Takeo

We were heading out from the hotel at about 0845 thus morning.. a slightly diminished group. 8 participants where finishing in Phnom Penh.. however we have been joined by 3 new ones so it was a party of 9 setting out into the morning rush hour. It was a bit crazy at times dodging and weaving amongst the bikes, motor bikes, cars and trucks. Mostly the riding was pretty easy being down main roads out of the city and so we didn't really take a break until the 27km mark when we turned off on a side road and enjoyed water and fruit at a small shop.
Suitably refreshed and rested we continued on what was developing into a warm and windy day. We travelled on through villages .. the roads were quite variable.. sometimes smooth, other times quite rough with big rocks, occasionally muddy and once in a while sealed (bliss.. my butt was feeling it!). The next rest break was at 38km at another stall, where we had more fruit and drinks. Shortly after we stopped again to visit a family who weave silk. As we pulled up one of the new participants took a tumble .. coming down hard on knee and hip.. bruised and grazed.. and cross.. but fortunately nothing more serious.
The process of silk weaving is intensely time consuming.. a sarong takes for than 10 days to weave working 5-6hrs a day. The family had some scarves to sell asking only $5 each for them. They would have been lucky to have received $2 for them and the they are sold on for $30 in the shops.
We carried on riding through villages and rice paddies at one stage even taking single track paths through the rice paddies themselves. A brief water break the and it was off down some narrow tracks along a river and passing more fields and paddies.. it was a little hairy at times with potholes and ruts but we eventually emerged from the at my a ruined temple.. still used as evidenced by the offerings but essentially untended. We had a wander about for a bit before tackling the final few kms to lunch and the end of a 63km day.
Lunch was cooked fresh at a "truck stop" type restaurant.. I very much enjoyed my stir fried veggies with an egg.
After lunch we climbed the 420+ steps to visit Prasat Phnom Chisor which is an ancient Khmer temple, sometimes referred to just Phnom Chisor) located on top of the hill. The temple was built in the 11th century of laterite and bricks with carved sandstone lintels by the Khmer Empire king Suryavarman I, who practiced Brahmanism. It was dedicated to the Hindu divinities Shiva and Vishnu. On the east edge of the mountain, at the back of the temple, there you can see a vast plain of surrounding rice fields and countryside, looking down to the east could see an avenue that forms a straight line connecting to Sen Thmol Temple, the now heavily grown ruin we had visited earlier.
We made our way back down the steps and then it was on to our bus for the tribe to Kampot.Read more