Ember tervez...

154 km-re a cel allomastol ugy terveztuk, hogy ket nap alatt teljesitjuk a tavot.
Hajnali 5-kor mar uton voltunk, es mivel felhos volt az eg egesz nap,gyorsan haladtunk, ugy dontottunk, h. nem allunk meg 70 km-re Siem Reap-tol. Haladtunk tovabb a kovetkezo, majd a kovetkezo faluig, igy sikerult 120 km-t bicajoznunk azon a napon. Delutan 16 ora korul, mar  "csak" 30 km-re voltunk a celtol, de 1 metert sem tudtunk volna tobbet tekerni mar. Mivel a kis varosban sehol nem talaltunk szallas lehetoseget, ugy dontottunk, hogy buszra szallunk es ugy fejezzuk be a turat. Nick nagyon nem szerette az otletet, o mindenkepp "bele szeretett volna biciklizni" Siem Reap-be.  A buszra szallas otlete nem valosult meg, senki nem akart minket elvinni.A helyiek minden egyes buszt leintettek nekunk, probaltak segiteni, de nem ment. Akkor elokapott a zsebebol az egyik egy telefont, es felkialltott: TUK-TUK. Imadtam az otletet, es mukodott :)

Igy sikerult 1 nappal elobb megerkeznunk, a randevu napjan mi mar a medenceben csucsulve vartunk Shareen-re es Dave-re. Az utolso 30 km tekeressel  tegnap vegre sikerult elbicajoznunk es megneznunk Angkor Wat-ot, remelem tetszeni fognak a kepek.

Koszonom nektek az emaileket, a hozzaszolasokat, hogy kovettetek az utunkat, nem hiszitek, de sokszor adott erot a biztatasotok...Nick azota is emlegeti, h. hanyszor akartam eladni a bicikliket es robogora szallni...de mindezekkel egyutt eletem legsuperebb nyaralasa, vagy inkabb ahogy angolul hivom tour helyett " tourture", torturaja volt. Elso bringaturasokkent persze mar latjuk, mennyit es hol hibaztunk a szervezesben....az elso es legfontosabb, Azsiaba biciklizni nyaron...biztosan
tobbet nem fogunk :)

Day 16 - Siem Reap the final chapter

Yesterday was  spent by the pool, soaking our aching limbs, and to complete the tour Dave and Shereen arrived late afternoon by taxi !

Last night we enjoyed our first real beer in over two weeks, to celebrate Dave's birthday.

Today, it was a bit of a 'Busmans' holiday, as we cycled 30km around Anchor Wat, Bayon,

Anchor Thom and Ta Prohm the legendary Tomb Raider temple which was our favourite.

Dave and Shereen had a taste of what it was like cycling out here, and they both are now struggling to sit down, and Dave looked liked he needed mouth to mouth, but no volunteers.

So today was officially the end of the tour, we have a further few days travelling around Cambodia by car, before flying home.

The tour has been real experience, seen some amazing things, tasted some wonderful and sometimes strange foods, had some real challenges on the bikes, especially from Hoi An to Po Y on the Laos border, seen sheer poverty which is very humbling, been welcomed and cheered throughout the whole adventure, by very friendly people.

As a Project Manager, i couldn't finish without some 'lessons learnt'....realistically , 50-80km is the most you can comfortably achieve in a day. With 20kg weight on each bike 20-25  km/hr is a good pace, but after a few hours cycling this can drop to 15km / hr. Thru Vietnam, where you have many 10% hills, your distance can reduce to 5km / hr.  Also the only time you can comfortably maintain any pace, is from 5am first light til 10am, as soon as the sun is high in the sky it becomes tough, very tough!

Lastly, thanks to everybody who followed us over the last 2.5 weeks on the Blog, the comments and sheer numbers of hits from over 20 different countries were the motivation we often needed to keep us going. So til the next one ....... we both say goodbye.

party time

Day 15 - Kampong Thom - Siem Reap

Hitting  the tarmac at 5am gave us a flying start, and before you could say 'is that really two dead cows on that motorbike trailer' we had done 26km, and time for the first morning coffee.

nearly done

Another 26km done and we had arrived at our planned destination  Stoung, but we found a very dusty  red sandstone town,  which wasn't the most attractive, so we decided to push on to the next town, and then the next and next!  Before long we had clocked up 120km (our most in one day). We arrived in Damdek, expecting to be spoilt with choice of guest houses, and were surprised and also very stuck when we found out it was a hotel free zone.

