Another big push

December 29, 2012

Towns in western Cambodia are a little more spread out than Thailand which meant we had another long day in the saddle.

We had a little trouble leaving early as we lingered over our breakfast of omelettes with fresh baguettes. We also spent a while socializing with the staff at the guesthouse.

Finally we got on the road and pedaled through Pailin towards Battambang. At one point Chandler stopped to take some pictures of a truck and I had a wonderful round of the “hello” game with some kids. They were just so darn cute and excited, I didn’t care if they said hello a hundred times.

Chan's truck

Cute children

Buddha on a mountain

Crazy colorful flowers

We made it to Battambang around 1pm and checked into one of the first guesthouses we came across. For $6 a room, it was clean and they had really good cable. We ended up watching Kindergarten Cop, the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic while relaxing before dinner.

After our siesta we went looking for food. Battambang is home to not one but two vegetarian restaurants. For less than $4 we had fruit ice shakes and solid meals of noodles with some sort of meat substitute that we couldn’t identify. It had a similar texture to seitan, but was darker colored and looked like mushroom stems. It was a nice recharge from a long day of riding.

Dinner

At this point it was getting dark so we headed right back to our guesthouse. Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia so there was quite a bit of traffic. The side roads were pretty rough tracks and there were lots of bored looking teenagers hanging around on their motorbikes. We got a vibe that the city was a bit rough around the edges and probably best not to explore at night. Tomorrow the plan is to ride up Highway 5 to Sisophon on the way to Siem Reap. There is a boat that goes there from Battambang, crossing the Tonle Sap, but we have heard it takes up to 10 hours or so which is not much quicker than the 12 hours of biking spread over two days we estimated to ride around.

Relaxing in Pailin

Jan1

December 28, 2012

Our plan was to do another long day to get to Battambang, but when the alarm went off Chan hit snooze. When it went off again, I told him to hit snooze. When it went off a third time, we decided to just turn it off and sleep. We slept until 10 and it was awesopme.

After breakfast we laid around our room for awhile doing some research on the next town. Chandler wasn’t feeling 100% so we watched “The Killing Fields”, a movie about an American journalist covering Cambodia in the 1970s during the rise of the Khmer Rouge. After the movie, Chandler was feeling even worse and was coming down with a bit of a fever. He took a nap while I read. During his nap, he was very sensitive to every sound and movement. I started laughing at my book and it shook the bed too much for him. At one point I had to get up and was laying back down on the bed. Chan said I was “an angel at lying down slowly.” Good thing we didn’t ride, he really wasn’t feeling well.

After his nap, he felt better so we walked around the hotel grounds until dinner. The area around the hotel was covered in flowers and fruit trees.

We chatted with a very friendly man who left Cambodia for the US in 1975, right when the Khmer Rouge was coming to power. He was visiting Cambodia and reconnecting with old friends. We learned a little about his life in Cambodia and his transition to living in the US. He also showed us what a durian looked like and how to tell if it was ripe. Durian is considered the “King” of fruits in Thailand, and is apparently well regarded in Cambodia as well. It has an off putting sulphury smell but we didn’t find as repulsive as others have described it. Apparently the flesh is very sweet and tasty, unfortunately the one he had was past its prime and not suitable to eat. Now that we know what it looks like, we’ll have to get the courage up to buy one and cut it up ourselves.

Chan and Tea

Baby chick

Bike powered water pump

Durian

Changing sides

Dec30

December 27, 2012

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Today was our last day in Thailand. We decided to cross into Cambodia at the relatively remote crossing at Prum, in the hopes of light traffic and a hassle free crossing. The planned route would be our longest ride yet, at 55 miles from Chanthaburi, Thailand to Pailin, Cambodia, (pronounced pie-lin we later found out). We tried to leave early but as usual, had a little trouble finding a restaurant that was open. There are always lots of street vendors open, but they mostly offer meat kebabs.

The road was pretty flat for a bit, but we hit a long gradual hill that slowed us down for a while. We didn’t take a lot of stops until the border. We did see other bicycle tourists for the first time on our trip. Unfortunately, we were going up a huge hill and they were going in the other direction. Chandler shouted with them across traffic enough to find out they were Europeans who had ridden from Hong Kong.

After a couple more hours of rolling hills we made it to the border. Things were pretty straight forward there. We found the departure office on the Thailand side and got our exit stamps. Then we meandered off into no-mans land where we crossed from the left side to the right side of the road. Luckily there wasn’t any traffic, it seemed like it could be chaotic if there was. After filling out our forms for Cambodian visas we paid $25 in US dollars for one visa and 1000 baht ($33 USD) for the other, because they rejected the $20 bill Chan had in his wallet for the past month because it had a 1/8 inch tear along the margin. Another form, another window and a stamp in the passport and we had visas to be in Cambodia for a month!

