Posts filed under 'Cambodia'
Feels great to be back in Thailand! Yesterday I crossed over the border at Hat Lek and rode 16 km north to the next town, Khlong Yai, where I stayed for the night. The road was EXCELLENT with a wide shoulder - ahhh, it felt SO good after Vietnam and Cambodia! It was the perfect temperature too - at 5pm the sun was beginning to set and it was nice and cool - what a great welcome back!
The road I took to Trat today is kind-of like the Pacific Coast Highway of Thailand…a bit windy and hilly, following the coastline up from Cambodia. Really beautiful ride. I did the 79 km to get here in under 3 hours. I arrived here in Trat at 12pm and was going to take the boat to Ko Mak at 3pm but then decided to stay the night here because I wanted to spend some time on email (too expensive on the island) and I also wanted to work on my bike a bit and get it ready for the ride back to Bangkok. Lucky for me I found a GREAT bicycle shop in town where they cleaned my chain and tightened my brakes - all for just over $1! It’s much more civilized to eat a bag of Doritos and watch someone else work on my bike than it is to try to do it all myself…I was thrilled! For that alone it was worth it to stay in Trat (second reason is the pedicure which I am getting as I currently write - haven’t had a proper pedicure in almost 2 months!).
Tonight I’ll decide if I will go to Ko Mak for a few days or just head straight to Bangkok. My friend Brent is going to be up in the north for at least a week so there’s no hurry to get anywhere. God, it just feels so good to be here - even Brent said, it’s like coming home! I can already speak enough Thai to get what I need, I know what food I like and how much things are supposed to cost, and the Thai people are just so great that it makes it such an easy place to be. Last night I went to the internet cafe in town and mind you I was the only farang (foreigner) in town, but as always in Thailand, I was surrounded by 12-15 year old Thai boys playing their computer game, with headphones on and screaming to each other, completely unaware and not bothered at all by the farang girl in there AT ALL! In fact, I think they were happy when I left because someone jumped on my computer to start playing right away. No stares, no crowds surrounding me, none of that! (Although I have to admit that today I did kind-of miss all of the Hello, Hello, Hello, Hello’s that I constantly got while cycling in Cambodia). And here the drivers are totally cool and really give you a lot of room on the road and they don’t blare their horn on you like in Vietnam. Oh, and I was so happy to have the little bus-stop houses back - at least one every kilometer - the perfect place to get out of the sun and sit in the shade for a peaceful break on the road. Cycling heaven! Well, except for the heat, but today I finished cycling before it got hot and even then it wasn’t that bad, although I expect that it will get hotter as I get away from the coast and back towards Bangkok.
On the boat yesterday, I ran into these 2 guys that I had met back in Vietnam on my first day of cycling (they were on motorbikes). It was crazy to run into them again! Then, today, when I got back to my guesthouse, there were 3 other guys who had been on the boat as well…they couldn’t BELIEVE that I actually cycled from the border. It was pretty funny. Now…should I get my hair trimmed while I am here as well? Yeah, I’m happy to be here.
~~~TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: Sorry for the delay on updates as of late - I have been busy going through my pictures from the last 8 weeks but am happy to say that EVERYTHING is now updated! You can now view all of my pictures from 1.14.02 to 3.9.02. Thanks for being patient - photo updates were impossible in Vietnam and Cambodia. If you click on the JOURNAL button above, you can scroll through the entries and any one that has a photo icon next to it has photos for you to view. Enjoy!
Look at this BEAUTIFUL road!
A little friend I made on a break by the road
March 9th, 2002
So it’s Friday morning and I’m leaving for Thailand on the 12pm boat from Koh Kong to Hat Lek. I’m so looking forward to getting back to Thailand - great food, nice people, and beautiful country. I still haven’t decided if I’ll cycle back to Bangkok or just to Trat then bus it back the rest of the way…it’s going to depend mostly on what my friend Brent is up to. He’s the American guy that I met on Ko Pha-Ngan and then again on Ko Lanta for Christmas and New Year’s. After that he went to Sri Lanka and India and I went to Vietnam and Cambodia and anyway now we’re trying to meet up again in Bangkok before he flies home to start a business with his dad. His brother met him in Bangkok a few days ago and they went north for a bit and I’m hoping I can meet up with them so we can all head south and hit the beaches together. I’ve been trying to convince him to keep travelling and not settle down into the family business just yet but the pressure from home is caving him in. I think his parents sent his brother over to make sure he comes home!
