Message from Trev:
Posted 26 January 2007 - Greetings!
My last post was from Pakse in Central Laos.
Now heading South to Cambodia - getting towards the end of the journey, via the following route:
21/2/07 Pakse to Champasak ......Cycling 38km
22/2/07 Champasak ...In town
23/2/07 Champasak ....Muang Khong .......Cycling 106km
24/2/07 Muang Khong ...Stung Treng ........Border X-ing into
CAMBODIA ..........................alternatively Ban Khon
25/2/07 Stung Treng .....Phnom Penh .. via Boat (Bike to Kratie?)
26/2/07 Phnom Penh ....Siem Reap ......via Boat 5hrs
27/2/07 Siem Reap .......Cycling around Angkor Temples
28/2/07 Siem Reap FLY to BANGKOK
Sending this from Siem Reap in NW Cambodia, after some long days in the saddle (500kms).
Being dry season the boats werent going along Mekong up in the north , and buses didn't appeal (tho i took one for a 140km stretch of nothing). Got to checkout endangered irrawaddy dolphins near Kratie! (Out of Phnom Penh).
Siem Reap is home of the famous Angkor Temples. It was quite a ride here, the odometer shows over 2100kms now and I stayed in some tiny towns during 100+km stretches along Hwy 6 to reach here. The highlight was a ride along the old dirt road that follows the mekong - friendly locals, lots of stops for fresh cane juice, great views of the river ,and not much traffic.
However I also managed to catch some kind of stomach bug which has slowed me down... ( Dr Trev self-diagnoses himself with on line help from flatmate Dr. Holly back in Melbourne.. rather than pay $100 consultation fee in fancy hospital here.... two "international Hospitals" are still under construction but they manage to operate out of them anyway....
Siem Reap is tourist haven - I walked off to local pharmacy and self-prescribed 250mg metronidazole (broad spectrum antibiotic).
So I'm on my Bike again - only just. .... Hope to to check out the Angor temples..
27 Feb 23006 - Made it - Angkor temples Update ...
Headed off before dawn (!) to checkout the temples by bicycle
- the scale of Angkor is mind boggling! Walls 8m high, moats 200m in
width, carved stone buildings hundreds of metres long and several
stories high. I cycled 42km and saw a fraction of what is here. My
favourite was the place called, oh i forget the name, anyway the place
where they filmed that Lara Croft movie (Tomb Raider?) It is one of the only
temples where the French or Japenese haven't come in and gone bezerk
restoring the place, leaving behind boring descriptions of how they
did the restoraton (with no info on the history of the original
temple!). It feels so much more genuine when there are piles of stone
blocks and rubble everywhere and half the building has been swallowed
by the jungle - with tree roots growing all over the place.
Unfortunately as I was soaking up the atmosphere of the place, i was
mobbed by about 200 noisy japanese tourists! I took a few happy
snaps before made a quick exit.
One thing i have noticed in Laos and Cambodia is that people are kinda
obsessed with sweeping up leaves. I often see or hear people sweeping
vigorously especially in the morning. Unfortunately when you have
such a dry dusty place, it creates lots of dust! Oh and smoke, cos
once they have swept it into a pile, they burn it. On the roads
cyclist and motorbikers wear masks to keep the crap out of their
lungs. Maybe it would help if they stopped sweeping and burning so
much! In fact i suspect that it was not the french that rediscovered
the lost temples of Angkor inthe late 1800's, but the result of years
of obsessing sweeping! It probably went something like "Hey Wilma, i
was sweeping the back porch this morning, and found the head of
buddha!"
Another thing common to both countries is the love of the Horn.
People dont care much about driver safety or vehicle maintenance
(other than hosing down the scooter so it looks shiny), but they must
have the best and loudest horn possible. My bicycle happens to have
a large yellow honker horn. Its not that loud actually, especially
since the guy in Laos broke it while loading it onto the top of the
bus, but everyone loves it! I have lost count the number of times i
have been lying on my bed in a hotel room after a hard day on the
bike, and heard the faint sound of my bike horn outside - being
pressed repeatedly either by one of the local kids, or the local
policeman.
I also have a confession to make. Soon after arriving in Cambodia i
started to get tired of saying and waving hello to everybody!
Normally it's great, especially in Laos every day there were kids
waving hello! But in cambodia the population density is over twice
that of Laos! I estimate that on the average busy road i respond to
a "hello!" about 10 times every minute. Over a 5 hr day of cycling
that equals 10*60*5=3000 hellos! Try saying 3000 hellos in the space
of 5 hours - it can wear you down! Ok maybe it was the heat....
So soon it's a so2 more days here, then short flight to BKK, one day relaxing in Bangers before flying back to OZ !
So that's about it for now, hope things are good in your end of the world!
