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Starting point of the marathon at Angkor Wat |
Angkor Wat half marathon was held on the 7th of Dec but we were already in Siem Reap on the early morning of 5th Dec. I booked to stay at Bohpa Pollen Hotel in Siem Reap town which provides free shuttle from the airport to the hotel. That could easily save me 3 US dollar. As the marathon running kit could be collected at Aspara Angkor Hotel which is situated on the way to my hotel from the airport, the tuk-tuk driver sent me straight to collect my running kit. When we arrived at our hotel, it was only around 10 am which is too early to check-in. We took our breakfast at the hotel which provides coffee/tea, egg, bread with jam, fruit, fruit juice and fried rice or porridge for just 3 USD per head.
As we will be going to Pnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia after the marathon, we decided to book the transport to Pnom Penh in advance to avoid disappointment later. There are many mode of transport to Pnom Penh, boat ( 40USD per ticket) , bus ( 13 USD per ticket) or taxi ( 75USD per car) as provided by the hotel reception. We opted for bus service but we did not get the ticket through the hotel. There are few travel agencies near the hotel and we bought the ticket from one of them. We managed to check into our room around 1 pm local time and I paid our three days stay in advance by cash. It is better to pay in advance as a precautionary measure and kept the receipt with the chop" paid ". After resting for few hours in our room we decided to explore the town on foot and take our lunch. The weather was quite hot and the roads were very dusty and a lot of rubbish at the road sides. I should have put on face mask like some of the local and tourists. We walked to the city centre and met a tuk-tuk driver who offered us 1 hour city tour for 5 USD which we accepted without any haggling. The tuk-tuk driver could speak some English and we were driven through the town centre and we stopped at a very old temple which had few visitors but the sculptures at the wall were really articulate and beautiful. The tuk-tuk driver brought us to a sandstone crafting gallery cum souvenir shop hoping that we will buy some souvenir and he get commission but the prize is too jacked up. After 1 hour, it was almost getting dark and we decided we should explore the town our own and took our dinner at the night market. We disembarked at the night market but we booked him to take us to tour Angkor Wat historical site the next day for USD 20. The night market is quite brightly decorated and there are a lot of cafes and restaurants selling local and western cuisine. There are a lot of western and Asian tourists. After our dinner at the triangular cafe where I tried the locally produced Angkor beer and some shopping we took a tuk-tuk back to our hotel for just 1 USD, the usual price in town.
The next morning, the tuk-tuk driver was very punctual and we arrived at the ticket booth of Angkor Wat around 9.00 am after half an hour ride. The entrance ticket is USD 20 per head and we were required to snap a photo on site to be included in the ticket for easy identification when we enter various sites there. Angkor Wat was the first temple we visited and it is a huge complex and quite successfully restored as evident from the four standing iconic towers. Angkor wat is the starting point of the half marathon and banners of the marathon could be seen here and there. But there was an international bicycle race when we visited the site. Two international tournaments were held back to back there and that explained why there were so many tourists in Siem Reap. After visiting Angkor Wat, we also visited Bayon Temple, the temple which has many towers each sculptured with four similar faces of a khmer king turned divine. The next temple we visited was Wat Baphuon, another huge temple complex few stories high with beautifully sculptured wall. We did not climb up to the top as we scared we might injure our knee and dash our hope of running the marathon.
After visiting the three temples, we were taken to an air-conditioned restaurant where prices of food were double the normal price. The tuk-tuk driver was again getting commission by taking us to such throat-cutting restaurant. Later I noticed there were many restaurants along the way to Ta Phrom temple frequented by locals though not air conditioned which were cheaper for sure. Our next temple after lunch was the famous Ta Phrom temple, a temple where giant trees growing on the temple's wall were spared during restoration. There were so many tourists that we had to take turn to take picture with the giant roots resting on the temple wall. I even touched one of the giant roots as others did for good luck I believed. There are many more temples but we felt the temples are less prominent than what we had visited and we decided to go back to our hotel to rest and get ready for the Angkor Wat Half marathon the next day. We again booked the same tuk-tuk for US 10 to take us to the starting point and back to our hotel.