I think most of the town had come out to offer us advice on what to do next, but what we did understand that the nearest hotel was in Siem Reap, which was another 30km away, and with our legs shot after 120km, we had no choice but to get a bus. But non were willing to take us, so in a very undignified and quiet frankly very disappointing, as we wanted to cycle into Siem Reap..... we got a tuk tuk, with our bikes strapped to the tuk tuk. The speed we did the next 30km was about the same we would have cycled, but we got there just before the skies opened, so that was pleasing.

yep its a tuk tuk

So after 1300km, 3 countries, and two weeks in the saddle,  we have arrived at our destination, completely wasted, but one day early.

this little piggy went to market

Tomorrow Dave and Shereen arrive, and we will get down to some well earned R&R for the next week, so tomorrow will probably be the last blog.

these certainly didnt go home

Day 14- Kampong Cham City - Kampong Thom

As always, you learn more from folks in bars than the Internet can ever provide. The only blog i could find about road conditions between KCC and KT were that the roads were good in 2008, well following discussions with locals they tell me the opposite, and that they are impassable on bikes.

So again our planning had been shot to bits, with the local mini bus as our only plan B, which under normal conditions seats 10, but this is Asia! so we managed to fit in 20 people plus a market full of fruit boxes  Oh yeh, plus two bikes tied to the back. The good thing, the journey was short, and we soon arrived in the market at Kampong Thom. From there we had 1km to our latest good Internet find, Sambor Village resort, and for $35 / night, it was good value, we had our own chalet style room, with rustic features and the biggest plus .... it had a pool.

no fun

are you serious

So a lazy afternoon.  However you may be thinking that its a bit of a 'cop out' getting the bus, but when you are 194cm tall, and not much flesh around the buttocks plus dodgy knees, taking the bus with 20 others, sitting on half a seat, over incredibly bumpy roads, i would cycle any day, the bus is a last option here.

P.s only 150km to Siem Reap!

Stung Treng

Koran reggel nyakunkba vettuk a kis varost, hogy minnel elobb elhagyhassuk az elozo este talalt nyomorult, koszos  kis vendeghazat. A folyoparton setalva pillantottunk meg egy  kis csinos, rendezett kertu hazikot, ahol fiatal kis kambodzsai "gyerekek" jottek-mentek, intezkedtek, szepitgettek az udvart az elozo esti nagy vihar utan.

Mint kiderult, egy svajci hazaspar vezette trening iskolaba csoppentunk. Mireille es Jacquas szegeny csaladbol szarmazo fiatalokat toboroz, hogy oktassa oket. Informatika, angol, fozes, vendeglatas orakat vesznek a kis diakok es kozben viszik az  uzletet, foglalkoznak a betero vendegekkel. A trening befejeztevel 90 % uknak sikerul munkahelyet talalnia, ami itt igazan kiemelkedo eredmeny.

A Hogy kipihenjuk a tegnapi nap faradalmait, egesz nap csak lazsaltunk, pihi napot tartottunk...es persze fenykepeztunk :)

strung treng-i kis templom

Kambodzsai hataratkelo fele...

Elhagytuk Wat Pout, es a kis luxus hotelunket a medencevel..

ismet bringara pattantunk, nehany kilometer tekeres utan kompra szalltunk, h. atkelljunk a Mekong folyon...nem tudok uszni, ezert nagyon erzekenyen erintenek  az ilyen vizre szallo lelekvesztok. A komp ugy nezett ki, hogy 3 csonakot egymas melle allitottak, es hosszu deszkakkal ossze szogeltek. Sikerult elve atjutnunk, majd a tulparton buszra szalltunk. A buszunk 25 km-rel a hatar elott lerobbant,igy leparkoltunk egy utszeli szerelo udvaraba...mi inkabb ugy dontottunk, hogy visszapattanunk a bicajra es a hatar fele vettuk az iranyt.

