pedals&pennies

Slipplin', slidin' and ridin'

Well sorry it's been a couple of days since the last update, but we didn't have internet access in Sisophon last night. Things are great now in Battambang and we can now even upload photos!

OK, I should probably start a couple of days ago. We left our hotel in Siem Reap at around 7am for a ride to Sisophon, which is around 150km away. We knew that we weren't going to make the entire distance in one day, so a bus was going to pick us up after around 60km.

I know what you're thinkingt (please let me paraphrase for you): "60km in  day? Wow, you guys are so soft! I mean, what sort of a challenege is this?! Show us some real riding!"

I thought the same things at first, especially along the first 10km of sealed roads. Then came the mud. And more mud. And different types of mud. Do you want to know how many types of mud there are in Cambodia? Just have a look at one of my shirts.

Not one to be ashamed of taking the odd fall, I had three nice slides during the day. Now, I'm not the most co-ordinated at the best of times, so I wasn't entirely shocked but apparently all was forgiven because of the conditions.

So as you can see, it wasn't really an easy ride and the mud was a bit of an effort. In fact, we all looked quite dirty afterwards.

To be honest, we didn't stay as a group during this section. We tried really hard, but some kept going and going and going. Mark, for example, decided to skip one of our water stops and keep riding. (Well, he didn't actually skip the stop, just miss the Australians with bikes on the side of the road)

20km later, one of the guides found Mark wandering aimlessly around a small rest stop between Siem Reap and Sisophon looking for a phone, his wallet and someone who spoke English. Thankfully, everything turned out OK and we were reunited for a pleasant and comforting bus ride into Sisophon.

Before I go on, I'd like to mention the strange driving habits that people seem to pick up in Cambodia. There are no indicators. Well, there are, but they don't seem to be used much. Instead, people just use horns - a lot. Traffic lights are most often ignored and it's sort of a give-and-take attidude towards driving: the bikes and scooters give, and the trucks, buses and cars take.

So you can be going down a street at a leisurely 15km/h on your bike, and a bus will TOOOOOOOT and then drive past at 100km/h. This is OK, because at least he tooted.

Anyway, for once we were on the upside of this equation and in one of the biggest vehicles on the road - a big bus with windows and seats, and wheels that went around without us peddling. Despite the controband smuggled on board the bus, it was almost as scary as being back on the bikes.

The bus was slipping, sliding and doing things that I find difficult to even comprehend. We asked why the roads were so bad an were told that it had a lot to do with government deals with airlines and their monopoly on transport. Whatever the reason, the bus was sideways a lot more often than I cared for (though it was quite cool!).

We arrived in Sisophon and eventually found our hotel, which was comfy and right in the middle of town. The city was much less 'touristy' than Siem Reap and infinitely better. It was small, friendly and the market was fantastic.

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The next morning (this morning, as it was) we had the final 80km to ride between Sisophon and Battambang, which is where we start the financial literacy program with CUFA. It was sealed, flat and absolute heaven to lower bodies that had become accustomed to. We also knew that this was our last ride for the trip.

It was great. A couple of people had some falls, but everyone was OK, and we made sure that everyone rode the last 15km into town together.

Once we got into town we were greeted by the CUFA staff, who we last saw on our first night in Siem Reap. They had a sign welcoming us and made sure the hotel staff weren't too disturbed by the 15 Australians covered in mud behind them.

Today the reality of Cambodia really hit home to me. I stopped with some of the other guys to have a glass of water and saw a young boy of about three or four smiling and yelling "Hello" to me from the other side of the street. I saw him, waved back and then realised that he had no arms.

His mother was with him, as was his sister. The mother's head was on the small of his back, making sure he was with her all the time. It was one of the most touching scenes I've ever seen.

I knew I'd see children missing limbs when I came to Cambodia, but I didn't realise just how it would feel. I cant' even imagine living somewhere thinking about the risk of landmines being in my playing or living area.

Until next time,
Pat

PS - I'd love to upload some more photos, but we're still having some "technical difficulties". The last one took 10 minutes.

It's a long way to the top (if you want to roll down some rocks)

Just after I uploaded yesterday's post we found out one of the guys in the group (Tony from Abacus) had a little bingle with some locals as he was riding home last night. He landed pretty hard on his elbow and had to miss today's ride. I thought he was surprised, but apparently the look on the other person's face was priceless - Tony's around 6'7" and is more than a little over the average height in Cambodia.

Today we really took things up a notch in terms of the riding, hitting around 75km in some not-so-great conditions. We woke up to some fierce rain, which was coming at us from all angles but this didn't dampen our enthusiasm (cliche #1). The first 20km or so was on flat bitumen and was relatively easy-going; because we left at 7am, we managed to escape most of the heat early on, though the rain flooded a couple of the streets near our hotel so we were quickly knee-deep in water as we rode through.

The next stretch was around 17km along some dirt roads that were very slippy and slidy thanks to the mud, and involved six (yes, six) flat tyres. Obviously, this was pretty annoying as it took around five or ten minutes to patch them up each time, and we were starting to get pressed for time.

Something we were all looking forward to was a "creek crossing" that was a little deeper than we planned the night before - the overnight rains had made the water waist-deep so we had to jump off the bikes and carry them across.

Anyway, the highlight of the day was to be a ride to the top of a waterfall. That's the top. The very top. 475m kind of top. On dirt tracks. With bikes.

We all decided to help each other as much as we could up the hills, but everyone has different ways of tackling these things. Fran blitzed the field and powered up the hill in record time. Mark wasn't too far behind.

I, on the other hand, took a little longer to make my way up, as I had to push my bike up some of (well, most of) the steeper sections. Some of the guys we were riding with had to pull out because of injury, dehydration or exhaustion, while some of them (Christian especially) really powered through some obstacles to make it to the end.

After taking a little rest at the top and having some lunch (at 2.30) it was time for the descent. This was something I had been waiting for, mainly because I knew how hard things had been going up, so going down would obviously be a dream. Maybe I was a little over-enthusiastic.

I was quite close to the bottom of the hills and thought that I was pretty fantastic at mountain biking by this stage. I didn't need to slow down as I went down the slopes, in fact, I had to speed up.

Until... (pause for effect)

I flipped. Quite well, as it were. I must have had my front wheel stuck in some sort of rut, because I flipped over the handlebars and landed flat on my side with the bike next to me. Apparently a hearty "whoops-a-daisies" could be heard throughout the land.

Mum, if you're reading this, then I'm OK. I managed to escape with a couple of scrapes and a dented helmet. Oh, and a broken seat that the Intrepid guys had patched up for me in no time at all.

So that's it for the riding. Hot, wet, gruelling and spectacular.

As I was riding through town last night I was having a look at all of the street signs, many for political parties (have a search for some more info if you're curious). One sign I noticed was for a group called the Human Rights Party, which hit home pretty hard. Back in Australia, we have people supporting the Animal Rights Party. Here, a lot of people are fighting for human rights.

So tomorrow we head down to Sisophon, which should be around 85km or so, but most of it flat and sealed. The ride will also take us to see the first schools where we can see the CUFA work. I can't wait.

Pat