To The Big City

Monday 24/11

The hotel where we stayed not only had a pool, but also breakfast included in the price. We decided to seize the inclusive breakfast, but as it started only at 7 in the morning, it meant a late start for cycling. And since we did not have internet in the room we took our devices to the breakfast table and in the end we only finished our breakfast after eight. Further more, we took a long time packing, so we started cycling only at around 9:00! This was no good, no good at all. But turned out Pedro had a plan to cycle till Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), which was around 50 km away, but Kuala Lumpur was 110 km. And his plan was to take some transportation from the airport to the city. This turned out to be a good idea as we started much too late to get to the city, and it also started to furiously rain while we were at the airport.

It was very difficult to get to the city with bicycles. The train was not an option, as they don't allow bikes there. And as for the bus, the only company that might take bikes had transfers to the city only from the other terminal. To get to the other terminal we ended up paying 12 ringgit. Of those 1 was for each person, and 5 per each bike! Unbelievable! And we never got the bike ticket. Meaning that the driver most likely put that extra 10 straight to his pocket. Then from the terminal we payed 10 per person to get to the city. There was no extra charge for the bicycles. This seemed strange until we realized that the driver sold us d tickets. What a joke! Turns out the guy has a full pocket of tickets with other time stamps that he resells to the passengers. There is even another guy who encourages people without tickets to save the walk to the ticket counter and buy tickets from the driver. What a scam!
But we got to the city, and that's all that really mattered at this point. We got off the bus in KL Sentral. It started to rain again so we did not go anywhere, just sat in a place where there was internet so we could get in touch with a girl who said she could host us. Yes, Pedro managed to get a positive response even though he sent the couch request only in the morning. Alina had already agreed to host four other people, but was kind enough to also accept our last minute request. The four other people surfing the same couch were:
One guy from Sweden, Kim, who has been travelling the world for two and half years now.
Then there was a couple from Argentina, Laura and Santiago, they had been travelling for a few months now.
And there was also a guy from Indonesia who was on a two week trip in South East Asia. Unfortunately I do not recall his name.
It was difficult to get to Alina's place because the city is not very bicycle friendly. As we had no other choice, we got on the highway, at one point I got myself into a very dangerous situation. The car did not see me even though Pedro was riding in front and indicating that we're switching lanes. The car approached with a high speed and the driver was clearly not paying enough attention. I heard tires squeal and now I just wanted to get off the road ASAP!
After a while we finally got to our host's home, and I was glad to put the bike to the side for now. It first looked like nobody was home, but soon Alina appeared in the window and came down to let us in the house. We sat down for a quick chat, but soon it was time to take a shower. Around that time Laura and Santiago also arrived to Alina's place, and minutes after them Kim came. While I was in the shower, Yan, a friend of our host had also came. It took some while for everyone to shower. But once everyone was ready Alina and her friend Yan drove us all out for dinner. We stopped in a place where there were many vendors selling local dishes. So Yan went to order food from many vendors and then we all tried the different dishes. Some were really spicy, but for me all seemed very tasty. With bellies full it was time to drive back to Alina's place because the Indonesian guy was waiting already by the door. As we were in a car with Yan, she took her time to drive back and was super nice to stop by the Petronas towers so we could get a close-up glimpse of the tallest twin towers in the world. Once we also were back, we all stayed up for a long chat. We had agreed to go to the Batu caves with the Argentinian couple the next day.
It was very late when we all finally headed to sleep. 

Getting to Malacca

Thursday 20/11

As we had not cycled much the previous day only about 37km, today we had to get going and get some kilometers done.
We ready to leave Pulai at around 8 in the morning. The sun was long up and we had a quick breakfast at the hotel. Pedro, as usual, navigated us to the right roads.
We spent the day cycling until we stopped for a rest in a park. Pedro hanged one hammock up in a tree. While I slept on a bench in a a wooden shelter near by. While we were resting some schoolboys stopped on their scooters and popped some petards of some sort. 

Later on we stopped for dinner, we had some rice with chicken. After we continued to cycle until we found a nice looking Home-stay, we knocked on the doors and rang our bells, but it seemed like nobody was home. So we sat down to wait hoping that who ever run the place would show up soon. While we waited, the sun set, and from a nearby mosque we heard people praying. Some while later we finally saw some people there, seemed like a son and his mother. We arranged a decent price of 45 ringgit. As we settled into the room it started to really rain outside, we were truly glad that we had a roof over our heads at this time.

Friday 21/11

Morning came sooner than expected, we woke up not very early, the sun was already up! Yesterday we had cycled close to 90 km, and today we were up for another decent day of cycling. For breakfast we stopped at one of the only places that was open at an early hour. We had a Indian dish served with curry sauce. Pedro loved the dish, and it was very nice, so we both asked for another one. This time for the brake we stopped in a coconut plantation and hanged the hammocks on some trees we found there.

