pedals&pennies

The final (very sore) leg

Only two days since we last touched base but , my goodness, this challenge just keeps getting better and better.
Thursday, day six, we jumped straight back on our cycles as the birds awake and we head west towards the Thai border. Our destination – Sisophon.
With plenty of rain over the previous few days our unsealed route (the only option) to Sisophon is, well, incredibly muddy. No more than 5km into our cycle we are faced with the first of many traffic jams of the day.
As we very slowly weave our way around the sliding motor bikes, cars, buses and trucks we cannot help but feel for the locals who must contend with this situation day in day out.
What makes this particular experience so enjoyable is the laughter we are causing (and sharing) amongst the locals as we cycle through knee-deep mud covered from head to toe in the stuff – for no perceived purpose other than choice!
Friday, day six , is the final cycle leg of the challenge.  I am confident in saying that the group has surprised themselves as to how good they have managed to pull up after such an intense and demanding physical push. Many would not ave ever thought themselves capable of cycling up mountains, through rivers of mud and heavy down pours – all on the opposite side of the road in a completely different country with limited road rules – they have certainly surprised themselves.
I think the incredibly happy and positive nature of the Cambodin people has played a great role in this accomplishment.
Departing Sisophon the group heads 80km to Cambodia’s second largest city – Battambang.
An entirely flat road through rural country-side – proved an entirely different challenge.
With no mention of sore limbs, bottoms or injuries, the group joyfully pushes  through any pain felt (and trust me, there was pain!). 

Fran

The first day of real riding

Today we hit our first day of 'real' riding, which was a little earlier than we thought (in a couple of ways) and longer than we anticipated. Rather than the first day of riding being 30km, it was just over 71km, every one of them pretty exciting.

We started at 4.15 as we wanted to get on the bikes by 4.30 at the latest. Considering the early start, the day went well. The ride to the temples was complete darkness, and the only thing to lead us was the flashing red light of the bike in front of us.

Every now and then someone would yell out "pot hole" or "puddle" but that was the only sort of 'vision' we could rely on.

After joining what seems like every other person in Siem Reap at the temples, we watched the sun come up over Angkor Wat. We took some fantastic photos, none of which we seem to be able to upload at the moment, but they'll be up as soon as we get a chance.

We had a couple of hours to walk around the temples and take in the craftsmanship and storytelling which was evoked in everything they did. It was breathtaking.

The rest of the morning was spent similarly, riding around to different temples and taking in the amazing scenery. Photos and video wouldn't really do them justice, nor do my words for that matter.

There was only one real hiccup in the morning, which involved one of the Savings & Loans party (who may be me...) losing his ticket to the temples. Apparently I missed the most amazing temple as I had to travel (via truck, thankfully!) back 17 back down the hill to get another ticket.

This is starting to turn in to a travelogue so I'll change tact now.

Something that's wonderful about this country is the joy that people we meet seem to have, no matter what their circumstances. This afternoon we were riding through some dirt roads and dozens and dozens of kids ran out to greet us. Their smiles were completely infectious and nobody in the group was too tired to wave back and use our (very pedestrian) Khmer to say hello.

One thing that really hit home was sitting down and talking to one of the staff at our hotel last night. He was such a nice guy, asking how long we were in town for, what we were doing and then laughing heartily when we told him that we were riding the 90-something kilometres to Sisophon in a couple of days. After a while he started telling us about his job.

He feels so lucky to earn $40 a month, plus a room and meals at the hotel. His "take-home" wage is much less than that - $5 a month for a phone, $10 a month for school and $5 a month that he sends back to his mother and family.

That leaves just $20 a month. This has started to put things into perspective - put a human face to what we're doing. In a couple of days we start visiting the schools were CUFA is teaching financial literacy projects, and I know that these stories will hit home even harder.

Speaking of which, we met some of the CUFA Cambodian staff last night. Their commitment and passion for their work is completely infectious; they're so committed to what they're doing and the way they're making things better for the people of their country.

I've just been told I'm hogging the internet, so it's time to bid farewell for the day. Tomorrow has us tackling a hill and riding a total of 80km. Hopefully I'll be alive to write afterwards.

Pat

It's not the heat that gets you...

It's the humidity!

Well we’ve made it into Kuala Lumpur for our stopover on the way to Siem Reap. I think I’m close to dying – when we left Sydney it was around 15 degrees and light cloud. Here it’s 28 degrees and muggy. Very muggy. Breaking-a-sweat-walking-off-the-plane muggy.

