Exercising in Angkor..What?

If getting up at 4:30 in the morning and riding your your bike for several kilometers sounds like fun you should come to Cambodia, because it is amazing. We arrived in Siem Reap via boat along the Tonle Sap river with the primary purpose of visiting on of SE Asia's most famous tourists sights, the Temples of Angkor. With this in mind we rented bikes and the next morning headed out of town, under the cover of dawn, in the hopes of making in to Angkor Wat, one of the largest temple complexes, in time for the sunrise. We did make it in time, and so did several hundred other tourists with the same idea. After parking our bikes and fighting through tripods we watched the pink and orange glow of the sun on these ancient temples. It was beautiful and one that I am sure has been admired for centuries.

These amazing temples were once the capital of the Khmer empire and were built between 802 and 1177 A.D. with each king trying to outdo the previous king's construction. There are amazing carvings, towers, and gates and we spent the remainder of the day wondering around in awe. Although many of the temples are well preserved there are hundreds of them and several are being taken over by the jungle. Some of our favorite temples were those where a tree has grown on top of a building or wall and has essentially become part of the construction. Those of you who are movie buffs, or fans of Angelina Jolie, will recognize one of these temples from "Tomb Raider." The bikes were a great way to explore, and would have been even better if the temperature had been below 90 degrees. For our next two days of exploration we have hired a "touk-touk" driver to show us the rest of the sights of Angkor, as well as take us to a silk farm and land mine museum. I think it is obvious which of those two sights I chose and which one Kenny wanted.