A hataron valo atkeles nagyon vicces volt, kb. 4 kulonbozo "iroda szeru" ablaknal kellett papirokat kitoltenunk, vagy epp a testhomersekletunket mertek, mondvan, ha tul magas, akkor fertozo betegegunk van es akkor nem kelhetunk at a hataron. Termeszetesen minden ilyen vizsglatnal elkertek 1,2 ,3  vagy akarmennyi dolllart. Nem beszelve arrol, hogy a hataroroket mi ebresztettuk fel, egymas hegyen-hatan aludtak egy szobaban, egyedul a zold egyen nadrag "jelezhette", hogy valami fele hivatalos munkat vegeznek. Egyebkent meg az egyenruha semmit nem jelent naluk, mert a piac tele van veluk, de ami a legszebb, hogy megvasaroljak, es HORDJAK! Ahogy at jutottunk a hataronkutyafalka vett uldozobe minket, ossze fostam a bokaim, kikeszultem.Epphogy fellelegzem a sokkolo elmeny utan, valaki fejbevagott egy almaval...aztan megeggyel...eso volt, nem alma, de oriasi cseppekben....Nemsokara elsotetult az eg es a tornado ereju szeltol nemhogy tekerni, de egyensulyozni nem voltunk kepesek a biciklin. Ismet kikeszultem...15 km-re voltunk a kovetkezo celallomastol, es eselyunk nem volt, h. 1 cm-t is haladjunk ebben az idoben. begurultunk a legkozelebbi kunyhohoz, es a terasz allatt kuporogva vartuk, h. enyhuljon a szelvihar es az eso. Vegre tovabb indultunk, de akkorra mar rank sotetedett, igy az utolso 12 km- t korom sotetben a semmi kozepen tekerve  tettuk meg, elhihetitek, h. fergeteges sebesseggel....Ekkor mar 12 oraja voltunk uton, hulla faradtan, mocskosan, izzadtan beestunk egy gusztutalan motelbe....

Day 13 - Kratie - Kampong Cham City

Early start today to avoid the mid-day sun. 5am we were on the road along the Mekong river towards Phumi Chhlong, which was 35km away along flat tarmac roads. We made good time, think we are starting to get the hang of this cycling thing, so by 7am we were having the normal breakfast , coffee, coffee and more coffee, it tastes wonderful here, even Erika has a couple to get her started.

another temple 

The second leg was a bit more challenging, as they have stuck sleeping policeman every km to slow the traffic, well it worked on us, and one of the bike bags disintegrated, and required surgery before we could continue.

After 80km for the day and 10am, the temperature had hit 40d, and we decided to throw in the towel and get the bus the last 40km to Kampong Cham. Best $9 spent today!
Quick search along the river front and we found a good clean trendy (ish) guest house called Chaplins after Charlie. With Dave Sexton signature on the wall dated 2013, although i think he died in 2012 !

Cute !

The good news, is that we are now just 250km from Siem Reab, so we are planning on another 80km tomorrow, to bring us within touching distance. The 200km detour, has meant a little cheating is required to arrive at SR before Dave and Shereen decide to give up waiting.

All the towns visited in this corner of S.E .Asia, looks like someone had initially grand ideas, and set out the basic infrustucture to high standards, but then the money run out. So everywhere could look like Monaco, with a little more effort and money. Such a shame, but i suppose that's one of characteristics of Asia, that people love.

This afternoon we walked a few km down the river to the bamboo bridge, which is impressive at 1km long.

Koh Pen bamboo bridge

Early night again, as we can smell the finishing line!

Day 12- Stung Treng to Kratie

Little to report today, uneventful trip from Stung Treng to Kratie. A good opportunity to catch up on washing, blog and emails, while catching a few rays. The main focus is on tomorrows bike trip to Kampong Chan City along the banks of the Mekong, and finding guest house conveniently situated in case things don't go to plan.

We did however take the bikes to the local bike wash place, i think they are cleaner !

 do you call that clean

Day 11 - Stung Treng

After yesterdays exploits i had no chance of convincing Erika to take to the saddle today, so we had an unplanned rest day.  However first, we needed to find a decent guest house where we could relax and enjoy the river views, and to our luck we found the perfect place at a very reasonable price of $8 per night.

Stung Treng market 5am  

It was a tourist training school, setup and managed by Mireille and Jacques from Brugge and Switzerland respectively. The school takes in poor underprivileged children , educates them and provides them some basic skills to get jobs, they have a 90% success rate, which is tremendous here.

