A bike trip in Australia, Hokkaido (Japan), Yunnan (China), Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia: März 2016

After two month break back home we are on ther road again.

Well not really on the road but in Angkor Wat Cambodia for the first three days because it is so huge you cannot do it just in one day.

After we arrived at the aiport we faced the same procedure as we went trough several times before on our journey.

Unpacking the bikes and putting it together.

Siem Reap meanwhile is a big tourist town with heaps of guest houses so it was pretty easy to find an accomandation even though we arrived late.

Next day we bought a three day ticket for the Angkor and started our sightseeing trip.

There are thousands of other people comming to that location but the different temples are so spread out you find lots of places being for yourselves and dig in to the submerged empire of the Khmer apart from the main temple Angkor Wat itself. There are people everywhere .

It is amazing what the Khmer built a thousand year ago and how they managed to feed a population of almost 1.000.000 people. What a logistic management challenge!

But it is even more impressive how nature gains it back how jungle overgrows buildings made forever within a few decades, how roots just blast walls by sneaking into small cracs of the bricks.

We took lots of pictures here a few amazings photos.

Cycling around Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat ranger

Siem Reap seems to be akind of wealthy enviroment but still you find a lot of poor people fighting to survive by using what nature gives. More of that we could see every day while cycling in Cambodia.

We left Siem Reap after three very intense days of sightseeing and were looking forward to cycling again! First we had a noodle soup as usual

Already after 20 kilometers out of town everything seemed to slow down. Also we did, since there was a part of 30km of dirt road that we had to cycle. Even though it was a very dusty road with plenty of holes, the villages around were stunning.

We also had to figure out very quickly that the heat in Cambodia (about 40 degrees C) is not our friend and had a break.

Along the way to our first goal there was another Khmer temple that we visited.

Before we reached the temple we had one of those amazing meetings with people in Cambodia: suddenly there was this young boy (maybe 10?) cycling back home from school. He started talking with us, telling us a bit about him and his family and invited us home. His mum was waiting for him in this little wooden hut. This boy explained to us his father is dead and they live together (he and his mum) in this house. He wants to become a teacher once, help his mum and drive a big car once. Amazingly keen on learning, happy boy. We left him and his mum just flabbergasted by what we have heard and seen.

In the lunch break we got invited by a Cambodian family that owned a small shop with beverages: they just asked if we already had lunch and proposed to cook for us! Wonderful catfish (caught by the younger of 6! brothers) with mango salad and rice cooked on a fire by Cambodian mum was served to us just a few stories later. Wow, what a day in Cambodia! Our first day of cycling here was great!

The next day we visited Koh Ker temple which was a detour of 20 kilometers but definitely worth cycling! Very calm place with beautiful temples.

We started very early every morning because of the heat and enjoyed nice breaks along the way. Here some snapshots from the daily life in the very dry Cambodian "outback" (indeed the plants and a lot of bush fires even the birds singing reminded us very much of an Australian outback and we felt "at home")