Bike 4 Cambodia » Blogger1

Day 7 Battambang to Angkor Wat

admin — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 00:34:57 +0000

Last day of the Bike ride kicks off at 4am, we are heading for the boat that will take us on a 7 hour journey through floating villages on a long long river. The morning was very cold and most of us were freezing for a few hours. But it was a beautiful morning. I loved it a lot, the sun rise looked amazing and it was great to see all these small canoes out and about in the early hours trying to catch some fish for the day. The floating villages we passed were sometimes massive but very small. Life on the floating villages must be relaxing but a bit odd. I think it would be interesting to stay there for a while at some point. After 6 hours we finally reached the Ton Le sap river, it was heading out on the ocean but we didn’t have to go far to reach Siam Reaps harbour and at 13.20 we were finally on shore again ready for the last few metres of biking. We headed on gravel roads towards Angkor wat temple. Once in the temple area there were many more Tuk Tuks and loads of tourists. The roads were great and it was fantastic to bike in the area passing one big temple after the other. We passed Ta Phrom, the jungle temple, and Bayon which is the central temple in the former Khmer Capital of Angkor Thom. After Bayon we headed to the front of Angor Wat where our trip would end. Outside Angkor we were greeted by 58 cambodian students with flags and balloons. It was a fantastic moment and even though I didn’t strat crying it was a relief to finally arrive there. Angkor wat is the main symbol for Cambodia and I think this meant that we in then had seen most pf the different versions of Cambodia, the ocean, the rice fields, the small towns, the gravel roads and then finally the main temple of them all.

The bike ride did go well and im already looking forward to the next one.

See you soon

Ola

Blog Day 6 Moung Russey – Battambang

admin — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 00:34:01 +0000

Moung Russey is a tiny Cambodian town positioned on the highway number 5 only 50km south of the bigger Battambang. In this town there are no breakfast places open at 6 in the morning so we decided to buy breakfast in the market and eat in our guest house. Bananas, a few different type of bread, deep fried, baguettes and so on plus green oranges and bananas. We had breakfast fast and then we jumped in Mr Dees van for a quick transport to Kampong Pling where we started the bike ride for the day. The first 15km was on the bumpiest road so far, smaller stones stuck in the road made it almost impossible to ride faster than 10km per hour.

After a while the road got better and we could speed up. After lunch we decided to take a different route along the river all the way in to the next town, Battambang. The final stretch of the day was on paved road and it was a joy to be back on that road for a while. As battambang is a bigger city the traffic was also immense. In Cambodian cities people drive all over the place and even though they drive slow it seems to be very dangerous to drive on these roads. After zigzagging through the streets of battambang we finally came to our hotel, the best of the whole trip. Seng Hout hotel has an amazing roof terrace with a view over the city. We had burgers for lunch and in the afternoon we decided to head to the nearby bamboo train for a ride on this primitive trains. It was great fun and the train actually went faster than we thought . If you ever pass Battambang you must try the train, they are fun and as far as we know they wont be running for much longer.

Thursday evening we went to a pizza place for a pizaa, we ordered 4 and got three, bit odd but the pizza place had run out of doe. Must be hard to make money in a pizza place without enough doe…..

But it was nice with some western food for a change. Tomorrow we have an early start so time to pop to bed early.

Good Night.

Blog Day 5

admin — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 14:58:49 +0000

Day 5 of our Cambodian biking trip started at 5 am, up early, dress in lycra, omelette for breakfast, stretching in the car park and then off on a 16km ride through a surprisingly cold Cambodia accompanied by a very deep orange sun popping up over the tree line. It was a great morning for biking and the first stretch of roads along the river in Pursat was beautiful and well worth the early wake up call.

The challenge for the day started after these first 15 km. It was a 45 km long straight canal with a small road going along each side, the ground was sometimes very soft sand, sometimes great and sometimes like a rollercoaster but at least the lack of big trucks and fast cars made the ride very pleasant. This canal is part of some irrigation system and it feeds the nearby rice fields with water. The result is the fields greener than I have ever seen before. To go on this kind of road alone would be heavy for the head as the road constantly disappears in the distance but with a group of cyclists it was actually much easier than I thought.

After 4 days on the roads here we have seen many remote and rural places but today we saw places that most people never will have a chance to see. At some points during the day John mentioned the fact that you could see horizons in 4 different directions, never ending canals in 2 directions and endless fields in the other two directions. We had no shade at all during the ride and in the afternoon we had very very hot weather.

As the day went towards a close we passed some pineapple plantages, duck farms, families fishing in the canal and some guys riding on water buffalos. The day was tough but worth every minute of effort. Tonight we are staying in Moung Roussey, a small town with no street lights, one restaurant, 3 hotels, no foreigners except for the ones in Lycra and a massive market one meter from the entrance to our hotel. It is not flashy around here, they have no nightclubs but it is nice to come here and see how small town Cambodia looks like. We ended up the evening in the local restaurant with the spiciest mango salad I have ever tried. Everyone is shattered, it was a beautiful but brutal day.

