Our ride going from Sisophon to Seim Reap while not eventful was memorable, as this was perhaps the worst day of cycling ever for me! We knew it was going to be a long day as it was over 60 miles and hot. We set off early and where as in Thailand we were able to buy something for breakfast the night before all we could find were danish biscuits and while nice they were not very filling! We managed to grab a plate of rice in a road side restaurant which caters for the tour buses from Bangkok, This was at 8.30am and the temperature in the shade was 29 degrees. We applied sunscreen several times and just sweated it off, Rich had a hat but I had lost mine so had the full glare of the sun and little wind as Rich is a wonderful wind blocker, great in the cold, but sucks in the heat! So we rolled into town with at least one of us suffering sun stroke/heat exhaustion and a cherry red face. Shopping for a hat is first on the list of things to do. So in true Den and Rich style having carefully selected three guest houses to tour around and select the best one: we went to the nearest and took the room they offered. Unfortunately for us it was a little expensive at $40 but it was lovely, so as we were both ruined and in no mood to tour around a city with no street names we stayed put, recovered and headed off to see the sunset at Angkor Wat.
The Temples of Angkor Wat ARE AMAZING! Angkor Wat itself is just stunning, although Rich did liken it to Didcot power station! In the fact that there are 5 pineapple turrets things but you only see 3 at anyone time (mostly): just like Didcot- see 3 towers but there are 6. beautiful ancient monument, 1970's concrete eyesore, Men's minds are a mystery. However after I had stopped laughing we went off for a wander. We went up and climbed the first set of steep stairs and had a look at the carvings, Angkor Wat has lots of Bas relief carvings depicting battles and dancers, amongst others. We climbed as high as we could, last time I was here you could climb right to the base of the turrets but now you can only go to the main level below, which is no bad thing, as the tourist numbers have increased but the steps are still ridiculously steep and nerve racking to climb down. Angkor Wat is a must see temple if you are ever in this part of the world I would highly recommend a visit as I can not hope to describe here what it is like.
After our ride from hell and lovely sunset at Angkor Wat we were looking forward to a day of temple touring. This started at 4.45AM!!! we had decided that to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat would be lovely too and it was, if a little crowded, not so great photos but never mind. We zipped over to Ta Prohm which is the one with all the trees growing out of it, Tomb-raider was filmed here, sadly it is very broken down and work is going on to restore it, however the techniques used are questionable as it looks a little odd with parts old weathered sandstone and parts fresh grey concrete, Thankfully the main body of the temple was literally like Lego with no mortar used lets hope they have someone who is good at jigsaw puzzles and likes building blocks. The day was very hot and humid and we were getting temple fatigue by 11am so having seen a large part of the temple complex that is easily accessible by tuk tuk from town we headed back to the hotel to recover.
Having spent the hottest part of the day secreted away in air-con'ed luxury we headed out to finish off the last of the Temples. We really enjoyed these temples as they were not so crowded and the high heat had gone there was better light for photos too although we had bought the little camera. All in all a very relaxing day (save for the sellers, water,cold drink, postcard) but once got used to it it was not so bad.
Our second full day in Seim Reap was highly uneventful as we were planning our onward journey up in to Thailand and beyond, boring but essential as we are off the beaten tourist trail and there is nothing in the guidebooks so internet searches are a must.
Day in the life tour (by Richard)
Our last day in Siem Reap and we went on a tour entitled “a day in the life”. Normally anything that smacks of organised tourism sets off the alarm bells in my head, but this was run by an NGO, and promised an experience that even independent travel couldn't give you an insight to, well not unless you happened to speak fluent Khmer, and mine's a bit rusty.
At about 8am a small group of us headed out from the town to a local village to 'help' a family with their daily work. In exchange for the family tolerating our 'help', the village is paid a small amount by the tour organisers, who also have a program to install water pumps and filters at the homes around the village.