It was a good place far away from the road, so we had a quite time while relaxing. Once we continued cycling two cyclists passed us! At first they did not stop, they flew passed us at a very impressive speed. Later on we met them as they had stopped for a quick stop. We found out that the two girls were from the UK. One of them, Katherine, is cycling all the way from Australia to UK. And the other girl is a friend of hers who joined her on cycling adventures for the distance from Singapore to Bangkok.
After getting to know each other it was time to keep rolling. We stopped for the day in a city called Muar. We went about looking for a guesthouse that was not expensive, and meanwhile we saw that the two British girls were also in the same town. They stopped at a hotel, and so did we. We got a double room for 45 ringgit. 

This was a special cyclist discount. After settling in the room and having a shower we went our for some well deserved dinner. The city was full with life and open market. We sat in a nice looking place and the lady working there helped us with understanding the menu. The food was good!!! :D
Once we got back to the hotel we went straight to sleep!

Saturday 22/11

We got up at around seven, got ready, but on our way down to our bikes we stopped on the second floor where the hotel had it's WiFi area. So you can imagine that there we wasted a lot of time. While we were sitting there, the two girls passed us as they were going downstairs. We greeted them, and wished a good ride! When online things were finally somewhat done it was again late to begin a cycling day.

Yesterday we had cycled about 84 km, so we had not far to go to get to Malacca, only roughly 50 km. We got to the city in a good time cycling all the 50 in one stretch. We found our hotel that Pedro had booked online and checked in. The place was cosy. Near the reception there was a world map with pins in many countries. As there was no pin placed in Latvia, later on I put one in there. So I was their first guest from Latvia. We were feeling very lazy so we took a lot of time doing nothing but resting! The hot midday passed and we got our lazy asses out to the city. We agreed to meet up with Vaidas, the guy who surfed the same guys couch as us back in Dubai! We went to the hostel where he said we would find him, but as he was taking a nap, we decided to drop by again later. As we wondered the streets of the city, it started to rain. It was refreshing at first, so we kept walking about. We were in China-town area, and there was a market of some sort with people selling all sorts of things, including street food. We were forced to stop under one of the shelters because the rain grew in power, and now it was truly pouring!

It was most likely the wildest rain the two of us had seen. The sky turned from white to completely black in a matter of minutes. The thunder roared so loudly you'd think it was a war field, and the lightning was so bright it light up the entire sky when it struck. The water came like a river that had lost its direction. It was truly wild rainfall for at least an hour. The street vendors tried their best to save their things, but much of that was too late. Once the rain had finally calmed down a bit, we decided to keep moving. We went again to Vaidas hostel where he was playing chess with some local man. It was great meeting him! After he won his game he took us to a very cheap Indian restaurant where we ate roti. Roti are pancakes made from dough ball that is stretched out and folded and cooked on big pan surfaces that they have. If you take one that has something inside, it will be placed there after the stretching and before the folding. That evening we fell in love with roti, especially roti pisan (roti with banana)! After dinner Vaidas headed back to his hostel where he had to entertain some guests. Meanwhile we walked about the nice city. The cities streets were full of people, probably because it was a Saturday and that week some festival was taking place there. We did not manager to catch anything from the festival, but nevertheless we had a lovely walk around. While walking along the river, we saw a street musician who was playing his guitar and next to him he had a dancing donkey toy. We chatted to the man a bit, and then I even danced alongside the donkey a bit while bystanders had a good laugh.
Vaidas had invited us to join him at the hostel, it sounded like a nice idea, but as we decided not to stay another day in the city, it was time to head back to our place and get some good rest.

They See Us Rollin'

Wednesday 12/11

We woke up early, as planned, and as usual. Again, we wanted to start cycling early so that we could do a good distance before the sun was too hot. Surprisingly it was not so hard. Guess it was because we had gone to bed early and had had a good rest. We got out of the guesthouse and went across the street where there was a market and there we purchased some snacks for breakfast. We had several different kinds of sweeties and salty things, most of which we could not figure what they were. The best one for both of us was the banana fritter. Yumm!

Pedro and Marta picking what's for breakfast.

After breakfast we kept on cycling and Pedro stopped at the barber's place and said that he was ready to get his hair cut! He seemed very excited. :) The barber cut his hair and gave him a good shave, all for one dollar! Pedro was happy and very pleased with the result.

Pedro at the barber's.

It was then time to keep on rolling.. Until Marta got a flat tire! Yes, I had cycled over some tiny needle like object that happened to puncture through the tire and make a hole in the inner tube. Good though that Pedro had taken with him from Portugal a repair kit. He fixed the inner tube and found that little object that had caused the problem! Saved the day! Thank you Pedro!!! ;) 

The flat tire time.

We then continued to cycle till a town called Pursat where we stopped for the market. There Pedro went to get some bread and muffins for lunch.

Market in Pursat.

