The Amazing Eurasion Odyssey
Part 3: The Lost City of Angkor
as told by characters Matthew Garrick and Stephen Williams

Many Cambodian temples such as Banteay Samre feature intricate carvings.

The thunderous crack of a single gunshot broke the night's silence around 4:30 am. I'm not a regular handler of any sort of tactical firearms, but I certainly knew that it was bigger than a standard pistol, and it surely wasn't a shotgun. Aging Kalashnikovs are abundant in countries like this, and that was my best guess.

Being young and curious (and stupid, of course), I walked to the hostel's balcony to see what was going on. There was a gathering of locals at the corner of the street, not 30m from our accommodations. I know that it would be much more exciting if I said I was fired upon by masked gunmen and escaped from them adventurer- style by cutting some randomly placed rope and unleashing a horde of unstoppable rolling barrels on their covered position. But alas, it was not so; the locals were entirely peaceful, and no one was scared, screaming, bleeding ,or dead.

Either way, I was awake. Another night with almost no sleep. On the bright side, I knew we wouldn't miss our 7 am bus to Siem Reap, which was to be a five- hour, largely uneventful drive, though at one point a local offered us a rather tasty cricket.

Matt and Stephen Williams stand atop Angkor Wat, at 12th century temple that has become a symbol of Cambodia.

Upon our arrival in Siem Reap, we bartered a taxi ride to the Prince Mekong Guesthouse, recommended to us by our Swiss friend from the train ride. The taxi drivers tried their best to dissuade us from going there because they will receive a commission from certain hostels and hotels for taking people there and will try their best to get you to go. After much arguing, we were dropped off at our intended destination.

A crazy, shirtless old white man named Eric greeted us. He was the hostel's Swiss owner (coincidence, or something more devious...?). He gave us a free welcome drink. We played around the town and the hostel for the rest of the day, as it was too late to really do anything.

The next morning, we were up early to explore the ruins of Angkor. We mounted our trusty steeds, single- speed women's bicycles, provided for free by the hostel, and were off!

The first stop was Baksei Cham Krong, including a climb to the top. We were very impressed by the many intricate carvings in the stone.

On the way to the next temple, Angkor Thom, we saw some elephants and had to go and investigate. We paid a mere USD$1 for the privilege of feeding bananas to the elephants, which were happy to grab with their trunks. Actually, they were really happy to grab anything else we had. Matthew was quite amazed when an elephant ate a whole pineapple but not before expertly removing the stem with its powerful trunk.

Once at the Angkor Thom complex, we checked out Bayon temple and the rest of the area before heading clockwise around the circuit. After Angkor Thom, the temples were much more spread out with about four to five miles between each site.

About three miles down the road, we reached the next temple, Preah Khan. We ate lunch with some of the local children at the nearby village/booth. It is actually an interesting setup: grass hut villages are all around, and while the men are doing whatever they do, the women and kids go and try to sell things.

We made our way around many of the other sites on the route such as Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon, and the manmade lake of Sras Srang before heading back to the hostel to cool down. All in all, we biked about 48km/30mi and drank a total of about 25L of water between the two of us because it was so ridiculously hot.

The next day, we had a tuk- tuk pick us up because we were not about to bike the 125+ km trip around the really, really big circuit. The first stop was Banteay Srey, far northeast of Siem Reap. Then we hit up Banteay Samre. These were similar to the temples from the day before, but Banteay Samre had many more intricate carvings. It was also a bit more enjoyable as we could relax in the tuk- tuk for the 30- minute drives around the countryside. This also afforded us the chance to see some of the local villages and the people at work in the fields or making various wares.

At one point, we were atop one of the temples when we heard a hiss, and out of nowhere came a wild girl. Literally, wild. Her nappy hair went everywhere as she made strange sounds at us. She warily approached Matthew, sniffed him a little bit and then proceeded to give him a flower and slip a ring of grass onto his finger. Matthew did not return her affection, and she scampered away, probably to cast some terrible hex on him. Privately, I wondered if the Garricks know they have raised a heartbreaker.

We saved the biggest and best for our last day here: Angkor Wat, the most well known temple here and evidently the largest religious building in the world. We would be back on the bikes again, as Angkor Wat literally sits in the middle of the first day's route.

A huge bridge spans the manmade lake to the temple's entrance. From there, the outer cloister opens up into a courtyard that surrounds the inner section. An extremely steep climb takes you to the top of the Angkor Wat complex into the five top spires, which adorn the country's flag and are essentially the country's national monument. The top offers pretty nice views of the surrounding countryside.

Matthew was particularly excited because he found some South Carolina fans. While standing atop Angkor as the conquerors that we are (go, America!), we heard a shout from below..."Go, Gamecocks!" Matthew's never- ending supply of Gamecock attire had attracted the attention of a small group of fans from Greenville and Florence, S.C.

We spent a lot of time at the top looking around and trying to find ways to hurt ourselves. Matthew decided to walk around the entire outside of the spires on the perilously narrow edges. It looked fun enough, but I am not one to trust my worn flipflops with no tread and a failing strap.

Next, we head to Phnom Penh, and then the following day, we will cross the border into Vietnam, heading toward Ho Chi Minh City... that's Saigon for you older folk.

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