Jacques also advised us, that our planned route to Siem Reap was not possible as the road was impassable, and recommended heading further south via Kratie. So after yesterdays experience, we took his advise, even though this meant an additional 200km to our trip. He also suggested taking a mini bus to Kratie as the road there built by the Chinese was completely pot-holed.

Im not getting on that ferry 

So today was  a very lazy, and with no-internet due to the storm, wasn't particularly productive. But a good day in the company of Marielle and Jacques, who given the chance we would revisit.

Locals fishing on Mekong

Mireille and Jacques

Day 10 - Champasak to Stung Treng

Oh what a day....... if started as normal with breakfast at the Spa, followed by a short ride to Champasak Ferry terminal, to cross to the east side of mekong river, to catch the bus towards the Laos / Cambodian boarder.

On arrival at the ferry crossing, Erika was fully expecting to see P.O Ferries turn up, so she could enjoy a Latte on one of the upper decks, reading the Sunday papers. Well as she is a relative non- swimmer, the prospect of getting on a raft, held together with every available means of rope, was daunting to say the least! But we did have calm waters and a slow engine on our side, to ensure the experience passed without incident, and before long we were back on dry land waiting for the 9am bus south.

this is not the P.O Princess

With one bike loaded underneath and the second down the central gang way  we were on our way, until something on the bus fell off! It was obviously an important part as he headed straight to the nearest garage. At this point and 20km from the border, the bikes were the best option, and to the envy of the other dozen westerners onboard, we loaded the bikes and said our goodbyes.

At the border, the first challenge was finding someone to stamp our exit visa, so after opening many doors of the immigration huts, i finally found three officers asleep on the floor. Having awoken them with my clumsy entrance, they proceeded to action the paper work. Next step was Cambodian entry, this started with a health test, with a thermometer placed against our necks... 35d perfect, considering we had just cycled 20km in burning heat, and were sweting like pigs, i was a little surprised, but paid the one dollar for the privilege and continued to the next counter and more forms + $20 each visa entry. All in all it was relatively painless for such an remote outback crossing, and no scams.

anyone at home ?

Into Cambodia we went, and 300m down the road, we had the least pleasant welcome party, with 4 dogs chasing us for a few hundred meters yapping at our heals. During our time in both Vietnam and Laos, we had no problems with dogs, as i suspect they are very used to people on bikes. As this experience was a little scary, we decided to 'arm up' incase of further attacks, by loading the bikes with a few heavy stones. Our new defence mechanism was soon put to the test with a dog running at us from a house, and started snarling and chasing us again, but was soon stopped in its tracks by the scud stones. Luckily the next 50km passed without further dog incidents, so we hope these were a just couple of isolated cases!

The next  35km passed without reportable incident, until the sky started to darken ahead of us, and we could see a lot of fork lightning. We had about 5km to the next small town, so it was full speed ahead to avoid the storm. However a further 2km down the road the winds picked up and the rain started, light at first, turning into monsoon type conditions. We had no choice as riding was now impossible, but to take shelter at someones house. There we were welcomed by the owners  and we met up with some other local strays who also got caught in the storm. This was  a huge storm, with loads of fork lightning and as we later found out many small tornado's touching down !, and all electricity lost across the region.

We spent the next hour under there house, the locals  were completely undisturbed by the storm, but saw this as an opportunity to have a bath, so off came the clothes out came the soap and out they all went.

At least the water melon is good

One hour later after trying watermelon straight from the field, we decided to make a run for it, to get to Stung Treng by complete blackness, and the thought of a potential home stay in this barn, made up our mind.

The next 10k would have been in Olympic qualification time, and Bradley would have been proud. But the last 5km was cycling blind in the total blackness, with the white line in the middle of road as our only guide.

Anyway after setting off 12 hours previous we arrived in Stung Treng, found guest house, ate and bed, completely crackered.

Azt hiszem a tema meger meg nehany fotot es nem banjatok ha toltok  fel meg parat. Holnap elhagyjuk Laoszt es Kambodzsa fele vesszuk az iranyt. Ha tetszett Vat Phu, akkor mindenkepp tartsatok velunk, mert a kovetkezo allomasunk a vilag leghatalmasabb szerzetes muemleke, eloszor hindu, majd buddhista templom csoportja, Angelina Jolie Lara Croft-janak forgatasi helyszine...ANGKOR WAT lesz!