In case you’re interested, the flight was pretty uneventful and much like any other flight. Thankfully there weren’t any unexpected delays or frisk searches for our party. And yes, there were a couple of movies but sadly they weren’t Jumanji and Twister (watch The Castle again if that isn’t hilariously funny).

David (who works for Credit Union Australia) had some very fancy t-shirts made up for each of us, which he assures me will increase air flow and draw sweat away from the body. I think that’s a big call this close to the equator. To be honest, I think he’s trying to get some incriminating evidence of me wearing a CUA t-shirt. I knew I should’ve brought my Savings & Loans Cycling Team jersey and knicks (available at a special discounted rate for members).

No matter how far I rode the bike in preparation (which probably wasn’t near as far as I should have), the heat and humidity are going to take their toll. Still, I know this is going to be an amazing experience – we’ve got a day or so to get acclimatised in Siem Reap and then we head off for the first day of riding, which is only 30km around Angkor Wat.

The next day the riding really begins with a leisurely 80-something kilometres. Lovely. More importantly, we head down to the first school to see the financial literacy programs CUFA is running. This is going to be fantastic!.

In the meantime, I’ll have to contend myself with the gentle lulling of planes landing and taking off around our hotel.

It hasn’t been a great introduction to Malaysia. As I write this, we’re all sitting outside the aiport waiting for the shuttle bus to take us to the hotel. The general consensus is that a shower is needed by all – and a nice lie down. Actually, make that a shower each…

Hopefully we’ll get a chance to update when we hit Cambodia tomorrow. Fran bought a video camera along with her so if the planets are aligned and the interwebs can talk to each other, we might upload a movie or two to YouTube.

Until next time…

Pat

Oh, and sorry for the lack of pictures at the moment. I picked up the wrong cable and can’t transfer the images over just yet. Should be fixed pretty soon.

The pre-challenge challenge

I guess they don't call it the Cambodia Leadership Challenge for nothing! Before we've even left the country, things have already started to escalate and hurdles have been jumped.

Fran, Mark and myself have all been working extra-hard over the past few weeks to get everything in order before we leave for Cambodia next Sunday. For some of us (well, one of us - me), that means making sure everything can run smoothly at work while we're away and also doing extra uni assignments so I don't fall behind.

On the upside, we've just taken delivery of a very snazzy looking video camera to help us capture as much the trip as possible. I obviously can't promise daily updates to the blog or YouTube - it's hard enough getting Internet access in some parts of Australia, never mind a developing country - we will be recording everything and writing entries every night. We'll then post everything as soon as we get access.

Things are starting to get very 'real' all of a sudden and it's just over a week until we leave. It's too late for last-minute training to make any real differences, though the fundraising ride a couple of weeks ago certainly helped us get used to sitting on a bike all day! At the same time, I don't think we could've done a heck of a lot to prepare ourselves for the roads - have a look at this photo our Deputy CEO took when he was in Cambodia recently.

Something we can't really prepare ourselves for is the conditions we're going to encounter in the schools we'll be visiting to help with the financial literacy classes.

We'll post again during the week once we've taken care of the last-minute preparations!

We finally meet...

We're just sitting in Sydney airport now after meeting the rest of the CUFA Leadership Challenge volunteers for the first time. It was a fantastic day. The group really came together well and it looks like we're going to be a big support to each other over there.

It's strange that despite our varied backgrounds, skill sets and positions within our respective credit unions, we all got along really well. It's not often you have 15 strangers laughing with (maybe at!) each other so quickly.

We also had a fantastic insight into Cambodia and the great things that CUFA is doing over there. We really can't stress this enough - the savings banks (credit unions) we're helping build are having a massive impact on people's lives.

More than just giving people access to finance, they're helping to restore a sense of trust and community to a group of people who have suffered so much. Obviously getting a savings account isn't the only solution to getting the country back on track, but it is a big step.

We found out more about the work we'll be doing with the kids over there - we'll get taught by some of the CUFA workers over there then help teach the kids in schools. There won't always be an interpreter to help us, so things may get a little 'inventive' at times! This will no doubt be one of the highlights of the challenge.

Something else we're all looking forward to is the amazing amount of hospitality and gratitude we can expect from these people who have so little. We've been told to expect lots of thanks, lots of smiles and thousands of different ways of serving rice!

Remember the 'ride-a-thon' on 15 August and we'll check in soon!

Fran, Mark and Patrick