians whose main fire control tool seems to be a stick. There is no traffic, save the occasional moto, and with few villages along the route which terminates at the Mekong, we wonder who will use the new road when it is finished.
Following a moto equipped with bell, chiller, ice-shaver and vividly coloured flavour jars (the local version of an ice-cream truck) for most of the afternoon, we drink our water supply dry and refill from a gleaming new water pump. The environmental cost of road progress seems to be partially paid for by the installation of these new pumps in most villages we pass.
In almost total darkness after 138km of dusty, hot riding we reach Tbeng Meanchey’s strip of street lights and a guesthouse. The security guard asks where we came from and when I say Stung Treng he looks at me seriously and says “That’s a long way”. Wearily cleaning and oiling our bike chains, I nod my head in agreement.
In our hotel room, we strip off to find the exposed parts of our bodies have been coloured in deep earth tones by the pervasive brown road dust clinging to our skin. The shower water runs brown for a good long while as we both rinse off and soak under a rare hot shower.
A quick morning of cycling with a tailwind gives way to brutal heat as the sun climbs the sky and although we arrive at the Koh Ker temple complex by lunchtime we are already drained. The only room available is a little pricey but we take it, dump our bags and jump back on the bikes for the 6km ride into the park. Other than two dirt bike riding tourists we wave to in one temple, we have the place to ourselves and spend four exciting hours clambering over ruins and feeling like regular explorers.
The jungle while cleared from the ruins is never far away and it is easy to imagine the buildings falling into disrepair to be slowly consumed by trees and forgotten by local villagers. The thrill of ducking through partially collapsed passages and peering at moss covered inscriptions is hard to beat for its sheer childish pleasure. However forming an impression of how the vast temple complex may have been used in day-to-day life is more difficult with little information available at the site about their historical roles.
With rumbling stomachs we decide to forgo a visit to the main temple and instead eat at a small restaurant where the owner rocks her baby to sleep in a hammock. The hammock is swung with an almost dangerous level of force but whenever the motion stops the baby wakes. As a result all available adults are kept busy making sure the hammock is kept in full swing. The stall owner seems sad as so few tourists visit these ruins and we wonder if her business and family are struggling.
The next morning we breakfast in a small local village on instant noodles (the only dish available) and drink thick strong iced coffee. We are amazed at how widely basic English is spoken even in rural Cambodia as we talk with the cafe owner about our trip and first impressions of the country.
Cycling along a mixture of dirt and paved roads we stop for regular fluid top-ups with fresh coconut juice being our favourite. After around 40km we reach the temple site of Beng Mealea where Emma befriends a stall holder in order to park our bikes under her watchful eye. We later repay the favour by drinking more coconut juice from her stall.
The site is a huge overgrown maze of ruins where you can climb and clamber to your heart’s content. We follow a string of children winding their way through the ruins as they chatter and chase each other pausing only for breath or to sell snacks to less energetic foreign tourists. I think this must be the best local playground in the world.
With this being a single site (and by eavesdropping on a few tour guides), its easier to get a sense of the place Beng Mealea would have held in an ancient society. As the sun climbs higher in the sky most tourists are whisked off to lunch by their waiting buses. The few remaining visitors sit scattered around the ruins in quiet contemplation while the laughter of the playing children drifts through the air.
We stay overnight in the junction town of Dam Dek, cycling the last 35km to Siem Reap the following day. Arriving in this tourist mecca early, we are surprised that many guesthouses are fully booked but after an hour on foot, Emma has found us a hotel. Over dinner that night we plan our approach to visiting the Angkor Wat temple complex and hope that our previous days have not laid the ground for a dose of temple fatigue.
2 responses to “On The Temple Trail”
related posts to “On The Temple Trail”
22,000 Kilometre Photo
The 22,000 kilometre photo was taken on the way to Dam Dek, Cambodia on 7th January 2012. After a drink stop we managed to convince one of the local guys to pose for a photo with us and contribute the two fingers we needed for our total. Its possible his initial hesitancy at being photographed was due to the strange footwear combo we are wearing. Our excuse was we were cycling due west for most of the day and only one foot was in the sun. – Posted by Justin
Road To Ulaanbaatar
The sunshine reappears quickly, but it takes a couple of days for us to undo the damage done by our rainy arrival to Tsetserleg. As a break from mud related chores, we make the obligatory hike up a hill to the local temple early one morning, admiring the pagodas and bells on the way with just a handful of devotees. More fascinating to us is the cliff behind where the aim seems to be to get your strip of blue cloth as high up as possible, which must be a variation on the ribbon strewn hill-top ovoos we see each time we climb. – Posted by Emma
Flying Along The Main Road
After the trials of our desert riding, it feels good to be able to cycle just a few kilometres from Songino before erecting our shelter to wait out the midday heat with bellies full of food and water. Even the ever-present swarms of flies don’t dampen our spirits although they do force us back onto the road an hour or so earlier than usual. – Posted by Justin
leave us a comment on “On The Temple Trail”
route map for this post
The map below shows the waypoints for this blog post. To view the details of our trip to date take a look at our complete route map.
Been following your travels since the start and certainly envy you the adventures you are having… not sure I’d want to be cycling too close to a mine field though. I’ll be getting back out on my bike in a month or two but the adventures will be a little closer to home.
Hi Alastair – Its great you have been reading along with our travels since the beginning. Being now only a few weeks from the end of our trip the kilometres and time seems to have flown by.
Yep cycling near a minefield is normally best avoided but sadly in Cambodia much of the countryside hides the threat of mines.
Justin