Taking in the Temples

Total Kilometeres : 420km
Punctures: 1

It has been a few days since we last updated, and we have been going flat-tack up to Siem Reap and all around the Angkor Temples.

Still no photos of Tuol Sleng, and very few of the temples, sorry. This one took 45minutes to download. We will get things sorted inThailand, land of fast(er) internet connections!

We cycled from Kampong Thom to Kampong Kdei, and then on to Siem Reap, about +/-80km each day. We thought that we would have been able to cover more ground, but it has been pretty tough going in the 30+ degree heat and high humidity, although we are loving it.

Our fan-club is steadily growing actross the country too - everywhere we go, there are heaps of cute kids and some pretty friendly adults who say "hello" (in the case of the kids, usually screaming!). Some of the people are pretty funny, too - in some of the rural towns, the "barangs" have caused quite a stir while going through. A little kid said to us the other day 'bye bye Barang"as we were cycling past. Pretty sassy!

We are finding the the heat is messing with our appetites, but have taken to exploring the full range of icy-cold canned drinksto quench our thirst and provide much-neded energy. We have been very impressed with the range of Fanta products available in Cambodia ; )

Oh yeah, and the temples... they have been okay. No really, they are AMAZING something everyone should try to see in their lifetime, if possible. We are constantly amazed by the sheer size of the complexes and the intracacy of the stone carving is breathtaking. We have decided to take a tuk-tuk around the temples, both to give us a bit of a break, and also to maximise our time here. Our driver for both days, Soviet, has been really helpful.

Just to make you all jealous, we got an hour massage each yesterday - $5 for a whole hour of pummelling! Sweet. Nothing like an hour massege to straighten out cycling-weary bodies. To bad there isnt aquick-fix for those odd tan lines we are developing though... hmm.

We were planning ontaking a dirt road up to some off-the-beaten-track temples, but the roads ate like papaya-shakes this time of year, so definately not bicycle-friendly... Not to worry, we are planning on taking in another far-flung temple - Kbal Spean - tomorrow as we make our way up to the Cambodia-Thai border crosssing on Anlong Veng. Apparently, there is a small monument in the town, marking the place where Pol Pot was creamted atop a pile of tyres, but I think we might give it a miss. Pretty grim stuff.