Now off to sleep

Blog day 4 – Kampong Chnang – ….Pursat

admin — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:32:39 +0000

Today we had an exciting day laid out ahead of us, we had some biking, some bamboo train riding and some more biking. Today’s biking started on a short stretch on the main road but we came onto the gravel road fairly soon. It is always so good to hit the gravel roads as they are less busy, more scenic and much safer. The bamboo train runs from a small place Called Phom Ta som and when Fredrik ordered the train thjey said it would come for 11, then they said two small bamboo trains would arrive at 10, then they said there was two other trains coming before the bamboo train so we had to wait and finally they told us the bamboo train stopped going on the line. The language barrier was a fact, we walked around for a while to get a different answer but it seemed no one knew what was actually going on so we ended up going back on the same road we came but after a bit we went on a different road which was great. They failure to get the bamboo train was annoying but the groups seemed happy anyway. After 40 more kilometres we finally reached highway 5 where we stopped for the day. 72 km, no bamboo train but loads of nice cycling.

Today we also visited a little school in the countryside and played some music, played games and took photos. The kids seemed a bit nervous to start with but after some time they enjoyed having these 9 foreigners visiting their little schools. It is interesting to go to these kinda rural schools. It makes you wonder how their lives are going to be. Will they ever make it outside the city…or will they stay in their little village their whole life. I hope the latter.

Tonigt we stay in Purast, a mediumsized town with a few hotels, a new monstrous palace kind of house and with a river. We have ordered our breakfast for 5.30 so now it’s time to try to get some sleep.

Catch you tomorrow

Blog Day 3 – Kampong Spue – Kampong Chnang

admin — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:10:00 +0000

Up at 5, off to the market to buy bananas, baguettes and water, breakfast beside the road and then off on today’s ride. Today we had lovely country roads during the whole day. The first break was by a big lake with loads of lily pads. To stand there in the morning sun watching some of the fishermen in their small canoes fishing was a perfect start of the day. The rst of the day we spent on roads that aren’t visible on most maps, it is easy to get lost here and if you ask the locals they usually don’t know how to get to places further away than a few kilometres. We found the way and after passing a few hundred cows, a few wedding parties we made it to Kampong Chnang. Today the groups did well, it was hot but after a few days biking they all start to get fitter and they deal better and better with the heat. But around noon it is very hot now so we normally have a break every 12km or so.

Tomorrow we have a bit less on the bikes which is fine, the higglight of tomorrow is our journey on a small bamboo train. They are small, slow and not very comfy but at least it means we will get a small break from the saddles which will be great.

Tomorrow day 4.

Ola

Blog Day 2 Takeo – Kampong Speu

admin — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 13:08:23 +0000

Second day of the bike trip in Cambodia, another early start, up just before 5, breakfast and then off on our journey for the day. Today was Monday so during our early hours we met hundreds of school kids heading to school. Most of them look very amused to the sight of 8 pale people in lycra, helmets and sunglasses, three things not very common in Cambodia. The first stretch of the day was along a long paved road, we passed a few villages, a few temples and numerous small shops and mini petrol station, after a short stop at the market in Ou Saray we headed out on a wide gravel road. Normally this road would be very hard work as there are no trees at all along the road so at times here can be very hot. We were lucky to get a day with a light rain so it all went very well. The day ended with a 25km ride on a road with more holes than you can wish for. Some of us were quite tired on this final stretch of the day and the constant starring on the bumpy road to avoid the worst potholes. Others (Fredrik), took the opportunity for a quick shave in one of the barber shops along the way. Full shave in a bomboo hut in rural Cambodia is 25cent. Not bad!!

After arrival in Kampong Speu we visited and orphanage for HIV positive kids. The place was very impressive and inspiring, they had over 250 kids at the orphanage all living and studying there. These kids have been given a new chance in life and I think they all have a brighter future now then when they arrived there. Good luck to them all.

Tomorrow day three

Ola

Blog day 1 – January 13th – Kep – Takeo.

admin — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 14:42:54 +0000

We are now finally in Cambodia ready to do a 7 day bike ride. The ride will take us from the coast to Siam Reap and the Angkor wat.

We had the great pleasure in waking up at 4.45 on the Sunday morning, at this time of the day it is pitch black here in Cambodia, the trick and the idea is to start the riding in the Sunrise when the temperature is lower and the sunlight looks at its best. After a quick joint warm up a nice dog showed up, he joined us for the photo session before take off and then he ran beside us for 8 km protecting us from other dogs, a large groups of monkeys. Very nice! After the first 15km on paved road we finally reached the dirty dirt roads which we had been told were much quieter and went through nice surrounding. And was it nice? Yes it was stunning, the ride went through pepper farms, mountains, we passed small lakes, big temples, we rode along green rice fields, passed probably a few hundred cows and without no doubt over a thousand kids screaming and waving hello. Today was amazing and Cambodia showed us her best side. My fellow riders did really well despite moderate preparation but towards the afternoon I think the heat and the long ride on bumpy gravel roads was quite a bit of a challenge but we reached the finish line at 14.30. At that time the group was in pain and I think it was good that we didn’t have to bike any longer this first day of the trip.

Tonight we are staying in Takeo, a medium sized Cambodian town, there are not many foreigners here and the rpices are low compared to a tourist destination as Kep. Tomorrow we have another lovely early start, take off at 6 heading towards Kampong Speu.

We have received a lot of donations the last few weeks and i would like to say thank you for all support so far.

Until tomorrow. Have a great day

Ola