Jumanji

We had a fairly painless trek from Bangkok to Siem Reap in Cambodia - as painless as, a bus, to a tuk-tuk, to an immigration office, to a visa office, to a bus, and then to a shared taxi (all in 7 hours) can be. We had read so many horror stories about foreigners being scammed out of money at the border, that we were fully prepared when the employees demanded we pay more for our visa than the posted price, and keeping our cool we firmly denied their request and won. We successfully crossed our first border over land.

Siem Reap has been flooded by tourists since the late 1990s (after the final traces of the Khmer Rouge were out of power) and now over 2 million people visit Angkor's temples every year. And although the hot season is truly hot and humid, we were so happy that we didn't arrive during high season when the ruins are swimming with foreigners - it was worth sweating more than we ever have before. We didn't help ourselves by renting bikes from our friendly hotel staff at Mommy's Guest House. We started peddling early, but 8 am wasn't hardly early enough to beat the heat.

Angkor Wat, built in the 12th century as a funeral temple, honors Vishnu and is the largest religious building in the world. It is designed to replicate the spatial universe...meaning the central tower = Mt Meru, smaller towers = surrounding mountain peaks, courtyards = continents, and the moat = the ocean. It is the main temple of Angkor and is very well preserved, with many bas reliefs, sculptures, and inscriptions still intact. After exploring the huge temple, up and down stairs, in and out of hallways, we set off on our bikes through Angkor Thom (the fortified city of the ancient Khmer empire). Once we were past the most popular sites here, we rode through the lesser known ruins without hardly any company - the best way to explore this mysterious ancient world. The temples that we took some time to explore, Preah Khan, Ta Som, and Ta Prohm have been left alone since they were abandoned by the ancient civilization, and these 12th century Buddhist temples are being devoured by the surrounding jungle. Massive tree roots strangle the stone buildings, snaking their way around windows and through cracks. Think Jumanji or Indiana Jones, part of Tomb Raider was actually filmed in one of these temples. It was a scene from out of this world and worth spending time to soak it all up and get some great photographs.

Unfortunately, Maddie's bike tire exploded and needed to be fixed, but luckily there was a guy for that in the grounds, and it wasn't too bad playing with the village kids while we waited. A few hours later, soaked with exhaustion, Paul's tire went flat, so we called it a day, put two bodies and two bikes onto a rickshaw (would never fly in the US) and headed back to town.