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Angkor Wat |
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Bayon Temple |
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Giant tree at Ta Phrom temple |
We started our journey to Angkor Wat for the marathon at 5:00 am and it was really amazing that the road leading to Angkor Wat was full of tuk-tuk carrying runners to the starting venue. When we almost reached the site, the traffic jam was so bad that we had to walk to the starting venue. Our tuk-tuk promised to come back to fetch us at 9:30 am , the time we should be able to complete our race since the 21km race starts at 6:10 while the 10 km at 6:20 am. The Wheelchair category was flagged off at 6:00 am but I could only see few participants. The participants for 10 km and 21 km categories were mostly foreigners especially Europeans and I was wondering whether I was running in Sydney or Cambodia. I stood near to the starting line and started the race with moderate pace. The route was flat and straight and there were sufficient water stations besides few banana stations. There are many supporters mostly kids from the surrounding areas lining up at the side of the road to touch our hands. We passed by a few temples and ran through the south gate of Angkor Thom, an iconic gate which resembles Bayon temple. I had a severe cramp on my left leg few kilometers from the finishing line due to my own fault. I put ice on my leg muscle thinking it will reduce the strain but the cramp happened immediately. Thanks to the volunteer who helped me to relieve my pain. After resting for a while I continued with my race but with a slower pace and was overtaken by a young lady runner from China who greeted me. I think that was our second encounter and her second greeting but I am not sure when was the first encounter. If I am not mistaken we first met during Kuala Lumpur Standard Chartered Marathon 2013. In the last 1 km I tired to run faster and managed to overtook quite a number of runners before I charged through the finishing line with a time 2 hours 46 minutes and ranked among the last 30% of the finishers. Poor showing indeed but I was happy that I could finish the race within my average finishing time .
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South gate of Angkor Thom- we ran through it during the marathon |
The marathon was quite well organised and the medal for 10 km and 21 km are the same that is without mentioning the distance and most of the runners really had a good time running in a Unesco heritage site besides doing a good cause by help raising fund for the disables and upgrade education facilities in Cambodia.
The next day we proceeded to Pnom Penh by bus and we had to endure almost 8 hours of dusty and uneven road because of construction work to turn the present road into a highway. We spent two nights in Pnom Penh visiting Riverfront, Royal Palace, Tuol Seng Genocide Museum, National Museum, Wat Pnom and Wat Ounolom and the most extravangaza Nagaworld casino. After that we travelled by van to Sihanoukville, a seaside resort town facing the Gulf of Thailand. The road was good but the driver was speeding all the way including some dangerous overtaking. I was sitting just behind the driver and I dare not closed my eyes through out the 4 hour- journey.
I stayed at Serendipity beach resort which is a stone throw from the busiest and longest beach at Sihanoukville. A pleasant surprise was the luxurious hotel room given to me which I think is too cheap for USD50 per night. The room was really big with double beds, sofa, cushion lazy chair, balcony and a luxurious bathroom with transparent glass partition to the bedroom. There are many beaches but serendipity beach which joins up with two other beaches is almost 2 km long and the most beautiful. The bay is considered as the most beautiful bay in the world as shown on a signboard. I did not go snorkering or islands hopping but just explore the town and do some swimming and jogging at the beach. I was fortunate to walk to town to try out a restaurant catering to the locals. The peppered crab and steamed fish were really delicious especially the crab which has unimaginable big and hard pincers. The name of the restaurant is called Lion II restaurant because it is facing the roundabout which has two big golden lion-sculptures in it.
There are many western tourists there which explains the great number of western cafes and restaurants near to the beach. In fact some of the sea activities like diving and snorkering, island hopping by boat and yatching are operated by westerners. After 2 nights at Sihanoukville, we returned to Pnom Penh to put up another night at the same Artist guesthouse near to Royal Palace before we bid farewell to Cambodia. After 8 nights in Cambodia I felt a bit sad to leave the country. I am sure I won't be coming back in the very near future not because I don't like Cambodia but I still have not visited many other countries which also has interesting marathon event.
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Wat Ounolom of Pnom Penh |
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Beautiful sandy beach of Sihanoukville |
