Legends of the Hidden Temple

Just in case you were worried that I might be contemplating the undertaking of some epic blogging feat for our trip- a post for every day we were gone in full detail- I wanted to clear the air and say I have no intention of doing any such thing.

Now back to Siem Reap. We got up early Saturday morning and went to breakfast on the rooftop bar of our restaurant where we enjoyed the best freshly baked baguette either of us has ever had. Didn't see that one coming. [sorry France, I still love you.]

So we knew that our hotel was relatively close to Angkor Wat- probably a 10 minute drive- so I decided it would be fun to rent bikes for the day and explore the temples that way.  In case you aren't familiar with Angkor Wat, it's an entire ancient city full of temples that are spread out over a...really big space? [wishing I'd bought one of those handy guidebooks right about now...].

Anyway, even Lonely Planet told us we couldn't take in much if we were just walking so bikes it was! We're adventurous. We like exercise! And who cares that I haven't ridden a bike since I was in elementary school [yes, literally]; The "It's like riding a bike" thing is an expression for a reason, right?

We rent our bikes from the hotel. They're a little rusty, but it's not a big deal. The real problem is that they can't adjust any of the seats on the bikes to be short enough for me [darned Europeans- I promise you, every backpacker you'll see in SE Asia is European and they're all gigantic. Even the lady Europeans could eat me for lunch-they're that huge] so I have to kind of jump off the bike to one side when I need to stop since my feet can't touch. Oh well, I'm game.

We set off, and I very quickly realize that I've made a horrible mistake. I don't remember ever riding a bike now that I'm on one in the middle of the street and cars and motorcycles are whipping around me. I ask J how far it is, and he doesn't know. After a good while we stop for directions and realize we're going the wrong way and the street that we need to take to get back on course is only moderately paved. I'd rather have dirt road than slimly paved: there are so many potholes you can't avoid them and after another ten minutes (each one of which I'm sure will be my last) of bouncing clumsily down the backroads, something the locals were finding vastly amusing [that and my hop-to-the-side/breaking-dismount], I told J I wasn't so much feeling the bikes anymore.

And like an angel straight from heaven Jieh (Gee-uh) came to our rescue. He loaded our two bikes onto his tuk-tuk, took us back to the hotel to drop them off, then carted us straight back to the temples and chauffeured us all day long around Angkor Wat. Lord love him. At least I tried (right, Uncle Doc?)

Guilty.

And this is what we saw:

View from the top of one of the major temples.

Incredible old trees have taken over this temple.

I don't know how it stays like that. It doesn't seem structurally sound.

A friendly visitor.

The most impressive thing about this picture is the fact that I climbed those stairs.

After a day at the temples we headed back into town for dinner and a trip to the Night Market.  We loved Cambodia. It's my new favorite country. The next morning we left to do the same taxi/bus trip in reverse to make it to Bangkok in time to catch our flight to Phuket.

This dish is the specialty of Siem Reap. It's fish served in a bowl of banana leaves in a coconut sauce.