Goodbye Thailand

Hello Cambodia

We had covered 45 miles and it was almost 2pm = unbearable searing heat, so it was finally time for a break. The town on the border had a number of hotel casinos, so we were able to find somewhere to eat quickly. Chandler was able to get Lok Luk, a meal with the same name as his favorite meal from the “Phnom Penh” restaurant in Vancouver that his friend Sam and his fiancée Kat introduced him to. Unfortunately the border town casino restaurant, despite being slightly more “authentic” didn’t get such great reviews.

After our break we were excited to get back on the road to see what Cambodia is like. Some changes were obvious right away while others were subtle. Clearly there was the driving on the right side of the road thing. This actually took a while to get used to again, after a month on the left side, but it was nice to be able to rely on reflex instincts again around traffic. The landscape is similar but somehow more defined. Maybe it is because there is a lot more clearcut for farming corn and beans, maybe because the mountains are becoming more spread out and rolling.

Cambodian countryside

The most striking thing is the contrast in the living conditions of the people along the road. We had been in some fairly rural places in Thailand, where people clearly lived with very little, but this is another level. Everything seems dustier, more ramshackle and worn out. Despite this, the people are friendlier, if that is possible. It seems that if there is a child within a mile of the road, they will see us and will yell “hello!”. At one point we heard repeated “hello”s coming from above us and finally we figured out a kid was up in a tree waving to us.

We read horror stories about the dust and potholes on the dirt road along this route, but we were surprised to find asphalt in very good condition, with quite a large shoulder in some spots. It must have been paved in the past couple of years. I think the worst thing we encountered was some roadside burning of the vegetation.

Warming myself by the fire

When we finally got to Pailin, we saw a sign for the Bamboo Guesthouse which was a quiet spot with friendly staff and a nice restaurant outside of town. We rode a total of 56 miles, our longest day so far.

Horses and girl

Chanthaburi

Dec30

December 26, 2012

We decided to explore around Chanthaburi for today. The guide books and internet reviews say the place is not touristy and implied there isn’t anything particuarly special to see. Maybe this is why the place seemed interesting to us. The city is well known for its gem stone market, which didn’t appear to be very active while we were there. Other than that it seemed like a normal urban center without the distraction of being a landing zone for masses of tourists. We found a vibrant street market serving all kinds of food which was fun to peruse. They were also in the process of gearing up for a new year’s celebration with a half assembled carnival and street fair that was about 1/4 already up and running.

Chanthaburi is also home to the largest Christian church in Thailand. The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was built in 1909 in the location of the original mission from the 1700s.

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

Since Chanthaburi is famous for gem trading, especially sapphires and rubies, the church has a figure of Mary encrusted with gemstones, which was very beautiful. When we went into the cathedral to see the bejeweled Mary a young Thai kid working there immediately approached us and told me to take off my sunglasses. He then went off and interrupted a man praying in front of the statue of Jesus and made him pray in a pew. He then proceeded to follow us around talking very seriously in Thai or saying the word “beautiful” the entire time. There seemed to be a lot of rules that we needed to know about. It was a little frustrating to not be able to enjoy the cathedral quietly, without our little chatterbox rule boy escort.

Mary

Inside view

Serpent under Mary's foot

The next item on our busy to do list was to get a massage. Chandler’s parents gave us a very generous gift for Christmas, which we decided to spend on massages and save the rest for Europe when things get more expensive. We opted for the 2 hour massage at only 200 baht or roughly $6.52 each. We were in the same room and had a really nice conversation with one of the women who spoke English. She could not believe we are from Alaska and thought it was funny how cold it is there. We learned how to say hot and cold in Thai (something like “laoun” and “now” in case you were wondering)

We were also able to find a place to get passport photos. We were officially ready for Cambodia and had completed the only chore we needed to do. We spent the rest of the day wandering around town.

Buddhas for sale

A Thai Christmas

Dec27

December 25, 2012

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I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and holiday season.

The morning started with a chat with my best friend, Lindsey and her husband, Nick. Chandler and I rode 20 hard miles in a constant headwind to Chanthaburi. We found a room at a brand new hotel called “Inn Chan” which suited us well. It was the nicest place we have stayed in so far. We had a little trouble finding it, but a very nice couple on a motorbike led us around until we spotted it.

We decided a good way to spend the holiday would be to see a movie. In touristy areas Hollywood movies are usually in English with Thai subtitles, but Chanthaburi is off the tourist track enough to have all the movies with Thai soundtracks. We had planned on seeing Life of Pi, but the only thing with English subtitles was a Thai produced movie called Yod Manut Nguen Duen or Super Salary Man. It wasn’t the best movie, but it was interesting to watch a movie made by and for Thais.

Super Salary Man

During the movie, we each got giant tubs of popcorn. Chan got original flavor and I got kettle corn. It was really good, but gave me a major, major stomachache. So, I spent the remainder of the evening moaning in bed while Chandler got a little lost trying to find dinner.

All ended well though when he finally made it home and my tummy gave me some rest.

A Few Days Off

the things that we do

Category Archives: The Bike Trip