Friday 14/11
Friday arrived! The day people are usually extremely excited about. However, since we're on a holiday, for us it makes very little difference - every day is exciting! Today we were going to arrive to Cambodia's capital city Phnom Penh. The distance left was only about 50 km, which was half of what we had cycled the day before. Therefore the plan was to get to the city before we stop for a break.
There was only one BUT, we had no idea where we would be staying until our flight that is only on Monday.
The way was straight forward, and more and more signs indicated that we truly will be arriving to Phnom Penh shortly. But that's not the only thing that was more and more, the traffic! Scooters, cars, pickups, trucks, ... seemed to appear out of thin air. There was noise everywhere. By now we were used to them all honking like crazy, but this was a whole new level. There was also some road construction work going on in some fragments of the national road nr.5, so this made the traffic even more hectic. But being cyclists we had some what an advantage since like scooters we could pass cars and trucks that were stuck. Good for us.
We had not yet arrived to the city centre area when Pedro saw a restaurant that had WiFi. So we decided to stop there and see what our plan for the rest of the day will be. We ended up spending a lot of time there. Pedro was eagerly searching for a Couch Surfing host for us for the current city. And I sent some requests for Singapore. During our stay at this place we had some drinks and a meal. We did some blogging and facebooking.
At this restaurant they had two TVs. Each was showing something else. But on one of them they played their own DVDs which where either strange Cambodian action movies or Cambodian karaoke.
We had spent literally hours at this place, so finally we searched online for a hotel where we could stay as there were no positive responses on Couch Surfing. We found one with a pool, online the price was 20$ per night. We thought about booking it, but since it required card details, we thoughts it's better to wait till we get there.
Then Pedro also found online a bike shop that we could go to for some tips. So off we went to this shop. We found it easily. There Pedro asked if they had bike boxes; we'll be needing them for the flight. They said that with them disassembling them and putting them into the boxes it would be 9USD each. They also offered us their own transportation. The guy at the shop said that it would total cost us close to 50USD. They'd pack our bikes and bring us to the airport. It seems a lot, but it's pretty much a hustle free option.
After the chat at the bike shop we wondered through the traffic to the hotel we had picked out for us. We asked the receptionist what the price was for one night, he said it's 15$. Great! So we took a room for us, at firsts just one night. We were allowed to bring the bikes inside the hotel and we locked them together not far from the reception. Seemed safe enough!
It was nice to settle into our room. It's quite small, has a desk and a bed in the room, and a small space to turn around. And there is also a toilet/shower. All together not so bad. Of course there is dust in many places, and the corners have clearly not been cleaned in a while. But it has air conditioner so we can stay cool! :D
Once we had our showers and rest time we went out to the city for dinner. The city, or at least the area where we're staying seems quite vibrant. There are many bars, cafes and restaurants around here. Always buzzing with peoples' chatters. We ended up looking like typical tourists because for the meal we had burgers with fries. But I really had a desire to have a juicy sandwich of some sort. And we also tried some Cambodian beer, which turned out to be nothing very special. Then we headed for the hotel and went to sleep!
There was only one BUT, we had no idea where we would be staying until our flight that is only on Monday.
The way was straight forward, and more and more signs indicated that we truly will be arriving to Phnom Penh shortly. But that's not the only thing that was more and more, the traffic! Scooters, cars, pickups, trucks, ... seemed to appear out of thin air. There was noise everywhere. By now we were used to them all honking like crazy, but this was a whole new level. There was also some road construction work going on in some fragments of the national road nr.5, so this made the traffic even more hectic. But being cyclists we had some what an advantage since like scooters we could pass cars and trucks that were stuck. Good for us.
We had not yet arrived to the city centre area when Pedro saw a restaurant that had WiFi. So we decided to stop there and see what our plan for the rest of the day will be. We ended up spending a lot of time there. Pedro was eagerly searching for a Couch Surfing host for us for the current city. And I sent some requests for Singapore. During our stay at this place we had some drinks and a meal. We did some blogging and facebooking.
At this restaurant they had two TVs. Each was showing something else. But on one of them they played their own DVDs which where either strange Cambodian action movies or Cambodian karaoke.
We had spent literally hours at this place, so finally we searched online for a hotel where we could stay as there were no positive responses on Couch Surfing. We found one with a pool, online the price was 20$ per night. We thought about booking it, but since it required card details, we thoughts it's better to wait till we get there.
Then Pedro also found online a bike shop that we could go to for some tips. So off we went to this shop. We found it easily. There Pedro asked if they had bike boxes; we'll be needing them for the flight. They said that with them disassembling them and putting them into the boxes it would be 9USD each. They also offered us their own transportation. The guy at the shop said that it would total cost us close to 50USD. They'd pack our bikes and bring us to the airport. It seems a lot, but it's pretty much a hustle free option.
After the chat at the bike shop we wondered through the traffic to the hotel we had picked out for us. We asked the receptionist what the price was for one night, he said it's 15$. Great! So we took a room for us, at firsts just one night. We were allowed to bring the bikes inside the hotel and we locked them together not far from the reception. Seemed safe enough!
It was nice to settle into our room. It's quite small, has a desk and a bed in the room, and a small space to turn around. And there is also a toilet/shower. All together not so bad. Of course there is dust in many places, and the corners have clearly not been cleaned in a while. But it has air conditioner so we can stay cool! :D
Once we had our showers and rest time we went out to the city for dinner. The city, or at least the area where we're staying seems quite vibrant. There are many bars, cafes and restaurants around here. Always buzzing with peoples' chatters. We ended up looking like typical tourists because for the meal we had burgers with fries. But I really had a desire to have a juicy sandwich of some sort. And we also tried some Cambodian beer, which turned out to be nothing very special. Then we headed for the hotel and went to sleep!
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