Last bit of cycling in SE Asia!

We enjoyed our last day in Phnom Penh and were very lucky to spend the night with Dirk and Chantal, who are family friends of Petes.

Dirk, the dogs and us

Royal Palace 

Artsy shot of the palace

We were very undecided about the route we would take to Siem Reap.  Our options were:

1. Cycle for 4 days on the main highway

2. Take a bus 

3. Cycle one day on a secondary highway and then take a back route on a 'road' that doesn't exist on any map but does in a motorcycle book, then take a bus the last 150km

Can you guess which option we took?  The appeal of getting off the beaten track was too great for Pete and John and for better or worse we went with option 3.  The first day involved making our way by highway from Phnom Penh to Kampong Chhang and was easily covered with minimal difficulty.  As part of our recon that night we asked a few people about the road on the other side of the river that goes to Kampong Tom.  We basically heard everything from "It doesn't exist" to "It's not possible" to "The road is crap but you could do it".  Based on the lack of information we decided to take our chances and just give it a go.  We woke up early and caught a boat to the town that our route would start from.

Boat ride across the river

The first 30km of our trip was wonderful! It was easily some of the best cycling we had done in SE Asia.  Quiet dirt roads with local people and lots of shade.  The roads were in such good condition that we were able to cruise along very quickly without much effort.

Lovely road and people

The dream ended when we saw a truck loaded with people coming out of a rice paddy field. Sure enough the route they had just traveled was the one that we were looking for.  We traversed through the dried rice paddy fields and our nice road turned into horrible bumpy dirt tracks left by trucks.  On a bike with suspension, this ride wouldn't have hurt so much but on my bike it was pretty terrible.  I should say that John and Pete (in retrospect) loved this route.  I can't even say that I liked this bit of cycling, for me it was up there as being one of the worst bits ever!

Do you see a road?

Bumpy, crappy dirt road

After what seemed like hours (it actually might have been) we finally emerged back onto a nice dirt track road.  We were running a bit low on water and I was very happy to hear that we only had about 10km left.  On a road like this, we would be there in no time!

One happy lady

My happiness was short lived as the nice dirt road turned into what else, but soft sand.  The last 7km of the trip took forever with minimal to no shade to take cover.  There were a few falls and lots of swearing...mostly by me :)

You have to be kidding me

The video that John took, pretty much says it all:

We finally made it back to civilization and quickly found ourselves under shade and drinking copious amounts of sugarcane juice.  It was a pretty epic ride, especially since it was our last.  I didn't think it would be possible to have the best and worst day of riding all in one day, but there we have it :)

We made our way by bus to Siem Reap and have really enjoyed our time here.  We finished three days of temple site seeing and were able to look at almost all of them.  It's beautiful, daunting, breathtaking and overwhelming all at the same time.   

My favorites are the ones that the forest have tried to take back.  I love the mix of big old trees and old crumbling buildings. 

We cycled on our first day of site seeing and then the heat got to us, have I mentioned that it's 35+ degrees here?  We took a tuk tuk the last two days and it was a great way to get around.

Our tuk tuk driver Bun

Our time in Siem Reap couldn't be complete without the obligatory fish massage.  There are tons of these places around the city.  You stick your feet into the tank and the little guys start to nibble the dead skin on your feet.  It sounds a bit gross and I was only able to put my heels in for a few seconds before I decided it wasn't my thing.  The boys however loved it and enjoyed their fish massage immensely,

Hungry?

We leave Cambodia tomorrow and make our way by land to Bangkok.  Wish us luck that the taxi's, buses all go smooth tomorrow.  Cycling is an awesome way to travel, except when you decide not to cycle :)

Ho Chi Minh to Phnom Penh - Through the Mekong Delta

B left from HCMC, and we were sad to see her go. We spent the last several days biking through the Mekong Delta. I had envisioned a quiet pedal through the countryside along the banks of the Mekong, however our experience was quite different.

The Mekong is quite highly populated, and particularly along the roads. There are very few stretches where there aren't houses, but this turned out to be a blessing. The number of people serving up sugar cane drinks was a welcome break from the heat.

The cycling was very easy - completely flat, and we were cruising along at about 25 km/h without even trying. It was kind of like sitting on the couch watching TV (although the show was much more interesting). We got to try a couple of the local dishes from the region, and also to experience how different the Delta is from the rest of Vietnam. It was a bitter sweet experience - try to sum up what the experience of Vietnam all means whilst pedaling along, but also looking forward to what Cambodia would have to offer.

We took a ferry from the border into Phnom Penh. Our first real experience in Cambodia was as we stepped off the boat and cycled out to find a place to stay. It was culture shock for sure. We couldn't believe how different it was. No blaring horns every few seconds, no traffic - just a nice serene relaxed feeling that we are really enjoying.

