Spent the morning cycling and exploring Ankor Wat. It goes without saying that it is an amazing place but we had a different experience because the boys explored and Allister and I followed.
The boys found some stones laid out on a flat grassy area. Instead of walking past like everyone else did. The boys decided to play ancient stone chasey.
Heading back there tonight to see the sunset.
If you read my last post, I mentioned that we were in a remote village and food was limited. Well, I should have gone hungry. Food poisoning is awful. I still cannot even think about the food I ate without feeling sick and breaking out in a sweat.
I am so grateful to Allister for getting me to a hotel bed. In which, Patrick and I stayed for two days. When we did venture out it was still not pleasant.
I am going to be completely honest, Phnom Penh is not a city I would recommend to anyone. It is ugly, dirty, extremely busy and has open sewage drains running through the centre of it. If you are interested in Cambodian history then there are some heart wrenching museums and a bit of old architecture but a lot was destroyed by Pol Pot. We made it to the genocide museum and I glad we did. Everyone she see what can happen when the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer and a mad man gains control of the country. It only took Pol Pot 4 years to murder 2 million of his own people. By the end anyone who owned a clock, wore glasses or had the wrong hair style was imprisoned and ultimately murdered.
We are now on a bus, (bike safely stashed below) on our way to Siem Reap. I am looking forwardto cycling through the ancient ruins. I have told the boys it is like an Indiana Jones movie. Hopefully it lives up to their expectations.
When ever I pass one of these tractors, I feel like someone left half of it at home. They putt along the roads going about 20km/h. They sound like a diesel generator on wheels.
Huge day. Nearly 90km. We are all tired with saddle soreness but feeling content with the distance we covered.
We headed out this morning with a vague destination but due to the heat out on the open road we had two long stops in the middle of the day. This meant that by the time we got back on the road at 4pm it was starting to cool down. The boys decided that they wanted to push on as far as we could. We reached the 70km mark and started looking for accommodation. We discovered that the next guesthouse was nearly 20km away. There was no option but to get back on the bikes and push on. We arrived at sunset and Robert and Patrick collapsed onto the beds. Allister and I went out looking for dinner.
The options for dinner were not great. Deep fried frogs, cockroaches or mealworms.
We eventually found a lady selling bread. She indicated that we should try these long thin bagettes. I thought it was just going to be bread but had a pleasant surprise when I broke one in half. It was filled with sweet shredded pork. Yum.
Heading on to Phnom Penh tomorrow.
We said good bye to Matteo and Camilla this morning. We may have the chance to meet up with them later on the road as we are heading in a similar direction. Sadly, overnight, Matteo and Camilla had their pump and Phone holder stolen from their bikes. It has made Allister and I a bit more aware of our possessions. We have only had one thing stolen so far. Robert’s sling shot was lifted off his handlebars somewhere near the border.
Easy ride today from Kampot to Kep. Kep is a small fishing / crabbing village on the Cambodian coast. The distance was only 30km and even though we had head winds, the kilometres flew by.
The roads varied a lot but we encountered the best quality road so far. It olny lasted for about 3 km.
We crossed a bike only bridge also.
When we arrived in Kep we stopped at a food market to have a look around. Amazingly we bumped into a couple of cyclists that we met back in Penang at Titi Teris, Julian and Manuela. We are going to have dinner with them tonight. It really is a small world.
Had a nice rest day in Kampot. Woke up early even though we were supposed to have a sleep in. Hung around in hammocks and swam in the natural pool.
Had a jenga challenge and fuzball championship.
Climbed a mountain and went caving.
Made new friends.
And again, marveled at Cambodian roads.
Brilliant.
Well, I was expecting bad roads but it is hard to imagine how bad they can be until you are riding them.
Gravel as far as the eye can see, which isn’t very far because the dust is awful. The dust gets in your eyes and in your mouth. It coats your lips, tongue and teeth. Your eyes are gritty and you start to blink frantically because there is a truck honking it’s horn behind you to warn you to get out of its way. The only problem is you have cows crossing the road in front of you and they are not in a hurry. You have motos (motor bikes) every where. They only seem to take the road rules as a suggestion not a rule. There are tractors pulling carts full of wood. Some of the motos also have cargo. One yesterday had at least 10 live ducks hanging from the bike. Adding to it all, people on the side of the road are calling out to you to wave to their children. It is crazy. I love it.
One night while I was helping Patrick get his mosquito net sorted out, I found a scorpion in his bed. Lucky Patrick didn’t get stung.
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.
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.
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.
