Category Archives: Cambodia

Day 40 Bavet to Neak Loeung – 105 kms

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February 26, 2017

We knew we had a long day today, as there didn’t appear to be any hotels between Bavet and Neak Loeung, other than at Sveng Rieng but that was only 41.5 kms from Bavet.

 I figured that the road was fairly flat, it would be an easy 105 kms. We had been doing longer distances in Vietnam and were feeling fit. I didn’t account for the different road conditions in Cambodia and the heat! I hadn’t taken into account the lack of the coastal breeze that we had in Vietnam and of course the wonderful tail winds we had experienced.

I had set the alarm for 6:00 and we were out of the hotel by 7:15 a.m., the earliest we have started riding since we started this trip. We had oatmeal (gruel) for breakfast and a coffee, we even sprinkled a package of coffee into the gruel to give it a little more taste!

As we left Bavet we noticed a lot of new factory buildings and a Job Centre, which was empty. The Manhattan Economic Centre was busy with motorbikes going in and out.

The road to Phnom Penh is the AH1 the same road as the AH1 in Vietnam with a lot of differences. The Cambodian AH1 is narrower only two lanes and a rough hard shoulder, chip and seal. The shoulder was paved, but the chip and seal finish is always hard on the butt, hands and shoulders. After Ho Chi Minh we were definitely inland and heading westwards, no more tail winds. The traffic is a lot lighter than in Vietnam, less population equates to less people on the road.

\"WeThe road was dead straight, the scenery was a little boring, but because we are in a new country the housing and entrances to the villages/towns made it more interesting.

We spotted another touring cyclist (Italian) and he was struggling. He said he was exhausted, he had a broken spoke and was trying to get a lift into Phnom Penh. He had some water, but had not eaten and he was looking the worse for wear. From Bavet to Phnom Penh is 165 kms, he had booked into a hotel in Phnom Penh for the night so had to get there. He had withdrawn money from an ATM, but he said it only gave him one 100 dollar bill, and not smaller notes so that he could buy food. The small roadside stands accept Riel or small U.S. dollars – they struggle to change a $10.00 bill. I had a spare Cliff bar, which I gave him but we didn’t have enough small U.S dollars to help him out. We wished him well and carried on.

\"Italian

At different times today it was a tough ride for both Ralf and me.

At the 40 km mark I was getting very hot and tired! We had a bit of a head wind all day. Ralf took the lead at the 40 k break.

At the next stop, I mentioned to Ralf that if my small towel was handy I would soak it and use it to cool off. Bless him, his was handy and we asked the stall owner if we could soak the towel in the ice cooler. I put it over my head, it felt awesome, then I soaked it again and wrapped it around my neck, instant cooling.

We have been told not to have ice in our drinks in Cambodia. I think we will accept that advice after seeing the ice delivery from this truck.

\"Ice

We drank over 3.5 litres of water each today, which still wasn’t enough. The bad part though was finding food. We couldn’t find any Bahn Mi (bread) stands today. Our staple lunch break in Vietnam was bread with eggs. We wanted to buy some bananas but we cannot buy just four bananas, they only sell them by the huge bunch of about a dozen or more. We did buy two dragon fruit, from one stand, but she wasn\’t sure what to charge for two fruit.  We gave her a dollar and she was happy with that. We had our Cliff bars but it wasn’t enough. Ralf said he almost bonked at the 90 km mark, we had to stop to let him cool down and drink more electrolytes and eat.

We eventually came into Neak Loeung, hot and tired and ready for a good shower and an air conditioned room!

Once again Bookings.com let us down, we cycled up and down Street 11 and could not find the hotel. We asked a couple of young men at a shop to call the hotel for us, they said the phone was not in service. Thanks Bookings.com you suck!

We cycled back down to the main street and went into the first hotel we could find. It is a little tired – o.k. grubby. I picked the cleanest of the two rooms offered and we checked in. I quickly made us the noodles that we have for emergencies, Ralf was not feeling well, but he managed to eat and I forced him to do some stretches.

The shower was not hot, but that was o.k. as we needed to cool down. We don’t have internet. As Ralf was in the shower the heavens opened and it began to poor with rain. What were we going to do for dinner? Ralf had noticed people eating in the restaurant area of the hotel, but we weren’t sure if it was family, he asked if we could eat there tonight. We had an interesting meal of fried fish with green beans and rice. Ralf had ordered meatballs with noodles, but he got the same as me. The storm continued as we ate.

We also noticed while we were eating that this appears to be a local hotel for prostitutes. There were five young women waiting for clients, chatting to each other and playing cards.  We do stay at the most luxurious places.

We retired early and were asleep by 8:00p.m. I hope the rain stops by the time we leave tomorrow.

