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. 

Wave and Say "Hello"

Friday 07/11

We woke up as planned on Friday morning. The sun rose as we were packing our things ready to head for the border. It was difficult to understand where exactly the border crossing is. When we asked people where it was they all said something different. But Pedro said that he knows where to go, so I had to trust him on this one. For the border the way is up Dângrêk mountains, for me it was pretty hard to cycle up. I am way out of shape. :( At one point I was even pushing the bike because I couldn't keep cycling. But it was great to see the views along the way.

We had to cycle for a bit more until we reached the border! We were truly happy! There was some WiFi, and of course Mr Peter Lamb had to check Facebook and post a picture telling the world where we're at. The Thai border officers stamped our passports and off we went to the Cambodian guards. First we had to get the visa on entry. It used to cost 20USD, and it said so on every website that we checked online. However, according to Cambodian officer Pol. Capt. Heng Phirun the cheif of visa service, as of 1st of November the price is 30USD. Plus we had pay an extra 2 dollars each because we didn't have pictures with us. But we ended up paying total of 62 dollars. Then we had to fill in slips of entry and exit, and got more stamps in our passports.

We were super glad to be through with the border, and Pedro was excited that finally

 we'll be going downhill! And right he was, soon we were on a very long and steep downhill. There were several turns along the way, for me it got quite scary at some points. Pedro said that on his device the top speed climbed close . It was  70 km/h. So you can imagine how great the hill was! 

We then stopped for a quick snack and some drinks. We kept cycling but soon it was much too hot to keep going. We rested for some hours on a terrace of Cambodian Protect Of Environment and Human Right's Organization Headquarters. I even fell a sleep for a short nap while we were there. Once we thought the main heat of the day has passed we got ready to keep cycling. Unfortunately the dark came soon. Pedro said it was time to find a place for the night, BUT local people said that the closest hotel is 25 km away. We cycled more to try asking other people, but there they said the same. So we now had to cycle in the dark. The only bad thing was the darkness. But it was not late, and the temperature was perfect for cycling. Pedro had a headlamp that he used so we could see the road. Though the moon was very bright as it was one night after the full moon, and the sky was clear and we had countless stars above our heads. We had a long way to go, we had already cycled a lot, we were tired, but we had to get to the next city as we didn't have many options. When we arrived to the city that we don't know the name of, we asked some people where was a place to sleep. The nice man sat on his scooter and leaded the way for us. We were lucky! The place had a spare room for us. We paid 7USD, we were allowed to bring the bikes inside the building, and then we locked them together. Here they have an interesting 'rule' that they leave their shoes outside of the building. We took our shoes off, but took them to the room to not have surprises in the morning. We put down our things and had a dinner in a place right next to the hotel. We had some sausages that had cheese in them, fried eggs and instant noodles. Then we headed back to our room for a good nights sleep.

As we were cycling many people waved at us and said "Hello!" especially kids it was fun to wave back to them and see how simple things make them smile.