The boys were really keen on the medieval knife making course. As you can see below,  the conditions and occupational health safety well represent the medieval age. When we rode past the blacksmith it was basically a shanty town looking building with no doors. 

In the afternoon I took a solo ride to see Angkor Wat in sunset for the last time.

Then climbed a hill that had a temple on top called Bakheng that had views of the whole area.

Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/908673218/

Up before dawn to see Angkor Wat at Sunrise. Left the boys in bed, so Julie and I relived times of touring on a tandem together. 

After breakfast we ventured out again with the boys in tow. Visited Angkor Thom, Ta Keo and Ta Prohm.

Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/907030122/

https://www.strava.com/activities/907136746/

Two good rides visiting Angkor area today, one in the morning and the other at sunset.

To start we visited Angkor Wat. Julie is far more eloquent so check out her Angkor Wat post.

Banteay Kdei temple just before sunset.

Pre Rup temple at sunset.

Srah Srang as the sun fades. Pity the phone camera isn’t up to showing the actual light. It was an amazing purple colour.

Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/905601363/

https://www.strava.com/activities/905983255/

Not the ride we planned today. We started off slow, but all feeling okay after the big ride yesterday. It was close to 9am by the time we really got going and it was already really hot. We rode through rice paddy fields for about 15kms and Julie and Robert were not feeling great.

We had a break near a pagoda to recover, but Julie was still feeling weak.

I thought that because we hadn’t had a good meal in 24 hours that Julie may be needing some extra nutrition, so we stopped at a Khmer village store and purchased a couple of mangos.

Julie kept deteriorating and after another 5kms could not continue and had to lie down under a tree. We still had another 50kms to Phnom Penh and Julie was too sick to continue, so after a little research online found a phone number of a taxi driver from Takeo (the closest town – 15kms south). Even though the taxi driver spoke a little English it was hard to explain exactly what we needed, but enough to order the taxi and we had an hour wait.

While we waited the restaurant owner where we stopped was very hospitable and served us drinks and food. Including mangos and bananas that he grew himself. Robert entertained himself and the owners children playing BeyBlades.

When the taxi arrived it was a standard sedan. In Australia this would have been a concern, but in Cambodia not a problem. Ten minutes later with the help of the driver we had the bikes secured on top of the boot.

The trip into Phnom Penh was interesting and probably a good thing we were in a car. Traffic lights are pretty rare in Phnom Penh and the ones that are operational don’t seem to be followed. For the whole trip through the city we didn’t fully stop once.

We safely arrived at the hotel and the bikes no worse off from the trip. Once in our room Julie collapsed into bed and I organised dinner with Camila and Matias, Chilean touring friends who arrived a day earlier. Patrick wasn’t feeling well either, but was excited to catch up with Camila and Matias, so we left Julie in the room and walked four blocks to a restaurant. On arriving at the restaurant Patrick vomited at the entrance, so I carried him back to the hotel and got Robert to order for me. In the end Robert and I had a good meal with Camila and Matias, while Patrick and Julie recuperated in bed.
Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/899428753/

Feeling very tired after our longest day yet, so will keep it short. We have been following the coast since Surat Thani, which is over 1000kms, so it was a bit of a shock to the body to head inland. It was much hotter all day, so we had lengthy breaks in the middle of the day. Luckily we had a good tailwind so we made good progress and everyone was keen to make the most of it. 

At our lunch stop at a roadside vendor the boys were a big hit as per usual. 

At the 65kms mark we decided to start looking for a guesthouse. We had passed a few in the previous 5kms so thought it wouldn’t be long. One kilometer later we spotted an impressive looking building, but it had closed down. At the 72km mark we called into a busy car wash and was told that there was not one for another 16kms. Rather than backtracking we pushed on and arrived at our destination at 6pm with the sunseting.

Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/898643986/

Pretty much highway the whole way today with no choice for side rides. However, highways in Cambodia aren’t quite the same as the previous countries. No shoulder in sections or the shoulder is gravel, single lane with on coming traffic overtaking with no consideration to us (get off road quick) and sections that are all gravel. On the bright side they aren’t nearly as busy either.

We got up early and were on the road by 7am to avoid the heat and head winds. We made good progress and cycled 20kms by 8am.  At that time the roads were quiet and cool. Deliveries of ice and bread being made by people on scooters. We bought some fresh bread and Patrick polished off a couple of rolls in no time.

Just after our first break we started to follow the mountain range. Below is a temple with a view of the mountain range in the background. There was 5km section of road that was gravel and there were times that visibility was down to less than 5 metres. After that section we all had a thick coating of light brown dust.

The cows are free to roam anywhere in Cambodia. It freaked me out at first, but he cows seem unconcerned by bikes and mostly move out of the way slowly.

Met another great couple of tourers from Belgium going the opposite way.

Then another couple of Chillian’s arrived on their touring bikes at our accommodation. It was very relaxed compared to a chat on the side of the road, so were were able to share many stories. They even hung out with the boys while Julie and I went into Kampot for dinner and book our rest day trip of climbing and caving.

Check out my ride on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/894184309/