CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 487 km round trip from Angkor Thum - roughly 8 h 35 in the saddle. On the way it passes Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Li, Temple of Preah Vihear and back through Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Li. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Most people come to Angkor for the giants, Angkor Wat and the Bayon, but the temple that many remember best is small, pink and astonishingly intricate. Banteay Srei, the "citadel of the women", stands about twenty-five kilometres northeast of the main Angkor group, and it was consecrated in 967, earlier than the great royal temples. It was built not by a king but by a high-ranking courtier, the Brahmin Yajnavaraha, and dedicated to Shiva. Its reddish sandstone is fine-grained and easy to carve, and the result is decoration so delicate it looks almost like woodwork: lintels with scenes from Hindu epics, female guardian deities in niches, and foliage spiralling across every surface.
Read the complete Banteay Srei write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Banteay Srei is where the day begins. Next is Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Li.
For a few short decades in the tenth century, the capital of the Khmer empire was not at Angkor but here, deep in the forest of northern Cambodia. King Jayavarman IV established his court at Koh Ker, then called Lingapura, and in less than twenty years his builders raised dozens of temples across a wide area, before the capital returned to Angkor. The jungle took the city back. Today Koh Ker is a scatter of brick and sandstone sanctuaries among the trees, and in 2023 it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list.
Read the complete Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Li write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Li comes up about 108 km into the recorded legs. Next is Temple of Preah Vihear.
The Temple of Preah Vihear is a Khmer sanctuary built on the lip of the Dângrêk escarpment, the long sandstone wall that separates the Cambodian plain from the Thai plateau. The temple itself is Cambodian, dedicated to Shiva, and its builders, working over several centuries from the ninth century onward, laid it out as a long axis climbing from the plain to the cliff edge instead of the usual compact tower on a square.
Read the complete Temple of Preah Vihear write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 244 km into the recorded legs you reach Temple of Preah Vihear. Next is back through Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Li.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Li write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Li, late in the day. Next is Banteay Srei.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Banteay Srei write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Banteay Srei. That is the ride.
Banteay Srei → Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Li is 108 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Li → Temple of Preah Vihear is 136 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Temple of Preah Vihear → back through Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Li is 135 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Koh Ker: Archaeological Site of Ancient Li → Banteay Srei is 109 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.