A Malaysian girl learns the best way to see crowded Angkor temples: on two wheels

Have bike will travel: The writer’s bike at the Bayon temple.

From Battambang town in western Cambodia, it was another two full days of cycling to reach Siem Reap, the main town next to the famous temples of Angkor. Since the terrain is mostly similar to what I had experienced already when cycling from Phnom Penh, I decided to take a four-hour bus ride with my bicycle stuffed in the luggage compartment.

I arrived in Siem Reap in the late afternoon, and was hit with the full force of commercialisation that was vastly different from the rest of Cambodia – hotels, restaurants, massage parlours, shops etc. I quickly found a good hostel, deposited my luggage and made my way to the Angkor Archaeological Park to claim my free sunset.