Another Border

Wednesday 19/11

We woke up later than planned. Sharon had left already while the four of us where still asleep. Jose and David also left before us, they planned to start the day with a visit to the botanical garden. We took the liberty to sleep in until about noon. Gosh we had missed some good sleep. But now we had at least rested well and we were ready to face the border. It was not very far until we reached the bridge. We rode our bicycles on the line that was for motorcycles. On Singapore's side they stamped our passports for leaving the country. On the other side we had no problems, the lady border officer stamped our passports allowing us to stay in the country for 90 days. Great!
With that done we were ready to cycle closer to the west coast as that is where the weather should be better. In Singapore we were told that on the east side of Malaysia there are monsoons at the moment, so we set to leave that cost for the next time we visit the country.
We did not cycle very much as it was relatively late and we both were tired. It was hard to find the right way, so we settled in a guesthouse soon after the border. As Malaysia is rapidly developing at the moment, more people spoke English than in Cambodia. Here it was not hard to find people who knew English, which made travelling slightly easier. 

Flying Into The Future

Monday  17/11

Phnom Penh, it was finally the day to leave the city. Since we had spent a quite a long time there, we were more than willing to head away. We had our flight to Singapore at 15:30 from Phnom Penh's International Airport. As planned, we had hot dogs for breakfast, and Maria joined us even though she was about to leave for work. On Friday we had arranged at one of the bike shops that they would pack our bikes into bike boxes. It was very pricy, $30, but the guys at the bike shop did a good job, wrapped the frame with newspaper, and found boxes that could fit the bicycles. One of the guys then found a tuk tuk driver that agreed to take us to the airport. As expected, we had to bargain about the price, the driver first said 20 dollars(!) but we ended up paying 10.25. Our bike boxes could barely fit in the tuktuk, leaving very little space for us. The ride was quite long, and mostly went along the Russian Federation Street. When we arrived to the airport it was early and the check in for our flight had not even started yet. So we set our things on trolleys and sat down to wait. It was around two when they begun check in. We had purchased luggage space 25kg each, so total of 50, once we had the bikes placed there was still some weight left, so we also checked in my big black pannier, and took Pedro's panniers with us as hand luggage. The security line was quick and we got to our gate fast. Again, it's a small airport, so not too many flights or people around. At the waiting area we seized the time to have a meal, some nice warm chicken sandwiches. Those were also overpriced, just because it was an airport. We got to the plane, and after everyone was aboard the pilots took off into the cloudy sky.
The flight was roughly two hours long. We arrived in Singapore, there was zero problems at the immigration, both of us got stamps that we could stay 90 days in Singapore. We stopped after to assemble our bikes and then it was quite late, but we had to get to the city!
We had found a host in Singapore, Sharon. We were lucky that she was hosting two Portuguese brothers, Jose and David, who happened to be Pedro's Couch Surfing friends. So them two and the host did not mind if we surfed the same couch. The thing was that Sharon lives close to the border to Malaysia, which is pretty far from the airport, so now we had to figure out how to get there. To our surprise, the city is extremely bicycle unfriendly, there is no bikes allowed on the metro or buses, and a regular taxi would not only not fit the bikes, but it would cost a fortune. We were advised to hire a special big taxi that had a fixed rate of 60 Singapore dollars! Very expensive, but it was really to only real option, as cycling would take ages, and there were only highways, and it was dark already. We managed to fit the bikes in the big taxi. The ride was long, about 40 minutes, but the driver took us to the right address, so we knew we wouldn't have to wonder about searching. We soon found the right apartment, and we were glad our host was home and awake. Soon Jose and David arrived, we were charting a bit about our trips, and what to see the following day, but then it was time to sleep.

Honk, Honk, Honk, Beep, Beep, Beep...

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!