Wat Phu volt a mai uticelunk. 12,5 km-t kellett tekernunk, hogy vegre megpillantsuk a hires templom maradvanyait. Wat Phu egy lerombolt osi khmer ( kambodzsai etnikai csoport)  templom csoport 6 km-re a Mekong folyo partjatol Champasak tartomanyaban. Talaltak itt az V. szazadban epult templomot, de a mai lathato maradvanyok mar a XI.-XIII. szazadbol szarmaznak. Remelem a kepek valamennyire vissza adjak, az elmeny hatalmas!

Day 9 - Champasak to Wat Pheu

Today was devoted to sight seeing and pool time. Starting with a 25km return trip on bikes to Wat Pheu , which is situated 6kms inland from the Mekong River.

looking down onto the main temples at Wat Pheu

Wat Pheu is said to date back further than Anchor Wat, is less known and a lot smaller than its big sister, but was certainly worth the 30 minute side trip.

gym is paying dividends

 Spot the tourist

A first today was cycling on red sandstone roads, which were cooler but a lot slower, and more attention was required to avoid the pit-holes, something us Brits are familiar with.

rush hour

All in all, cycling in Laos has been a pleasure to the noise and traffic off Vietnam. Most days we have the road to ourselves and can cycling the well trodden centre of the road, without problems. The heat makes any journey over 50km a real challenge, due to heat exhaustion.

Tomorrow sees us leave the luxurious River Spa resort and head to the Laos/Cambodia border and onto Stung Treng.

My biggest challenge tomorrow apart from the border immigration,  will be convincing  Erika, that the small $10 guest houses, dirt, dust and hardcore local food is the right next move!

Anyway enough writing for the day, a cold beer Laos  and pool awaits!

Day 8 - Pakse to Champasak

Pakse was the largest town we had visited so far , which made us a little apprehensive to be going back into the rural community this morning, after sampling something like normality for 24hrs. However the day started with the normal 'kick start' Laos coffee, followed by crossing the  Laos/Nippon bridge to the other side of the Mekong River. We then cycled the 35KMs to Chapasak, nr Don Daeng island, to a superb internet find, and the mere 'Spa' word lit up Erika's eyes, .. the River Resort Spa. The decision to stop here for a well earned R&R was one of the easier decision we have had to make this last week.  We have our own little chalet, over looking the Mekong, with our first swimming pool since leaving Hoi An a week ago.

The plan tomorrow is to catch up on sight seeing, by visiting Wat Phu and cycling around Don Daeng island which we can get to by ferry boat from the Spa.

Then its off to the Laos /Cambodia border for the final push to Siem Reap.

Egy templom mellett talaltunk szallast a Mekong folyo menten...

Az utcan setalva talaltuk ezt a kis teszta foldet. Gusztustalan, a koszban, porban szaritjak a tesztat, majd feldaraboljak....es gondolom...remelem...megmossak...

A senki foldjen...

rtene, ha hazat akarnek epiteni ra :)

No mans land

Elhagyvan a hatart, Laoszban Attapu varosaban kerestunk szallast.  Sokkos allapotba kerultem, mocsok, por, szegenyseg....es van egy kb. ket km-es korzet a varoska kozepen, ami ugy nez ki, mint egy udulokozpont. Elkezdtek epiteni, ujitani, de nem fejeztek be...furcsa a kontraszt, teglaval epitett, hatalmas csaladi hazak mellett, koszos kis fakunyhok...

Attapubol koran reggel indultunk ismet utnak. 85 km zold, sik terep vart rank, de ismet egy koszos kis faluba erkeztunk, ezert ugy dontottunk, h. Tekerunk meg , 46 km- re volt a kovetkezo nagyvaros. Nekivagtunk, nem gondoltuk, hogy a 46 km folyamatos emelkedo lesz. Sajnos rank sotetedett, es mivel delelott esett az eso, fujt a szel, nem ereztem h. mennyire megegtunk. Kikeszultem, egett a borom, faradt voltam, ezert a kovetkezo benzinkutnal megalltunk, es megkertuk a kuton levo egyik autost, h. vigyen el minket a kovetkezo 10 km-re levo faluig.