Untreated water is a real scourge in Cambodia, 1 in 7 children die before their fifth birthday because of waterborne disease. So approximately one in every three families will lose a child for want of clean drinking water. A water filter costs (US)$47, so a little over £30.
You can follow the link to Trailblazer's website here, if you want to know more. So what do you really want for your next birthday? How about asking for a gift of a water filter for a village? There's a one in three chance your donation will save a child from dying and a certainty that it will prevent waterborne pathogens from making a family ill.
Our first task of the day however was a lot more light hearted. We pulled up at the outskirts of the village in our van, bundled out, and I was promptly handed the reigns to an ox'n'cart. Power delivery is a little different to our usual form of transport, however I can at last say that I have finally found a more bum numbing method of covering distance than on a tandem. Controls were rudimentary. Whip to go, pull on the reigns to stop and steering, well, that remained a mystery to me. Nothing I did influenced the direction the cows and cart were heading. It seemed that Myrtle and Ermintrude went wherever the nearest vegetation was going to allow them a quick snack on the way past.
First proper job of the day was helping make a roof from palm leaves for the family to re-roof their house, which must be done every 5 years. The building materials are all derived from Bamboo and the Palm tree, locally sourced, so local in fact that both trees were in the family garden. We are told that the materials are ideal for the local climate, in that they deaden the sound of the water falling during a rain storm (a tin roof will echo) while keeping the heat out of the living quarters under the afternoon sun, (a tin roof would act like an oven).
How to make a bamboo and palm leaf roof. A bamboo cane is split along it's length into quarters and cut to be just over a metre long. Dried out palm leaves are folder in half and lain either side of the bamboo pole. The spine of the palm frond is used like a giant needle and thread to sew the first palm leaf in place, and then the next leaf is partially overlaid with the first (think slates on a roof at home) and so on until the whole bamboo cane has palm leaves hanging from it. It takes about 15 minutes to do one section. The roof requires 300 sections. We were clearly not going to be able to re roof the house this morning, but it was amazing how the materials in the family garden could be used so inventively.
Next job was to make dinner for the family, we prepared soup, with rice and and a paste to accompany. The paste was particularly interesting as it's core ingredients were, salted fish, some very strong chilli, a variety of root vegetables and a whole heap of red ants to add some protein. I tried some of it and do you know, that while spicy, it tasted very nice. Denyze declined, but I did have to ask, if you are a vegetarian, does that mean you can eat ants or not?
On the way to Siem Reap from the Thai border we'd seen a lot of rice fields, with water in them. Not knowing any different, I assumed that all rice fields would look like this. But in the village, there had not been the hoped for amount of rain this year and their rice fields were dry. (This is supposed to be the wet season). I asked what would happen if the rain did not fall heavily soon, our guide replied, somewhat diplomatically, 'the villagers would have to buy in rice from outside'.
The villagers average income in this part of Cambodia is around $2 per day. Most things they need they get from neighbours if they are unable to grow it themselves, or from the bigger farmers, for whom they often work. I'm not all together sure how they will afford enough rice if all families are suffering from a poor harvest at the same time.
Our last task of the day was teaching school kids English, not having done any teaching before, I was looking forward to this, but I had no idea of how to go about it. I mean, I had no idea of their current English language skills, what the curriculum they were following was or what was it that we were expected to teach them. Each of us asked the guide about this throughout the day, but we never received very much of an answer.
The reason for this became obvious when we got inside the classroom. 70 expectant children looking at us. It seems there was no curriculum, the extent of their English was days of the week and primary colours and the guide had no idea of what was going on any more than we did. The school teachers had all bunked off for a quick fag round the back of the building.
We got down to teaching them the names of some animals. It was fair to say that it wasn't much of a success. I am glad to report that my previously assumed lack of aptitude for the teaching profession was entirely proved to be an actual lack of aptitude,... however keen the kids were to learn.
But for all of that, definitely a captivating day, and I'm really glad that we spent the extra time in Siem Reap to allow us to be able to experience it.
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