Bicycle "Angkor at Twilight" with Grasshopper Adventures 4 Feb 2016

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  This afternoon we do a short (20-25km) bicycle tour with Grasshopper Adventures. First "oooh aah" stop: Fruit bats! They're high up in the trees. Swaying back and forth to keep cool. HUGE bats but perfectly harmless - they eat fruit. Every now and then one would take wing and flap around, but never got a good photos of one flying :-(

 
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  Back on the bicycle. Just the two of us and our great guide Chen. Nobody else signed up today so we get a private tour :-) Starts on quiet city streets in Siem Reap, heading towards Angkor Wat.

 
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  Next stop - stone carvers. Chen explains how the carvings are done Lots of guys working. This is all done freehand, manually with chisel and hammer. True artists! Completed and partially completed blocks.

 
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  Top is done, face is incomplete. Saw blade shows they do use some electrical tools. On the bottom (left side of the carving), some of the circles are done, others are still blank. This one pillar took the group 10 days to do! This guy is finishing the sanding on the bottom. Wow.

 
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  All free-hand. And every one is unique. Taking about 1/2 inch off - use a saw blade to cue parallel lines of hte correct depth and then chip off the flakes. OMG an aluminum ladder up on rats nest of power lines. And the pole holding up the power lines is also metal! Guess that makes it all grounded :-) Next stop - a Killing Fields memorial outside Siem Reap.

 
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  Chen explains some of the history of the genocide the Khmer Rouge did in 1975-1979. Idiotically believing the country could become independent of industrialized nations by becoming agrarian and self-supporting, the Khmer Rouge emptied the cities and sent everyone to work in the rice fields. And required 3x the current harvest of the normally non-irrigated rice paddies, which even the experienced farmers couldn't do. The city folk with no experience in farming had no chance. Obviously famine ensued. Anyone educated, teachers, monks, priests, were all sent away "for more learning", they were all executed. Stupa shrine of skulls from the mass graves. All foreigners and anyone of the previous government were tortured and killed. So far 20 mass grave "Killing Fields" have been found in Cambodia, which contain 1.3 million bodies. Millions more starved to death.

 
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  Here, the leaders "Brother 1", "Brother 2" etc. All are deceased, finally were tried and jailed in 2014, or are still in hiding. Across the way, family stupa - essentially crypts or mausoleums holding urns of ashes or family members. Back on the bicycle, nice smooth dirt roads for now.

 
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  Selfie on the bike :-) Chickens (for Annie!) We stop to take photos of the rooster for Annie, and to try palm juice. Ladder to climb the tree to collect juice from the flowers up top. Bottle up top is collecting the palm juice.

 
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  They'll climb up every day to empty the bottle. The juice is very sweet, can be drunk as-is or made into wine etc. Now on single-track and a little dense but not bad. Some big holes, but a real mountain biker would call this easy. At some of the outer ruins, outside the walls of Angkor Wat. Chen is a great guide - very upbeat, fun, good english, explains everything. And does fun animal imitations :-)

 
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  Fruit break! Bananas, red hairy things, dragonfruit, mangoes. The red spheres crack open to look a lot like Longan we had in Malaysia - transparent with a seed inside, taste like grapes. Bob

 
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  Sunset over the moat.

 
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  About to ride into Angkor Wat.

 
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  We stop for a monkey on the trail. "Ok, let's go!"

 
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  Riding on the walls of Angkor Wat (moat on left, water 7m down. Relatively smooth dirt on top of the wall and about 5m wide. Bob selfie

 
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  We stop at the south-west corner of Angkor Wat to admire the remains of the corner tower, and watch the sunset. Lots of folks here for the same reason. Gondola's go by on the moat. Pictures of pictures of the sunset.

 
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  Color difference - Sue's iPhone 4S, zoomed a bit Bob's "real" camera More gondolas. Walking around the ruins of the corner tower.

 
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  Did we mention we spent a while watching the gorgeous sunset? It actually set into the clouds / haze, not into the horizon.

 
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  There seems to be no trash containers or collection :-( Then back on the bike to ride a little further and exit Angkor Wat by a different smaller gate. IIRC this was the criminals gate. Too narrow for cars today.

 
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  Signs say gate is 3m high and 2m wide. Fit all 3 bikes into the van for the drive back to the city, now that it's dark out. fresh coconut awaits us back at the shop. And a cute and friendly cat.

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