Pedalling past the rice paddies

Cambodian children outside their home in the countryside near Siem Reap. Picture / Dean Purcell

The man ploughing the roadside rice paddy with his water buffalo didn't take the slightest notice when I stopped my bicycle and took a photo of him. But the woman bending over in the backbreaking task of planting rice seedlings did raise her head and smile briefly at the absurdity of her routine, centuries-old task being thought worthy of a picture.

The sight of a group of foreign tourists cycling down a Cambodian road is no longer a cause for utter amazement - well, in the area around Siem Reap at least - but it still generates a bit of interest. Many of the children took time out from playing in the pools of water around their stilt houses to wave, sometimes to dance, and shout "hello".

A man with three children loaded on to his motorbike - one in front, two clinging on behind - slowed down so he could drive alongside and also shouted "hello". When I replied with my own "hello" the four of them chuckled delightedly, the man repeated "ah, hello, hello", laughed again and accelerated away.

A group of locals cycling along incredibly slowly, saving their energy for noisy gossip, thought it was hysterically funny to be passed by a red-faced barang, and chased me with a volley of witticisms which, perhaps fortunately, I was quite unable to understand.

The friendly attitude of the locals is part of what makes a bicycle trip such a great way to get a taste of the rural Cambodia.

Of course it also helps that the land in this part of the country is flat, and the roads are in extraordinarily good condition by Cambodian standards, so despite the heat and humidity cycling is not particularly hard work.

But the main attraction is that riding a bike allows you to get a lot closer to day-to-day life than is possible in the air-conditioned comfort of a tour bus. While we were there it was rice planting time so all along the road families were ploughing muddy fields and planting seedlings in the soggy soil in much the same way as people have done for centuries.

I paused under the shade of a tree to watch a husband and wife in identical conical hats and brown pyjamas working side by side in the paddy fields while their buffalo chewed contentedly nearby. Suddenly two children emerged from their small stilt house carrying food wrapped in leaves on a woven platter and the family moved to a small dry knoll to enjoy lunch. Then it was back to work planting the crop on which all their lives depend.

It was hard to see how that family's existence had been changed at all by the technological progress of the past 200 years, apart from the dubious privilege of having a few trucks and buses, not to mention cycling tourists, passing by.

Indeed, cycling down this road was like riding back in time to the age of the Khmer empire, an illusion broken only by the occasional radio blaring pop music or the roadside stalls offering soft drinks and cigarettes as well as traditional snacks.

The modern world did intrude at one point in the shape of a stretch of roadworks, complete with traffic cones and stop-go operators waving coloured flags at the occasional vehicle, but the repairs were being carried out the old-fashioned way with stones being sorted and placed in position by hand much as when the mighty Jayavarman VII was on the throne.

Further along a large modern truck appeared to have broken down - well, the bonnet was up - but in true Cambodian style instead of fretting over blocked carburettors or dirty points the driver was relaxing in the comfort of a hammock slung under the tray.

Fortunately my bike was more reliable than his truck and lasted the 20km ride to my goal, the beautiful temple of Ban Teay Srei, probably built around 1000 years ago.

The temple is unusual in having been built not by a king but by a priest and, perhaps because of that, its appeal lies not in mighty towers and powerful statues but in exquisite carvings in a delicate pink stone.

Dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, its carving is acknowledged as being among the finest anywhere in the world, and includes delicate portraits of women holding lotus blossoms, episodes from epic poems about Shiva and superb relief filigree decorations.

Having been abandoned to the jungle, burned and looted, and several of its major pieces taken into protective custody at the National Museum, the temple has required extensive restoration.

But the repairs have been done with great sensitivity - even though it proved impossible to find the source of the pink stone so the new work has a yellower tinge than the old - and Ban Teay Srei's subtle appeal has been superbly preserved in spite of the depredations of time.

After seeing the temple it seemed appropriate, on a day I seem to have spent in a time warp, that I should cool down by sipping on that symbol of globalisation, an ice-cold Coke, while watching teams of workers in conical hats and smocks tidying the surrounds in the most traditional way possible, by hand.

And I have to confess to being extremely grateful that the return journey to our hotel was not on foot or by ox cart but in a modern air-conditioned bus. But it was interesting to note as I whisked along in cool comfort that the rice planting appeared to have finished for the day, the roadworks seemed to have made little progress ... and the truck driver slumbered blissfully on in the hammock slung under his tray.

Checklist

Getting There
Singapore Airlines flies 19 times a week out of New Zealand direct to Singapore. From Singapore, there are 42 weekly flights to Bangkok. See Singapore Air.

Getting around
World Expeditions' 11-day Best of Laos and Cambodia trips, which start from Luang Prabang, cost $2320 (not including airfares to and from NZ, visas and some meals). The itinerary includes visits to Vientiane, Vang Vieng, Phnom Penh, Siem Reap to see Angkor Wat and other temples of the Khmer empire, plus three days in Luang Prabang and a trip to the Kuang Xi Falls.

Further information
World Expeditions: 0800 350 354 or World Expeditions.

* Jim Eagles went to Cambodia as guest of Singapore Airlines and World Expeditions.