Wheeling into Siem Reap in the late morning, I knew my bike would need a thing or two and by that I mean getting enough spokes to last a normal person a lifetime. I picked up ten at a smaller shop on the outskirts of town by bringing in an old one that had already snapped off to avoid getting an incompatible size again. The shop owner and I laid out a whack of spokes in a grass basket and began to seperate good from bad using my original template jig. Along the way while we worked and fit threaded ends on, she asked me where I was from, where I was going, and yelled something into the back room of her hut and soon there was a group of kids all practicing their English with a foreigner that needed a shower pretty bad. I ended up paying one American dollar for all ten, and gave her in return all the previous ones that wouldn’t fit my bike, as well as a tire tube that had found its way into a different box and wasn’t applicable to my rim size either.
Stopping in at a proper shop, Asaka of Siem Reap and the local Specialized dealer, Kim helped me out with some free spokes and I bought a higher quality tube that actually fit. We exchanged some New Years plans and chatted close to an hour in addition to a quick tour of his awesome dealership.
The town of Siem Reap is like an oasis on the edge of this country, full of familiar sights like fast food advertising, name brand logos and all the other uncommon reminders of home in this country. A city unto itself, as an island is off the shore, seemingly surrounded by a moat and shelter belt of thick, mature fir trees that guard its lively hood and source of notoriety, Angkor Wat.
The party had started without me and by people I’ve never met, taking the back roads into town meant crashing parties in the street and getting partiers out of the way from oncoming traffic. This was no doubt a tourist town at its finest, and smacked heavily of Wasagaming/Onanole in RMNP. I liked it immediately. Checking into my hotel and arguing with them until I was allowed to park my bike in the dining room, I was showered up and off to meet Chris and Barb, but first, I saw a hamburger place along the way up.
I ordered three entres, as I normally had done in Asia, due to the serving sizes being somewhat smaller than my intake desires. As I was nearing the end of my meal, a very nice girl named Lindsey sat at the table next to me and we talked for awhile, she was going to school in China and was originally from Maryland. We exchanged Facebook info and I was on my way to the pool.
Barb, Chris, Johnny Walker and I hung out by the water for awhile before getting into some music and heading out for the night, we agreed to meet up with a Tuk Tuk and spin around Angkor the next day. 9 o’clock proved to be a very early start.
I think we got ourselves the best driver the city had to offer, Borat was an old salt and knew his job inside and out. The open air, sights and sounds in this area of the world are truly unreal. Heading first to Angkor Wat, we ended up touring until sunset through several more temples (Wats), drove past pesky monkeys, offered several hundred cold beer, and had heaps of young kids persistently try selling us fridge magnets and keychains. We even got in on a Cambodian style game of hockey sack where I booted two field goals.
Angkor Wat seems to be just the one main temple in a series of various sites in this incredible area, and originally I thought it was just a stone city lodged in the middle of a desert. It’s said or speculated that the main area could’ve been a city for the people in the area as a step up and out of the bamboo huts that were used for so many centuries. A spectacular sight to see, these formations carved out of porous volcanic rock have somehow been up to the challenge of time and avoided mass destruction at the hands of many invaders.
Carvings and art, chiseled into every brick and block, murals hacked out over immense stone walls and pillars depicting the way of life down to vines and leaves no bigger than a fingernail adorn these many great temples. Some are in pristine condition, and on the other hand, some entire structures are held up with boards and ratchet straps. It’s amazing that any one of them are still intact, with the foundations they were built on, but here they are.
The next day, we had a very similar day to the last, another shorter tour for only really a half day, but after my phone indicated 11 km walked I was ready for an easy one. 62$ US got us two days with an optional day to come out again, within a ten day window. But 1.5 days with a seasoned Tuk Tuk driver proved to be an easy and full experience. 200 pictures, several beer, three coconuts and thousands of other tourists later, we were back at the hotel and ready for a sit down and supper to follow. Later that evening we sat in for a foot massage that had a set up like a movie theatre where we watched a documentary on the area we’d toured the last two days.
New Years Eve started in the early afternoon the next day, with a trip for beer, and at 12$ US, why not two 24’s? Patio bars were all the rage that night after fighting our way through an ant farm of people gathered up on bar street for the all night rave down on a busy intersection. Those peoples breakfast looked great as I came in the front doors with the sun, a quick nod and I was back in my room.
The next day was departures for us three, Chris and Barb on the bird and me on my wheels. A top notch few days in a five star location, I could’ve found myself in a Groundhog Day situation there and been very happy indeed. We gave Borat a 24 for being such a big help, and after inviting Chris and I over to his house for a few drinks, how could we not get him something extra?
I spent the next few hours drinking water and acting like I knew how to ride a bike again, but gave up shortly afterwards and pit stopped into a nearby hotel. Turned the AC on full blast. Ate some fried rice. That was that.
Crossing the border afterwards proved to be a very easy experience, for me at least. I simply asked anyone in a uniform where to go and what to do, and everyone along the way was more than happy to help me out and show me the way. It must help to have a Canadian passport, because I was through the gates in no time with zero hassle, while a Chinese guy I’d met along the way was still parked in the Thai office, having been there for at least two hours previous to me.
Thailand felt different right away. The first convenience store was air conditioned with all sorts of choices, music, uniforms and even a fried chicken stand outside. A group of German bikers and I spoke awhile of the coming distances I’d be riding and assured me I would have the time of my life in this country. I pulled into the first hotel I found and had some drinks at an outdoor bar on the front lawn with a group of locals. Johnny Cash, and teaching them how to shoot beer caps like Dazed and Confused took us through the night and I was later spooked when I drew the blinds to look out the window to see a huge lizard stuck sideways on the pane.
Into the big city I went, sweeping first into a fishing village filled with bamboo huts and swarming with the days catch and all the radio static that comes with it. Having went without a cold drink for three hours now, I dieseled a can of coke that numbed my hand and got a blinding brain freeze in the process. “Kholl?” the lady behind the counter asked me with a funny smile. “Very” I answered with sweat raining off me, as I came back from the moon.