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You are here: Home / Photo Blogging / On The Road / On The Road – Uncle Ebeneezer – SE Asia Valentines (Part 9)- Bicycling Through Angkor Thom

On The Road – Uncle Ebeneezer – SE Asia Valentines (Part 9)- Bicycling Through Angkor Thom

by WaterGirl|  January 6, 20225:00 am| 11 Comments

This post is in: On The Road, Photo Blogging

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Uncle Ebeneezer

Angkor Wat was every bit as amazing as it is hyped, but it does get very crowded. So after 2-3 hours, just as the crowd was getting a bit too dense, we finished our tour and began to head towards the multiple temples at Angkor Thom.

On The Road - Uncle Ebeneezer - SE Asia Valentines (Part 9)- Bicycling Through Angkor Thom 9
Siem Reap, CambodiaFebruary 19, 2016

Having started at the Westgate, we finished our tour of Angkor Wat with one last look at the temple complex and the Eastgate, before hopping on our bikes and heading to Angkor Thom. It was very, very hot.

On The Road - Uncle Ebeneezer - SE Asia Valentines (Part 9)- Bicycling Through Angkor Thom 8
Siem Reap, CambodiaFebruary 19, 2016

The road to Angkor Thom, thankfully had a decent amount of trees and shade, which we were very happy for after baking in the sun in the grounds of Angkor Wat for nearly 2-3 hours. Just before hitting the main entrance to Angkor Thom, we stopped at a small Hindu temple named Baksei Chamkrong.

“The name “Baksei Chamkrong” means “The Bird Who Shelters Under Its Wings” and comes from a legend. In it, the king tried to flee Angkor during a siege and then a huge bird landed and sheltered him under its wings.”

It was a little off the beaten path so much less crowded, which was a nice change of pace after the thick crowds at Angkor Wat.

On The Road - Uncle Ebeneezer - SE Asia Valentines (Part 9)- Bicycling Through Angkor Thom 7
Siem Reap, CambodiaFebruary 19, 2016

We finally arrive at the North Gate of Angkor Thom. Here you can see the bridge that crosses the 100-meter moat that surrounds Angkor Thom.

On The Road - Uncle Ebeneezer - SE Asia Valentines (Part 9)- Bicycling Through Angkor Thom 6
Siem Reap, CambodiaFebruary 19, 2016

After a quick stop at the North Gate, we high-tailed it on our bikes onto a path that ran along the wall that protects the temple complex. Here you can see our view of the moat, looking down. The moat was probably 15-30 feet below us. This was where doing a bike tour really turned out to be a great choice. Getting away from the crowds and into the complex/jungle, was so cool!

On The Road - Uncle Ebeneezer - SE Asia Valentines (Part 9)- Bicycling Through Angkor Thom 5
Siem Reap, CambodiaFebruary 19, 2016

After riding through the jungle, including small villages with lots of stray dogs, we finally arrived at Bayon, one of the major Buddhist temples of the complex. After exploring the temple quickly (it was hot and not much shade) we sat down for a snack of fresh fruit and washed our faces with cool towels provided by the tour. As we were eating a prayer ritual began with the local monks banging prayer bells which caused all the stray dogs to start howling and barking. It was quite surreal.

On The Road - Uncle Ebeneezer - SE Asia Valentines (Part 9)- Bicycling Through Angkor Thom 4
Siem Reap, CambodiaFebruary 19, 2016

After our snack break we hopped on our bikes again, cruised through more jungle villages until finally reaching the WestGate (pictured here) at the end of the main complex of Angkor Thom.

On The Road - Uncle Ebeneezer - SE Asia Valentines (Part 9)- Bicycling Through Angkor Thom 3
Siem Reap, CambodiaFebruary 19, 2016

After leaving the Angkor Thom complex we crossed the moat and stopped at Chau Say Tevoda, a 12th-Century Hindu temple.

On The Road - Uncle Ebeneezer - SE Asia Valentines (Part 9)- Bicycling Through Angkor Thom 2
Siem Reap, CambodiaFebruary 19, 2016

Our final temple stop on the tour was at Ta Prohm, a very popular temple made famous by the movie Tomb Raider. It’s most recognizable feature are its’ trees:

“The trees growing out of the ruins are perhaps the most distinctive feature of Ta Prohm, and “have prompted more writers to descriptive excess than any other feature of Angkor.”[6] Two species predominate, but sources disagree on their identification: the larger is either the silk-cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra) or thitpok Tetrameles nudiflora,[11] and the smaller is either the strangler fig (Ficus gibbosa).[12] or gold apple (Diospyros decandra).[11] Angkor scholar Maurice Glaize observed, “On every side, in fantastic over-scale, the trunks of the silk-cotton trees soar skywards under a shadowy green canopy, their long spreading skirts trailing the ground and their endless roots coiling more like reptiles than plants.”[13]”

On The Road - Uncle Ebeneezer - SE Asia Valentines (Part 9)- Bicycling Through Angkor Thom 1
Siem Reap, CambodiaFebruary 19, 2016

Ta Prohm also features a lovely bas-relief of some minor deities.

