Tomorrow we’re going rock climbing and absailing in a cave. It is going to be awesome. It might even be funner than the waterfalls we’ve been to.
Where we’re staying tonight is a nice place. With lots of Bungalows. It even has a natural pool.
Monthly Archives: March 2017
Day 53 – Ream National Park to Veal Rinh
Another full-on day in Cambodia. Woke up to a beautiful sunrise from our rustic bungalow.
Again we didn’t want to backtrack and saw that there was a track leading further east to the highway. It was pretty tough going and very sandy, but we only had one false track that led into thick jungle. It was only 5kms to the bitumen road, but took us 2 hours.
It was the best riding and pushing of the day. Some amazing jungle and we went through a Khmer Village in the heart of the Ream National Park. The people were amazingly friendly and had a little store where we bought some drinks. The primary school aged kids were just getting ready to ride to school and all crowded around the boys and the bikes. The store owner spoke some English and helped translate all the questions and answers.
Butterflies mating.
Not sure if you can see the resemblance of the rock to a turtle. However, it is a symbol of the the first Cambodian dynasty according to the sign next to it in Ream National Park.
Stopped for lunch at a little restaurant in a district called Prey Nob. Had a great veggie fried rice and the ladies who cooked brought there whole family out and wanted the boys to hold their 9 month old boy.
After all the cross country riding we have been doing the bikes needed a good clean. The town of Veal Rinh had so many motorbike/car washing businesses, so we stopped by one and had the bikes back to new for $2 (for both bikes).
Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/893088574/
Day 52 – Sihanoukville to Ream National Park
Back to a full days ride and water park fun in the middle of the day. The length of the ride in kilometres seems low, but it was a full on day and we didn’t arrive until 4:30pm to our accommodation (the thee hour stop at a water park may have had something to do with it). The roads in Cambodia are the roughest we have had yet (except for our jungle adventures). The first spot we had to get off the bikes was very scenic and short detour on the beach.
Rather than backtracking, which we hate to do, we took what we thought was a road directly to the highway. It turned out to be a goat track that crossed a couple of steams via fords. We ended up at the highway at a locked gate, but lucky the owner was there and unlocked it for us.
By the time we got to our accommodation in the Ream National Park I was exhausted. But after fifteen minutes of downtime the Julie and the boys were keen to get into the surf and body-surf. It has been rare to find a beach with surf(not storm induced), so the boys really enjoyed themselves. The accommodation was very rustic and had no WiFi or TV, so we were all in bed early for a good nights sleep (that is why the blog is a day late).
Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/893084349/
Wow, Cambodia.
Cambodia is extraordinary.
We stayed a night at a small town just over the border and the next morning we jumped on a bus for a 300 km drive through a national park and remote country. We decided to not cycle this stretch of road after speaking to a german cyclist who had just travelled through this area. She said there were a few guest houses but they were 100km apart and there are no food stops in between. The bus trip was fine except for a british tourist sitting behind me who talked none stop to the poor girl sitting next to her. I swear she hardly drew breath.
We arrived in Sihanoukville and cycled to our accommodation. I have decided to go for budget accommodation. It was a mistake. The room was fine but the smell in the bathroom was just awful. I wont describe it because I am sure you can all imagine what the stink was.
We headed off as quickly as we could the next morning but did not get far before the boys saw something that they could not go past.
After a 2 hour stop off at the beach we headed off. We only had a 39km day planned but the state of the roads was worse than we expected. That combined with head winds meant we did not arrive at our next stop until after 4pm.
We had heard of a waterfall in the Ream national park so we stopped at a hotel near where we thought the waterfall was. The hotel was amazing. Eco bungalows built along the cliff overlooking the beach. The price broke our budget but it was beautiful and our only option. It turns out the the waterfall was not accessible due to the local Khmer villagers being really scared of ghosts that they believe live at the waterfall. The manager of the hotel said he wants to find the waterfall but does not want to go trekking through the bush because there are unexploded bombs from the Vietnam war in the forest. Fair enough.
Day 51 – Sihanoukville
Barely call it a cycle day, but we did do 3kms, so I suppose it counts as our shortest day’s ride so far. We haven’t quite got used to Cambodian time. We ordered breakfast at 7am and thought we would be finished by 7:30 ready to leave for the bus at 7:45. At 7:40 my breakfast had still not arrived, so it was a mad rush and getting my breakfast take away to make it to the bus on time.
There are many benefits to cycling and not being beholden to other people’s timetables is one of them. My preference was to ride through the Peam Krasaop Wildlife Sanctuary and other wilderness, but I couldn’t convince the others to ride 100kms up and down mountains without any towns to break. Instead we took the bus direct to Sihanoukville and had a relaxing afternoon on the beach. Julie even had some pampering and hair removal while we played in the surf. Which would you choose?
Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/890901960/
Day 50 – Mairood to Koh Kong
Goodbye to Thailand and hello to Cambodia. We have had an awesome time in Thailand and ended up spending a couple of weeks more than we planned because there is so much to see and do. The last place we stayed was so good we stayed an extra day. I think we are all going to miss Thailand, but expect we will have many more adventures in Cambodia.
We kept as close to the coast as possible today. We stopped for an early morning tea at a beautiful beach about 10kms south of where we stayed.
As you get close to Thailand’s south eastern border it becomes very narrow. At its narrowest it is less than 1km wide. In the below photo the ridgeline is the border with Cambodia. It is a very scenic ride with ocean views on one side and mountains on the other.
Waiting for our visas to be processed. The flag poles in the background mark the border.
Definitely feels like a different country. Especially because we are now riding on the right side of the road.
Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/889712684/
We made it to Cambodia
We left Mairood this morning. Some of the other guests at the resort got up early to see us off. It was really nice. Such a lovely place.
We cycled south east along the narrowest section of Thailand. There were a few spots where we could get off the main road but not many. There were road works along the main road and it was undulating hills most of the way.
We reached the Cambodia border around 11.30. It took a while for lunch and getting through immigation. When we reached immigation it was difficult to know who was an official staff member and who was just a adventitious rip off artist. We were approach by two men who asked us for our passports. They took our passports and did our paper work for us. They asked for our fee money. So we gave it too them. They showed us our passports with visas in them but kept our passports. They then asked us for a tip of 1000 baht for doing it all for us. I proceeded to reach across the table and take our passports back. There were not happy with this and tried to take them back. In the end we gave them 700 baht. Dodgy buggers.
We crossed the border and discovered that Cambodia drive on the right side of the road. It really spun the boys out being on the other side of the road.
This photo is us leaving Thailand. Check out the flat bitumen road.
This is us entering Cambodia. Check out the rough concrete road.
The boys are going to enjoy their suspension.
We found paradise
I was sad to leave Trat this morning but it felt good to be on the bike again.
We cycled south east along the coast towards the Cambodia border. We met some other cyclists. Two Germans on their way to Bangkok. They gave us some great tips about Cambodia.
We cycled on and after about 30 km saw a sign for a waterfall. The boys were keen, so we stopped. I am so glad we did. It was the best waterfall so far. Allister is going to upload some of the videos of the boys jumping into the water onto YouTube. So check out his post too. I jumped in as well. It was really deep and it took longer to reach the surface than I expected.
We reluctantly left the waterfall and within 3km we bumped into another cyclist. This guy was a hard core touring cyclists. By himself with no technology, just paper maps and a good sense of direction.
We headed off again and before we new it we had reached our 50km threshold to start looking for accommodation. There was nothing. We starting to think we would have to cycle on to the next town, 26km further on but eventually we saw a sign for Mairood. Mairood is a small fishing village in the middle of nowhere. Perfect. We discovered that there was one ‘Resort’ in Mairood. The word resort is used loosely in Thailand. I imagine lush gardens, swimming pools and lovely rooms when I think resort. That is usually not the case in Thailand. Small room with a fan in a rundown building has been our experience. So when we saw there was a resort in Mairood we were expecting a bed with a bathroom. Hot water if we were lucky. Well, Mairood resort is paradise. If you ever find yourself near the Cambodian coastal border you have to stay in Mairood.
Just bikes and boats. As I said, paradise.
Day 49 – Trat to Mairood
So good to be back on the bikes. Not to say we didn’t have three great rest days exploring Koh Chang and Trat, but there is something about riding into the unknown. We always seem to have more adventures on the bikes and there is nothing like the endorphins of five hours of exercise.
There is really only one main road that runs from Trat to Cambodia because the Thailand is so thin in the south east. We were able to take a couple of side rides, but we spent most of the day on Highway 3. Normally that wouldn’t be much fun, but the traffic was light and because it is the only road we came across other touring cyclists. The first couple were from from Germany and gave us great tips and advice about Cambodia.
We also came across a great local Saturday market where we stopped for lunch.
Less than 5kms after lunch Julie spotted another waterfall that was less than 1km from the highway that looked like it had a large swimming area. It is a great way to cool off in the middle of the day, so we decided to check it out. Little did we know how much fun we were about to have.
When we arrived the car park was completely deserted and there was an empty building with a run down water feature. This didn’t put us off because we could hear water flowing. We walked upstream a few hundred metres and came across a fast flowing four metre waterfall that flowed into a large pool with rope swings.
It didn’t take long for the boys to start swinging and I got in to make sure there was nothing under the water that could do damage. The boys had heaps of fun and Paddy got lots of courage and jumped in as well.
While we were exploring the waterfall a couple of local boys arrived and started jumping in all over the place. Including into the middle of the waterfall. Robert quickly started to follow them and repeated all their tricks. By the end we were all jumping into the waterfall.
A lone Dutchman cycling from Cambodia’s border to Trat.
Just after 50kms of cycling we noticed a little resort on Google Maps right on the coast. After some discussion we thought we would check it out. When we arrived at the location there was only a car park and a few houses. Luckily the locals said to go down a narrow laneway and we popped out into the location below.
Mairood is a fishing village that runs down both sides of the river. With a few more pointers on where to find the resort, we came across an oasis like garden of Eden. When we inquired about the cost I thought it would be outside our budget, but lucky for us they have budget rooms. The boys were so excited about seeing the swimming pool and there is a white sand beach with crystal clear water at the end of the fishing village, so we have decided to have a rest day after only one day of cycling.
Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/886898307/
You won’t believe who we bumped into.
We have just had the most amazing time walking around the night markets in Trat. Once a year they have a celebration on the weekend of the 3rd to the 5th of March. It involves the most enormous night markets I have ever seen. Imagine markets running the entire length of Strickland street, to the old hospital, plus all of the side streets filled with food and toys and clothes. Awesome.
Patrick, Robert and I braved the insect food stall. The beetle Robert chose tasted like fish. The grasshopper tasted a bit like KFC but you really had to use your imagination.
Patrick was very brave but throw up about 20 seconds after this photo.
The next thing that happened was just incredible. We bumped into our first Australian, Vanessa. We asked the usual question “where in Australia do you live?”. When we answered Denmark, she said “you don’t know Pete and Belinda Ross do you?”.
What a spin out. Turns out Vanessa is the sister of Pete’s sister, Megan’s husband.
It is such a small world.
