Biking Around the Temples and other Weekend Activities

Angkor Wat is the primary reason tourists visit Cambodia, and Siem Reap in particular. The structures were constructed in the 12th century at the height of the Khmer Empire and were originally Buddhist temples. Not only is the stonework impressive but the shear scope of the project is difficult to wrap ones brain around as its not just one temple but many, spanning an area over 400 acres. Many of the stones are very large, compared to those we saw in Peru and used by the Incas, which is mindboggling to consider them moving the stones around without heavy machinery. They designed moats and waterways all around the compound to move stones and also stabilize the ground as the rainy season here can erode areas quickly. Lots of info about this amazing place can be found online if interested.

Saturday we met our bike tour guide at 4:45AM to begin our trek to Angkor Wat to observe the sun rising over the temple.  It was crazy to peddle in the dark as the streets don’t have lights and neither did our bikes.  The sunrise was a neat experience, but the sky wasn’t filled with oranges and reds to make it remarkable. The coolest part was becoming aware of our surroundings as the sun brought light to our environment.

We took our photos and went for breakfast – they had PANCAKES – real pancakes, even with chocolate chips and chocolate syrup!  Then we toured Angkor Wat, climbed up to the third level, learned the amazing stories told on the many friezes along the walls about the history of Cambodia and ancient legends. These were long walls, with intricate carvings covering the entire wall. Angkor Wat was built as a Buddhist temple but was later used for Hindu worship and so the Buddhas were removed.  There is also evidence of destruction from the bombs that the U.S. dropped in Cambodia while attempting to disrupt Vietnamese supply lines.

Angkor Wat at sunrise

More Sun

Rise & Shine at Angkor Wat!

Angkor Wat with light

Crowd gathered for sunrise

Some brotherly love at Angkor Wat

Children who assist and are sometimes trained as monks

Climbing temple stairs - very steep & narrow to force climbers to slow down
and be in a bowed position as they contemplate where they are headed

One of the many friezes - telling stories of ancient battles
& history - here the fighting is taking place on an elephant!

Local children playing in the water around the temples - when the site was made a
UNESCO World Heritage site, the families who lived in the compound were able to stay
and often work selling items to tourists to make a living.

We rode on to Ta Prohm, the temple that was used for the filming of Tomb Raider.  This temple is unique in that it has been overgrown by trees, which is really fascinating to observe. The trees literally sit on top of the temples with roots running down the ground and through the buildings.

Ta Prohm - temple where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed

Backside of same tree

Ta Prohm - Recognize the Strangler Fig tree (that we learned about in Australia)

We then bicycled through some jungle trails to the Byron temple before stopping for lunch. Here we ended up sitting down next to a nice couple from Canada and had a pleasant visit. Sometimes just a small normal conversation in English can go a long way to raise spirits.

Biking along-side ruin walls

Biking through the entrance

Striking a pose

Monkey visitor who liked our bikes & helmets and stole a water bottle!

The many faces at this temple!

Our nose-picker!

We arrived back to our hotel after 5:00 and were exhausted and dirty and SJ even fell asleep while sitting in her bike seat.  

By 4pm, SJ was OUT (taken while riding)

We did it - with Yun, our biking guide.

One small accident during the day took another casualty as 4 of us have now all fallen off of a bike at some point on this trip... only the two youngest have not – ha!  We took a quick dip in the pool and watched Dan in Real Life, Mom’s Christmas movie tradition.

Mom's bike injury

Sunday morning we went to the Dream Center for church.  We enjoyed being part of this worship service as there was so much energy.  The songs in Khmer were beautiful, but we were grateful that John had translated them to English on the slides, so that we could sing along!  It’s so moving to hear different languages worshiping the same God together!  Afterwards we stuck around and the kids all played together a bit. 

Worship at the Dream Center

Then we walked to the nearby Silk Farm and learned about the process from larvae to making silk scarves – truly incredible! 

Silk worm & the yellow cocoon it spins - the outside is raw silk & inside is fine silk

Yes, he ate this!

Winding silk

Weaving silk into a patterned scarf by hand! Takes about a week.

Unfortunately, two of the boys choose to eat a silk worm that was given to us by the guide, and later at the market, it became evident that we needed to get back to the hotel immediately. Thus began a 24 hour battle of puke and diarrhea.  Thankfully there was a purchase at the Silk Farm and so we had a plastic bag, because our oldest didn’t make it back to the hotel before stuff was flying.  Later, something hit Dad's system hard even though he didn’t eat the larvae. At this point we realized how grateful we were that our single hotel room surprised us by coming with two bathrooms! They were both needed. :)