We have been exploring the city. Lots of temples and a visit to the notorious school turned genocide prison Tuol Sleng from the Khmer Rouge reign was a pretty sombre experience. We are off to look at more tomorrow, and to meet up with an old friend from Zambia who happens to live here now.

Life along the Mekong

Mmm Sugar Cane!

Morning on the Mekong

Wot? Temple

Royal Palace

Wot Phnom

Tuol Sleng Torture bed

A view of the school yard - Tuol Sleng

All Aboard the Barf Train

I know there must be thousands of you out there wondering what on earth as happened to us. I have been rather uninspired after having spent an alarming amount of time viewing a wide range of Vietnam's toilets whilst giving birth to last nights dinner through my mouth.

We have all had a small bug that has hit us in various ways, which I will leave to your imagination. Needless to say, it has slowed us down a bit on the cycling. We managed to get as far south as the Son My Memorial (a tragic part of the US history here) before we realized we weren't going to make it to Ho Chi Minh City for B's departure. We elected to take a train to Nha Trang, where we spent a bit of time on the beach, and being sick some more, and then took a bus down to Phan Thiet. John and B headed off to Vung Tau (also known as Rio de Vietnam) and onto HCMC.

Monica and I elected to cycle into the headwind to get out to Mui Ne for a couple of days of beach. It also happens to be the kite capital of South East Asia. I rented some top of the line gear and went out for a rip in some wonderful warm 25 knot wind which always does wonders for the grumps.

We then followed in the steps of John and B toward Rio along a nice quiet coastal road that was a great change from some of the ear splitting horns we experienced on the national highway south of Hoi An. The rule on the national highway is that if your horn is the loudest, then you have the right of way, and some of us resorted to stuffing our ears with TP to dampen some of the blare.

Once in Vung Tau, we managed to catch a hydro-foil boat up the Mekong River into Ho Chi Minh City (although everyone still calls it Saigon).

There haven't been many picks because I haven't been feeling too well - here are a few that I enjoyed. Everyone else is feeling great now, and I am on the mend.

Also worthy of mention is that Monica and I are 6kms short of 2000kms in SE Asia - I think I might head out around the block a few times to make it count.

Most towns have a radio tower that looks just like Tour d'Eiffel, but this is the most impressive to date

John and B photobomb some Cham Ruins

This was actually from the "most bombed" part of Laos - I like it, so will post it here

I wonder if Buddhism endorses the MiniBus?

This guy stopped to put his shades on for a photo with his incense stacks - this is not the most I have seen on one bike

This guys bike is a real cargo bike like they used to cart things up and down the HCM trail - I wonder if he actually did

Tragedy at Son My (My Lai)

Khe San beach near My Lai

This was the drink cart dude on the train - he loved the mirror on my glasses

Fishing boats near Phan Thiet

Mui Ne Beach

Fun little bridge crossing

Beautiful coastal road

Leaving Laos with bed bugs?! (Vientiane to Hoi An)

You've read the title correctly, our hotel in Vientiane did indeed have bed bugs!

While John and B made there way back from the Plane of Jars, Pete and I switched into a cheaper hotel that looked just as nice but we soon found out that looks can be deceiving.  Around 10pm at night, B knocked on our door and asked in a very calm voice if we had noticed any bed bugs in our room.  Pete and I immediately tore apart the sheets and mattress searching for the little buggers and we were lucky enough to find that our room was not infested.  On the other hand John and B were sharing their bed with what looked like an entire city of them.  If you've never seen bed bugs before, I can't say you are missing much.  They crawl around in the seams of the mattress and leave blood marks (like mosquitoes) on the sheets when you kill them.  Some of them were fairly large and I don't even want to guess how many people those fatties had sucked blood from.  After a room switch for John and B that included a very thorough check we all settled in for a very restless night of sleep.  Now, you might think that we would switch hotels after a scare like this but we didn't.  We rationalized that they weren't in our rooms and that we must be safe...so far so good.  We are all either patient zero for bed bugs and carrying them around to each hotel we go into or we are indeed clean and we've left them behind in Vientiane.  There are no tell tale bits and we did have all of our clothes washed, which makes me think that we are in the clear.  The lesson that we've learned is to always check the beds when we arrive :)

From Vientiane we decided to travel in style by taking a plane to Savannakhet.  We landed in Savannakhet in the morning and by the afternoon we had made our way to Dong Hene with a bit of a head wind along the way.  The head wind continued for the next two days as we made our way from Dong Hene to Muang Phin and then onto Sepon. 

