Phumĭ Phnum Kraôm

Siem Reap Countyside

Today was a (mostly) solo day and I was hyped. Firstly I could lay in as much as I wanted whilst Alfie had to go to the airport to pickup Daisy (more on that later). After having a beautiful lie in til 10, I went to find some breakfast and I decided to cycle South of Siem Reap towards Tonlé Sap - the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia. First things first, it was sweltering. The heat hadn't hit its max yet but paired with the humidity that Cambodia seemed to dominate Thailand over- I was a very sweaty dude.

On the way, there was a temple that sat ontop of a 140m tall hill. This might not seem very high but looking around it was FLAT. Flatter than the notoriously flat Kent. If it wasn't for the haze (presumably from the Northern burning season) I'm sure I could have seen Kent too. This is why this seemingly small hill towered above the vast rice fields and small villages. A sign somewhere called it a mountain - which it definitely isn't - but given how much I struggled getting to the top I'm going with that.

My first challenge was getting to the base of the mountain - my GPS was pretty spotty and its quite hard to navigate whilst the sun glares off your phone screen. Add the sting of sweat and suncream in my eyes and its a difficult combo. After finally finding the right road I made my way up the fairly gradual incline. Fairly gradual to my eyes but not my body. Holy shit I could barely move forward without having to stop to rehydrate and walk my bike up. I'm not exaggerating by saying that in the few minutes I sat down enough sweat had fallen on my phone that I couldn't use the screen any more. Cue 2 Spanish people casually making their way past me, seemingly without a single bead of sweat. This had me intensely questioning my plans for bikepacking this summer.

After getting to the ticket checkpoint 2/3 the way up, it seemed that they had left their Angkor tickets at home and they couldn't go up any more. After composing myself once again I attack the rest of the hill, stopping one more time before eventually reaching the top. After yet another sit down in the shade I now had no hope for the summer - the only possibility of success being from the lack of humidity.

I had the ruins of the temple almost exclusively to myself which made a very peaceful break, sitting on a bench amongst the trees overlooking the endless fields & surrounded by the sounds of nature. Eventually some local kids come to the trees near me - with a few strung together sticks - trying to knock peppers out of the tree. It wasn't long before the young boy climbed up the tree to grab them instead. I think seeing tourists is quite a novelty to Cambodian children as they're always very enthusiastically saying hello whenever you pass them. The view of the lake was okay but I could barely tell it was there with the haze.

After thinking I had lost my earphone and spending a while searching for it, I had found it under my bike just as I had given up all hope of finding it. We take those wins. I cycled back down the hill in maybe a fiftieth of the time and effort and decided to cycle towards the lake. I took a back road through a very rugged dirt track which passes through a small village who definitely were living a very basic life - with nothing but fishing and farming in the area. Their houses were also built about 5 meters off the farmland on precarious wooden stilts - assumedly for the rainy season?

I make it to a checkpoint close to the lake where it was revealed I wasn't allowed to cycle to the lake and had to get a boat tour if I wanted to see the floating village. Deciding against spending over 30 dollars for something I wasn't that interested in, I found a very small place for food where I enjoyed the small breeze from the ceiling fan whilst I ate some much needed lunch. After, I thought I had a few hours of daylight left to try and explore as much as I could so I really wanted to get out into the countryside. Finding a route with written directions online I headed back to Siem Reap to start my route - cycling along the very construction site esque "river".

It wasn't long til I abandoned the route and just used Google maps to find the closest remote countryside that I could - not having the sunlight or energy to go any further. I followed a red dirt track and eventually chose a peaceful enough spot to sit and take in the start of the sunset through the thick haze. After lying on the floor and most likely getting ants in places I didn't want them - I sit up to the noise of lots of quacking. I then see that a farmer was taking a huge flock of ducks for a walk and was probably walking them back home - very cute. Not wanting to cycle back in the dark I left the peaceful fields of ox and plants and start heading back.

By now I was exhausted and dehydrated nomatter how much water I drank so this was a massive slug. When I get back I change into my swimming trunks as quick as I can and shower off the layer of dirt and dust before cooling off in the pool. I chill for a while before getting out ready to meet up with Alfie and Daisy for dinner. After showing me their humongous room, we head out to the night market. After catching up with eachother I come to learn that Alfie managed to head to the WRONG airport to go and pickup Daisy. In all fairness Google Maps did him dirty and shows the recently closed airport as the only airport and the new one doesn't appear atall. Alfie thought he was gonna get scammed by the TukTuk drivers instead he scammed himself having to spend the money having to go from Siem Reap to the old airport to the new airport and back to Siem Reap.

We eat, walk through Pub Street, head to a supermarket for even more water and head back to go to sleep ready to get up early enough to catch a 6.15am sunrise at Angkor Wat.Read more