On my first visit to Angkor I visited Angkor Wat, Bayon, and Ta Promh. Those are some of the most popular, but far from the only ones with many visitors. So my goal with my solo bike tour is to get out to some of the temples I haven’t visited, and see some of the areas that aren’t the obvious trips.

I set off cycling in the morning with a plan to spend 4-5 hours and seek shelter from the midday sun at a restaurant. Angkor Wat is the first temple on my route and it was impressive enough that I swing by and revisit a bit of it.

After Angkor Wat I cycle over to the temple called Preah Khan. It’s located further away than some of the temples I visited last time. There’s a big main road running the whole way from Siem Reap through, the royal city, past the Bayon temple, up to Preah Khan. It’s a long bike ride, and I make several detours past some of the small ruins along the way, especially the ones where you can cycle around on little forest tracks.

Several of the paths and tracks I have entirely to myself. Alone out in a jungle in Cambodia. The sun shines down through the trees, the birds sing in tones I’ve never heard before, and in the middle of the track something big and flying hits me square in the chest. I’ve mentally prepared myself for this. I can’t just panic and lose control. But whatever hit me is now crawling around on my chest. It’s big enough that I’m not sure whether it’s a large insect or a small bird. It crawls from my chest up onto my neck, where I manage to swat it away. Since nothing happened, I continue without thinking any more about it.

I reach Preah Khan. Like Ta Promh, it’s located inside a jungle, and you have to walk a bit from the parking area before you reach the temple. The temple has a moat with an old stone bridge across it. 4 cars could easily drive side by side over the bridge. The temple itself is several hundred meters further in past the moat. It’s a large temple area, but large parts of the temple have completely collapsed. It has some incredibly long corridors. Standing at one end you can only see a small light all the way at the other end. After seeing so many temples across several days, I’m reaching a certain saturation point. So I don’t spend too much time at Preah Khan and cycle onward.

From Preah Khan I want to continue to a small town with some restaurants. I can either turn around and cycle back the way I came, cycle a long detour around an artificial lake, or attempt a direct passage through the forest. I’m feeling brave, so I go for the direct passage. It starts out as a well-trodden forest path, but the track gets smaller and smaller. I start having to cycle through grass and branches spilling onto the track, which I have to actively avoid. The track also isn’t heading in the direction I’d hoped, and when I finally stop, I’m 3 km into the middle of a jungle, with no clear route to my destination. My GPS shows that I’m no longer heading toward the target, but parallel to it.

I haven’t seen another person since I started on the forest path. It crosses my mind that I don’t have a good plan for what I’d do if I got hurt and needed help. I do spot a sign not far away, saying 500 meters to “Swing Bridge.” I know I need to cross a river to get to the next temple, so I continue down that track. The path turns in the right direction and gets wider, which brings back a bit of reassurance. The swing bridge appears. It looks solid and is built of thick steel wires. The planks creak beneath me as I pull the bike across the bridge. On the other side the track continues, but starts to narrow again. There is, however, a sign pointing toward Ta Nei temple. Not the temple I’d been aiming for, but it comes out onto a road, and I’m ready to get away from the jungle track.

The track toward Ta Nei temple is narrow, but with many signs along it. The track ends in a clearing, where I can see temple ruins. As I cycle toward the clearing, I feel a thread hit my neck. I have no doubt it’s a spider web, but I’m surprised how strong the thread is. I’m moving fast though, so the thread gets torn along with me, and I can feel it wrapping around my bike helmet. I’ve cycled through spider webs plenty of times back home in Denmark, so I don’t think any more about it and continue on.

From Ta Nei I’ve finally made it back to civilization, but I’m also tired. It was a long and hard route through the jungle. So I find a small restaurant along the way, get lunch, and head back toward Siem Reap.
A couple of days later I go on my last trip to Angkor. We’re going to pass by many of the temples I’ve already visited, but it’s with people from the hostel and it’s early to see the sunrise. The trip was really nice, but no sunrise as it’s overcast. On the other hand, our guide tells us about all the many dangerous animals you can encounter in the jungle around the temples and sometimes inside the temples. From venomous snakes, to venomous spiders and giant bees. He also reminds us to check for ticks when we get back. If I’d known what was out there in the jungle, I probably would have made some different choices on my bike ride.

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