On The Road - Uncle Ebeneezer - SE Asia Valentines (Part 9)- Bicycling Through Angkor Thom
Siem Reap, CambodiaFebruary 19, 2016

Ta Prohm is super cool, but be warned: it gets very crowded. And it’s tiny compared to the grounds of Angkor Wat so you can’t really escape the crowds by wandering around.

This was the last stop of our tour. After leaving Ta Prohm, our tour finished up with a delicious meal of Khmer food for lunch. Having been up since about 4 am, and being out in that heat biking 10 kms or so, we were pretty exhausted by that point. The day ended with dinner at a 5-star, world-renowned restaurant that was way to pretentious and fancy for our tastes. Honestly, we had much better meals at our hotel, various small restaurants and street food vendors. All in all though, this was one amazing day!!

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Reader Interactions

11Comments

  1. 1.

    YY_Sima Qian

    January 6, 2022 at 5:38 am

    Definitely brings back memories! The town temples of Chau Say Tevoda & Thommanon are two of my favorites, despite being so small.

  2. 2.

    raven

    January 6, 2022 at 6:23 am

    Sigh, I once thought we might go there.

  3. 3.

    p.a.

    January 6, 2022 at 7:01 am

    Great pics!
    Did the Khmer Rouge do any damage à la the Chinese Cultural Revolution? Given what they did to the populace it would be surprising if their cultural inheritance went unscathed.

  4. 4.

    Laura Too

    January 6, 2022 at 7:20 am

    I don’t usually have the luxury of being on in the morning, night is when I get my OTR fix so I am happy you might see my comment! Thank you so much for sharing the beauty of your trip, I have enjoyed every installment . Feeling the heat, imagining the food, delighting in new discoveries as you revel them. I hope to some day see them but until then I am grateful to live vicariously through you! I am off to work now. I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Hugs to you Raven!

  5. 5.

    UncleEbeneezer

    January 6, 2022 at 7:49 am

    @p.a.:  Well the war certainly did, with bullet holes still evident on many of the temples. Not sure if the KR did any purposeful damage but like I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they did.

  6. 6.

    UncleEbeneezer

    January 6, 2022 at 7:54 am

    @Laura Too: You’re welcome.  It’s a really wonderful part of the world.  Glad you are enjoying them.  Next up: Da Nang/China beach.  Probably our least favorite place on the trip, but it led us to Hoi An, which was one of our favorites.

  7. 7.

    Big Mango

    January 6, 2022 at 8:08 am

    A true highlight among my trips to Asia….I imagined the chief of an outlying people with decades of being in charge and imaging he was a man of importance then being summoned to Angkor Wat …..the scale and magnificence cannot be done justice in pictures

  8. 8.

    UncleEbeneezer

    January 6, 2022 at 8:14 am

    @Big Mango: Very true.  Pix of large, expansive stuff never do them justice.  Especially pix from 2016 on a phone that was pretty old, even then.  I had no idea just how many temples there are at AW/AT and how vast the complex is.  There’s a whole lot of jungle from one temple to the next.  It’s very easy to imagine it as a thriving city, back in the day.

  9. 9.

    the pollyanna from hell

    January 6, 2022 at 8:15 am

    @UncleEbeneezer: There was a lot of deliberate iconoclasm; the Old World’s first stone carving of numerical zero barely escaped.

    Denver temp of -1; wonderful to think that summer still exists somewhere.

  10. 10.

    JanieM

    January 6, 2022 at 11:12 am

    Thanks, Uncle Ebeneezer. These are fascinating as usual — good stories to go with the pictures — for me it’s vicarious enjoyment of a place I’ll never visit,

  11. 11.

    UncleEbeneezer

    January 6, 2022 at 12:18 pm

    @JanieM: Glad you are enjoying them.  We do a lot of virtual traveling via YouTube vids and blogs of places we likely will never get around to actually visiting.  It’s a nice remedy for all the anxiety of our current world.

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