Tomb Riding in Cambodia (Part 3)

Wondrous and stunning as the centuries-old temples of Angkor Archaeological Park in Cambodia may be, if you’ve just spent two days straight just looking at nothing but temples, it is possible to get “templed out.”

After two days of “Tomb Riding” around the temples of the massive Angkor Wat complex, we needed a breather so we could appreciate them more, so we boarded a bus and headed to Phnom Penh for a couple of days. After getting depressed at the Killing Fields and Genocide Museum (which we read were the requisite “Things to Do When in Phnom Penh”), we returned to Siem Reap ready again for our last full day of biking.

Our first stop on Day 3 of biking around Cambodia was Phnom Bakheng, a hilltop temple from where you can get a view of the Tonle Sap Lake and a distant Angkor Wat. While tourists usually visit aboard elephants to watch the sunset, the temple is quiet the rest of the day. Getting here requires a 15-20 minute hike from where you park your bikes.

There’s a separate route for elephants, a route for hikers, and a straight almost vertical climb right down the middle for those who want a shorter but more grueling climb. The site was undergoing major restoration when we visited, so the temples didn’t really look impressive, but we got a wide view of Angkor Wat from here.

Our next stop was Baksei Chamkrong, a towering 12-meter tall brick and laterite step-pyramid. The Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva can be seen on the left side when entering Angkor Thom at the southern gate.

Getting up the stairs to the main doorway involved clambering up almost vertically. We waited a bit for the rest of the tourists to leave so we could take turns climbing up.

It felt even steeper going down. Your knees can really buckle at the heights. If you’re afraid of heights and get exhausted easily, I don’t suggest you attempt climbing this. But if felt pretty cool to reach the top.

It was pretty hot during the morning and all that biking and climbing left us thirsty. Good thing there are a lot of cafes serving fresh fruit shakes around. We also stopped to get some souvenir shirts because we end up dripping in sweat.

After a short break, we continued biking randomly around, just consulting the map and visiting smaller temples we hadn’t visited yet.

I’m not even sure any more what the names of some of the temples where we stopped are. I know some tourists feel like once you’ve seen one temple, you’ve seen them all, but each temple has its own unique characteristics. As locals say: “Same, same but different.” I think we we ended up in another gate of one of the larger temples we visited previously because the architecture and feel seemed very familiar.

Some areas have more distinct characteristics than others though. Neak Pean was another interesting and scenic site. To get here, we had to park our bikes near the unpaved entrance and then walk on a wooden bridge-like platform, first over the unpaved road and then over a marsh land for about half kilometer. This temple was originally designed for medical purposes based on the ancient Hindu belief of balance. Four connected pools represent Water, Earth, Fire and Wind.

East Mebon was anther impressively large temple mountain like ruin, rising three levels and crowned by five towers. The temple is dedicated to Shiva in honor of the king’s parents and contains varied sculptures including two-meter-high free-standing stone elephants at corners of the first and second tiers.

Religious scenes include the god Indra atop his three-headed elephant Airavata and Shiva on his mount, the sacred bull Nandi. This temple had some particularly elegant carvings.

The most iconic view of Angkor Wat is the facade at sunrise, usually with a reflection on the pond in front of it. This is probably your image of Cambodia based on postcards and paintings. In fact, hordes of tourists wake up at the crack of dawn and wait the right moment to try and recreate this shot. I enjoyed just biking around exploring the lesser-known temples and ruins we passed, which don’t get as many tourists.

There are other interesting sights to see in the Angkor Wat complex aside from temples for those who want to take it slow and soak in the culture. Along the way, we got a nice, refreshing view of Srah Srang, a reservoir dating from the 12th century where local kids were taking a dip.

With sunset looming on the horizon, we decided not to stop and enter all the other temples we came across. Just biking past them was rewarding enough. Pre Rup is an architecturally and artistically superior temple mountain with beautifully carved false doors in the upper levels with well-preserved carvings.

Bantay Kdei whose name means “A Citadel of Chambers” was another Buddhist temple located southeast of Ta Prohm and east of Angkor Thom. We noticed that the sprawling, largely unrestored monastic complex had a few areas that have suffered from vandalism and inferior grade of sandstone and poor construction.

Our last stop after a full day of biking was revisiting Angkor Wat, the most famous and best-preserved temple at the site. Since it was pretty crowded with tourists in front of Angkor Wat, we just followed the dirt roads and ended up finding an area behind the main structure to enjoy the sunset there.