Dateline: Siem Reap, Cambodia

We have been here for 2 days now and have bicycled both days. Yesterday we did about 10 miles and today we did about 12 miles. It is incredibly hot and humid - a three shower a day place. Bicycling actually cools us off - if you were walking and in the sun, you would plotz.


At the end of our first ride, we wound up at this temple at sunset. The guides set up a small picnic atop the temple, with champagne, beer, and snacks. It was a great finish to the day.


The temples are amazing. We've taken a lot of photos and are having a great time. Our group here in Cambodia is only six of us, plus our guide, Marco, and our local guide, Fin. We pick up nine more people tomorrow for the Vietnam part of the tour.


There is also Chan Ra, the brother of the manager of the local tour company that B&R has to contract with. Chan Ra is a real character who is into wagering on cockfights.

Fin speaks impeccable English that he learned in school here in Siem Reap. He had a benefactor from Brooklyn of all places that he met several years ago and paid for him to go to school. He has a degree in computer science, but can't get a good job here in Cambodia in that field. Being a tour guide is a good job and allows him to earn enough to support his wife and child.

Marco was born and raised in the U.S., but has spent a lot of time in Italy. He is our guide throughout the entire tour and he is a lot of fun. We needle him about his tattoo (a pun) and his need to get a real job. He has a Masters degree in Italian.

This is a VERY poor country. We passed a lot of small villages while bicycling (on the unpaved roads) and saw how the people live. We are very fortunate to live in the U.S. We stopped at one house where the family had a small conglomerate - a large pig pen, a rice whisky still, a corn mill, a water buffalo, a bamboo fence making business, and some farm land. We just dropped in on this family - unplanned. They are considered well off for this area.

A number of people bicycle into Siem Reap from the countryside every day to work construction jobs. They are good paying jobs and they don't have to speak English. There are a lot of new hotels being built here. The largest number of tourists come from Korea, followed by the Japanese, and then the Americans. They expect the number of tourists per year to grow to over 2 million from less than one million in 2004. You should visit here before it is overrun and destroyed by tourism.

Our hotel, the Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor is in old British colonial style. All the food ingredients have to all be imported though. The staff is very friendly and all speak wonderful English (much better than our Cambodian).

Caren had a little accident bicycling today. We were going over a wooden bridge and she hit a loose board with the front wheel of her bike. She fell over (not into the water) and got a few scratches. She also pulled a muscle in her rib cage and got covered with dirt (this place is extremely dusty). She got right back up on her bicycle and "nutted it up."

We are visiting more temples here in the Angkor area later today and tomorrow morning. Tonight we are having a traditional Khmer dinner at the Hotel de la Paix with snake meat, red ant sauce, and other local delicacies.

Then it's back to Ho Chi Minh City for one more night and on to Dalat to start the rest of the trip. Stay tuned for more excitement.