Yesterday I spent the day on the beach reading a book. I hung out with Andrew the American in the morning before he left on a bus to Phnom Penh. It was nice to relax after 3 days of cycling that’s for sure! I hope the boat ride today goes smoothly with the bicycle. No more Vietnam Dong or Cambodian Riel - it’s back to the Thai Baht bab-y!
March 8th, 2002
Ahhh…what a lovely feeling to be sitting on the beach looking out to the Gulf of Thailand. I deserve it! Yesterday I had a GREAT ride for my last day of cycling in Cambodia. I got up early and left Kompot at 6:45am to be on the road and try to beat the heat because I knew I had a lot of distance to cover (100 km). I bought some bread from a guy on a bicycle who was doing his deliveries through the village and that was my breakfast. By 10am I had done 1/3 of the ride and I stopped for a break to have some fresh pineapple and sugar cane juice. The next stretch was meant to be 21 km of dirt road according to the Lonely Planet cycling book so I was preparing for the worst but the road turned out to be in excellent condition - 1/2 of it was already paved and 1/2 was dirt but completely smooth so I was very happy and cruised through no problem.
After awhile back on the good road (Highway 4) I decided I needed a rest so I stopped to sit on a bench in the shade in front of a few houses. Before long I was spotted by the locals who all came out to see the foreigner and say hello. One of the men knew some English and asked if he could practice with me so I spent about 1/2 hour talking with him and answering questions. He was thrilled! He invited me back to stay with him and his wife anytime - so nice!
The last 40km to Sihounakville went by pretty fast and I arrived here just before 2pm. Found a great place to stay for $3/night, then showered and rested before looking for some dinner. I went to a restaurant with a view of the sea to watch the sunset and wound up meeting an American guy, Andrew, and sat with him for dinner and beers and good conversation. He told me all about the Olympics and other things at home that I’ve missed - so great to catch up on things! Really nice guy…it was exactly what I needed to cheer me up after everything that went down with Peter. Speaking of much, I have come to the conclusion that I don’t think that I like cyclists very much…although I definitely like them more than’backpackers.’ I’m NOT a cyclist myself by the way…I consider myself to be a hiker currently travelling by bicycle.
Miles Biked: 61.69 (100 km)
Time: 5 hours 6 minutes
Now this dirt road aint so bad!
I take a picture of you…..
and you take a picture of me!
March 7th, 2002
The cycling today was good. I had breakfast in town and was on the road at 7:45am. There was a lot of cloud cover all morning which made me very happy because it wasn’t so hot. The road was in pretty good shape for this stretch and there was hardly any traffic at all so I was able to just cruise through and enjoy the scenery. I stopped a few times for a cold Coke or a fresh sugar cane juice and also stopped once for some bananas for lunch. Today was the first time in Cambodia that I stopped anywhere on my own since I’ve been with Peter the whole time and I was a little nervous after so many strange encounters in Vietnam, but the Cambodian people are so nice that they just took me right in. At the store where I bought the bananas, the family invited me to sit down, then got their nephew who speaks English to talk to me and ask the usual questions - where are you from, what is your job, how old are you, when are you going back to your homeland - every time the same wording and everything..it’s so funny. I gathered quite a crowd - at least 20 or 25 people standing around. The nephew told me that I was the first foreigner to ever stop at their store!
No signs of Peter today - I think he probably got up before me and pressed on to Sihounakville. It is a bit lonely not having him around - I guess it will take a few days to get used to being on my own again. It’s a shame that it didn’t work out, but as we say on the trail,’You’ve gotta hike your own hike.’ I’m more than happy with my distance and pace everyday but it’s certainly not for everyone.
‘I’ve got a hard road to travel
And a rough, rough way to go..
But I can’t turn back
My heart is fixed
My mind’s made up
I’ll never stop
My faith will see me through…’
Jimmy Cliffe
Miles Biked Today: 53.16 (85 km)
Time: 4 hours 35 minutes
Paved is a relative term when youre in Cambodia
More scenery on the road to Kompot
Lots of French influence still around…
March 5th, 2002
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