Dinosaur footprints on the rocks below or so we were told

Friendship memorial

Beautiful day with a bit of wind

We realized that this route must not be taken by many travelers as everyone and their dog would shout out 'Hello!' from wherever they happened to be when we cycled past.  This included people  from within houses as well as the side of the road and also hidden away in the fields and shrubbery.  There were even some shouts of greeting that seemed to just come out of thin air as no matter how hard we looked we couldn't locate the person behind the greeting.  It was the friendliest route we have ridden so far and the people have such wonderful genuine smiles that it was sad to leave Laos and enter Vietnam again.

Leaving Laos and entering Vietnam

We crossed into Vietnam from Sepon to Khe Sanh.  The difference between cycling in Laos and cycling in Vietnam is night and day.  In Laos the roads are quieter and there isn't much honking from passing vehicles.  In Vietnam, it seems a driver would be lost without the horn.  Just in case we haven't heard the giant rumbling of a truck coming up behind us, they will blast the horn a few times to make sure we know that they are there.  Think about that for a few seconds, now multiple the horn noise of one truck with many trucks and add in the honking of passing cars and for good measure throw in the honking of scooters as well...welcome to cycling in Vietnam!  It takes a day or two to get used to the noise again, but sooner or later you do and then things are back to 'normal'.  

John's an acrobat - random tank on the way to Khe Sanh

Read the sign

While we were in Khe Sanh we meet a wonderful doctor from Belgium, Inge, who was spending a month working in the city of Hue.  Inge's Vietnamese guide Phu,  took us to a place where the locals eat dinner.  The food that was served was in a giant hot pot filled with an assortment of animal bits which seemed to include tendons, intestine, liver and many unidentified pieces.  As B, Inge and I don't eat meat, the boys took one for the team and dived into the unknown.  With dog and other animals on the menu, I can't say I'm sad about being a veggie out here :)

Museum in Khe Sanh

Chopper in Khe Sanh

From Khe Sanh we made our way to Dong Hu where Pete, John and B took a tour of the DMZ (demilitarized zone).  It's a reminder of what happened here and what the people have gone through.

Steps going down

Entering another tunnel

Example of a family in the tunnel

After six days of riding in the wind and then in the rain I was pretty excited about arriving into Hue and having a rest day.  While in Hue, the rain finally made us crack and we all purchased plastic purple ponchos to help keep us dry.  We now look like either Barney or Grimace, you decide!

Wearing our ponchos (on the way to Lang Co)

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Hue and a lot of it had to do with Inge taking us out for delicious veggie dinners.  After eating nothing but rice and veggies or a baguette with eggs the assortment of a whole menu of veggie food was amazing!! Thank-you Inge!!

We left Hue and made our way to Lang Co with a stop at the Thien Mul Pagoda as well as the tomb of Tu Duc.  Both were great to check out and with our ponchos to keep the rain off we happily cycled a bit more distance on a very quiet road.

Thien Mul Pagoda 

At Tu Duc's tomb

At Tu Duc's tomb

Really...we have to cycle through the puddles?!

Here we go!

Notice the hand paddles 

View from the bridge on the quiet back road

From Lang Co we had a spectacular day of riding over the Hai Van Pass  (500m over ~10km at 8% gradient) and then onto a quiet coastal road into Hoi An.  

About to start the climb

The Hai Van Pass was shown in a Top Gear episode when they made their way from Ho Chi Minh City to Halong Bay.  The episode, which showed how stunning Vietnam is, was one of the key factors in choosing  to cycle the coast of Vietnam.  Not to plug Top Gear, but the episode itself is quite funny and if you haven't seen it, I'd recommend trying to find it.  The pass acts as a bit of a weather barrier and tends to keep the wet, cold weather on the Lang Co side making the Hoi An side warmer and sunnier.  We were lucky to get some clear weather and managed to take a few pictures.  After being away from the ocean for so long, it was really great to finally be back on the coast.

Lang Co on the other side of the bridge

Hair pin turns going up

View on the other side coming down

Giant white buddha on the way to Hoi An

Along the way to Hoi An, we stopped at the marble mountains and took a look at some of the beautiful caves and additional buddha statues.

Large cave

We've enjoyed a rest day wandering around Hoi An and have been really good at resisting the temptation to get some custom clothing made. In additional to being a really pretty city, Hoi An is full of tailer's that can knock out a suit in a day or two for $100 US. We've heard of some tourists coming here with an empty suitcase and filling up on clothing before heading home.  It's good for our pocket books, that we are travelling light and can't actually fit anything more into our saddle bags.  Some of the streets in Hoi An are car-free which makes for a pretty laid back and peaceful vibe in the city.  We leave tomorrow and head further down the coast to Quang Ngai

Lantern anyone?

On the water at night

Old Japanese bridge

John's long lost ancestor 

View from the top

Wooden bicycle

"Don't laugh at me, I'll take a bite out of you if you do"