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	where in the world are we?	Jang our fun bicycle mechanic. Since we had a large enough group (9 cyclists), Grasshopper has a mechanic come along, with the tour guide and van driver.	We started with a 3 hour van ride to get outside of Siem Reap to where there are some good biking roads. Crispy Rice is being sold at stalls on the road as we went by.	Our tour guide Lot bought one for us to try. Bamboo section filled with rice and black beans and coconut milk, cooked for ~4 hours. Peel the bamboo and eat - yummy!	Tractor, with a long lever for steering. Very popular in Camboda rural areas. No big tractors, nothing like a combine here.

	Still a few real horse and cart being used, but mostly scooters and tractors now.	A historic bridge on the way out of Siem Reap.	9 headed snake (most of Angkor Wat has 7 headed snakes). Buddhist vs Hindu....	Lot our guide explains the bridge's history.	bridge, made of stone. Right now is the dry season (doesn't rain for ~8 months) but when it rains, it pours and this becomes a river.

	another tractor.		Back in the van, selfie of Bob, Joelle, Beatrice, Dan.	Houses are all built up on stilts.	Lot says the stilts are not because of flooding during the rainy season!

	The stilts are for 3 reasons: 1) cooler in the hot season (35C and higher) to have breezes below the floor, safe from wild predators (cobra snakes don't climb trees), and the house is luckier because it's higher which is closer to heaven.	Number of steps up is always an odd number (all odd numbers are lucky). If possible the door faces east which is lucky (sunrise).	We're behind the other van carrying the other half of our group and hauling a trailer with our bikes.	Fresh oil asphalt, hand oiling machine	Bikes lined up, ready for first day. We already had our bike fitting with Jong doing minor adjustments.

	Tractor pulling a trailer with cows :-)	Our first break after cycling a ways - fruit and munchies!	Bob likes the tractors.	A school just got out and the kids are riding home.	Here kids go to school for a half-day (either morning or afternoon) 6 days a week. Home is far enough away that without a bike they can't attend school, and too far to go home for lunch and go back the same day.

	Mostly dirt for all the Cambodia riding, though mostly smooth packed roads. Still, our butts and wrists take a pounding.	Water buffalo herd (mostly we saw cattle).	Water buffalo and cattle work the fields, and are tasty meat. No dairy here, nobody drinks milk, no cheese, etc.	Behind Bob are Joelle, Beatrice, Sue, Jong, and our support van behind us.	Joelle and Beatrice.

	More water buffalo in a rare marshy area - this is the dry season so most pastures are baked dry.		Back on a paved road after dusty dirt roads.	After a great lunch and more biking, another fruit and munchie break. This is what's left after we all hogged. The rolls of yellow on the lft are iced washcloths - awesome after a hot and dusty ride!	Next we get a tour of Sambor Prei Kuk, a set of ruins from th pre-Angkor Wat era (7th century).

	This area has not yet been designated a World Heritage Site (though that is in the works) so it's not mobbed with tourists... yet.	A guide who specializes in this set of ruins gives us a guided tour.	The tangle of tree and vines with the ruin is amazing.	Map of which ruins they have discovered so far. Hundreds more are lost to the jungle.	The tree is on top of the building, not next to it.

		Morten, Ole, Beatrice, Joelle, Richard, Bob	Next ruin, being reconstructed.	They've dug down a couple meters and it appears this entire area was paved, now covered up.

	This is brick, not sandstone. So the carvings have lasted longer, but are very difficult to restore.	Our guide points out the 3 levels of carving, for heaven, hell, limbo.	Next building, with stone lions guarding the east (main) entrance.

	Inside, top ceiling is gone.	Shrine / altar inside.	Guide says no one is sure why lions are guarding the entrance because Cambodia has never had lions. Guess is because northern India has lions?	From inside looking out.

		Dan	Morton at the wall around these ruins.

	Another case where the tree is holding up the walls.		Interesting carvings.

		Faces carved in.	Inside one of the larger buildings.	Walls go straight up for a bit, then cant inwards, used to meet at the top.	Lintels still protrude, these used to hold up a wooden floor.

	another tractor.	This tree's pods are initially edible, then they grow to contain a kind of cotton fiber, but cashmere soft.	Cracking open a pod.	Fiber is silky soft but has no strength for clothing.	A tree jumped out and bit Richard's arm. First blood of the ride...

	We're at a fruit break now.	Kids are curious about us.	We hog the watermelon and dragonfruit, and they cut up a papaya too and another watermelon. You don't go hungry here!	In the background, kids play on a couple trampolines.	At the hotel, lizard wifi! The lizards are cute, harmless, and eat bugs.

	First time we've seen Raid in a hotel room :-)	We get to sleep inside a mosquito net! Our first bug-free night in Cambodia!	Sink counter slopes down to the drain. Artsy cute idea, but not so good in practice - can't set anything in the sloping area like where you'd normally put your toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, brush... Just impractical.	Map of our travels today - Starting top left in Siem Reap, van for a while then the grouping of hits is our bicycling.	Detail of where we bicycled today.

	MapMyRide of our ride today, to compare with the SPOT track.

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