Tomorrow is a shorter ride 60 ish kms into Phnom Penh.

Day 39 An Nonh Tay to Bavet, Cambodia – 51.88 kms

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February 25, 2017

The Tanjas Resort should more accurately be called a homestay. The owners live on-site and welcome you as if you are part of the family, chatting with them over a beer in the evening was very nice.

\"Werner

However, we were a little later leaving than I wanted to leave, because our hosts were not awake at 7:20 when we went down for breakfast. Their dogs woke them up and they quickly had coffee on the table, followed by eggs and bacon and a bun for breakfast. We left at 9:00 a.m. and the temperature was already up in the high 20’s.

We headed out on Road 7 and then connected to Road 22 which is once again the A1, heading for the border.

\"Crossing

Road 7 was quite a nice rural road. It was fairly quiet although there were a few gravel trucks on the road, but they gave us lots of room when they could. The A1 was typical Vietnamese riding, busy road with transports and buses honking their horns.

\"Colourful

We got to the border and followed the new road towards the border. Sorry, wrong way that area is not open yet.  No signs to tell you it isn\’t open yet.

\"New

Turn around and headed back to the old warehouse style building where people hassle you for money changing and trying to take your passport from you to “help” you. These guys imply that you have to use them to take your passport to the front of the line and then come back with the cancelled visa. They charge you for this service! We knew about this “scam” and lined up in the line- up that said foreigners! Wrong again, we had to line up in another line. The “foreigners” line up was for bus passengers who all lined-up together, while their guide took all their passports to the officer in the booth. It took us over an hour to get to the front of the line, where we realized that this was the Vietnamese exit border, not the Cambodian entry border. The officials were checking everyone’s visa to ensure that you had not overstayed, then you got the visa stamped to say you were leaving. There were no signs as to which way you were supposed to go, what line to stand in, or any helpful tips to make the process go smoothly. Typical Vietnamese chaos.

We left that building and returned to our bikes, where the money changers were waiting. Ralf changed the rest of the VND with a lady and got a good exchange rate.  Cambodia deals with U.S $ and Khmer Riel, however most transactions are done in US $.

We then had to get our visa and enter into Cambodia. What a difference, we entered the Passport control office, a young man with a bus tour company (Mekong Express) directed us to the Passport Control. He was getting the visas for his little tour group and shepherding them through Passport Control. We told him we needed the visa, he sat us down, filled out the forms for us, ran to the Visa window with our passports and cash, which was outside in another building. At this point, Ralf said he could be anyone who has taken $70.00 and our passports. He went out side to see this fella running from one window to another window. The young fella came back to us, handed us our passports with the new visa stamp and wished us a nice stay in Cambodia. As we exited the passport control office he quickly told the officer where our bikes were and the officer smiled at us and let us go back to pick up the bikes. Total time 20 minutes! How nice was that.

We headed to our hotel. That is when the fun really began. We had booked on Bookings.com a hotel that had air-conditioning. The hotel we decided not to choose on Bookings .com the Thai Anh didn\’t have air conditioning was on the main road and we spotted it straight away.

Ralf got out the iPad to check on Maps.me to find the hotel we had booked, we went down back street after back street and could not find the guesthouse. Everyone we asked had either not heard about it or directed us back to the main road. We have discovered very quickly that Cambodians try to be helpful, even if they can’t help you.

I eventually went into a hair salon and asked if someone could call the hotel for me and get directions. They were very helpful, when I spoke to the hotel, it turns out that they were full and they had emailed Bookings.com to that effect. We didn’t get the email. We had wasted about an hour trying to find a hotel that we didn’t have a booking for. We went back to the hotel we didn’t book (the Thai Anh) because it didn’t have air con. The guy told us it was $10.00, the receptionist arrived and told us it was $13.00 U.S., she told us to bring our bikes into the hotel. She opened the first door on the ground floor and there was a large room with two double beds, air conditioning and a fan! She indicated for us to bring our bikes into the room!

We settled in and with growling tummies we headed across the road to a restaurant that had tour buses parked in the parking lot. Buffet style menu with lots to choose from – $2.50 per plate which included one choice of main, rice and veges. We went back again later for dinner!

We were not sure what we could find for breakfast on the street, but we do have our gruel and coffee, we just need hot water.  I had my handy phrasebook, I asked for hot water for the morning.  The receptionist came into the room and showed us the cold water in the fridge, no we need hot water.  As we came back into the lobby I spotted a water dispenser, it indicated that it dispensed hot water as well as cold.  In the meantime another person arrived who spoke English, I explained what I needed.  The receptionist found us a kettle, we can have gruel for breakfast!  Everyone was happy and big smiles all around.

Now we are trying to find a hotel for Phnom Penh, we will be there on Monday.