Once that was done we cycled a bit more until we found a decent place where we could hang the hammocks for the break of the day. It was further off the road near some houses, there were some perfectly aligned trees waiting for us.

Though at one point my hammock was invaded by the sun and I was forced to move to another place, then Pedro did the same.
After the rest we continued to cycle a bit more, not too long though, it had been an eventful day and we both were tired. We stopped in a town in a guest house called Paris. There we stayed for a while to blog. Once we had rested a bit we were ready for dinner. Next door to the hotel was a nice 'restaurant' where we asked for some rice with some meat. The man got us big dishes of very nice fried rice mixed with some greens and meant. The taste was awesome! One of the best dinners so far. And the price was only 2$ per plate.
After dinner we went to a market where most sellers were packing everything away. But we managed to buy some very tasty cookies for breakfast. We also got some strange green snacks.
Then it was late already and time to go to sleep, after all we had to wake up early again!

Thursday 13/11

As usual the alarm went off at five o'clock in the morning. We had gone to bed quite late, so it was much harder to get up! We had WiFi there so that made the morning even longer. For breakfast we had the cookies we had purchased previous day. We left the hotel much too late, at close to seven o'clock. The sun was long up and heating the streets we were about to roam. I was very dissatisfied with the late start, because for me it is very hard to take the heat. So the say started off with me being Miss Grumpy. We cycled in the sun and I wanted to stop way too often and could not cycle fast at all! Finally it was time to rest! Pedro found an amazing place for us to hang the hammocks. It was under a house (as many houses here are built on tall 'legs' to avoid flooding). What's the best part is that the house was in the lake Tonle Sap. The view was beautiful!

Peter Lamb tying hammocks.

Marta resting.

We stayed there swinging above the water for the whole resting time. A few times some kids came by to go swimming. The place is not really suitable for that, but they still seemed to have a lot of fun. Some of them wanted to come and chat with us, but unfortunately the language barrier exists. So it was smiling and saying: "Hello!"
During the rest time I also tried the green strange snacks we had gotten yesterday. The texture was like it was play dough, the smell was sweet. But the taste was not good at all!

After the nice rest on the breezy lake it was time to keep rolling! We got back to the road and kept going. Soon I got really hungry since all we had had was cookies all day, so we stopped in a place where I could eat. It was rice with green beans and meat. Pedro claimed that he was not hungry. Again, it was time to roll. The more we cycled the easier it was for me because the sun was slowly setting. The air got lighter and soon there was no need for sunglasses. And soon we had to use some lights to see the road. Pedro gave me his headlamp so I could see the way. Then Pedro got hungry, so we stopped again, so he could eat. In that place there were some cute kittens that were a bit frightened, but wanted to cuddle. And AGAIN it was time to keep going, at some points we stopped to ask people where was the closest place to sleep, and they just indicated that it's very far. So we kept going and going and going. Finally we reached a town called Sala Phlov Veay where Pedro quickly spotted a guesthouse! The price for it was 5$. She gave us a room that had not been cleaned. But it would actually make no difference as evey hotel and guesthouse we had stayed so far had always been poorly cleaned. She was nice enough to give us clean towels and blankets. But later on I found out that the shower was broken, so I ended up washing under the tap. Pedro went in the shower a bit later and claimed that he was able to fix it. Oh well! It was time to sleep as the next day we were going to arrive to Phnom Penh.

Pedro & Marta on the road.

Angkor Wat and Other Temples

Sunday 09/11

And so Sunday morning arrived. The alarm went off early so we could make it on time to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. It's been said online that that is one of the things that one should see if possible. As mentioned in previous post, we had booked a tuktuk. The idea is that he drives us to all the temples and waits for us outside, like our personal chauffeur. When we got downstairs he was already outside waiting for us. We were a bit sleepy considering the early hour, but eager to see what's ahead. The tuktuk driver rode quickly through the almost empty streets, almost as if this was the best part of his day, the reason why it's worth waking up so early. He dropped us of at the end of the path that lead to the great temple. There were countless other nosy tourists that were also heading to the entrance of Angkor Wat. The truth is, any spot at the temple would be great to stop and enjoy the stunning view. We went up then down and stopped at a pond that was in front of the temple. The reflection in the pond was beautiful and we figured it's a very good spot. It was still dark, more and more people were gathering to see the sunrise. Some local sales men and women were walking around desperately trying to sell their goods. "Lady, you want pants? I give you special price!" It's impressive that many tourists actually buy these things from them considering you could get them for half the price in a market that's in a bit smaller town. They thought it's a great buy, so good for them!
Minute by minute the air was getting lighter, the sky step by step was more and more illuminated. The colours were changing as if it was northern lights that we were watching. The sun slowly climbed up playing it's light games with the light clouds that filled the sky. The temple's silluett was more and more clear, the contrast between the dark building and the morning's sky grew more visible. And then in a moments time the sun herself appeared to say that it's time to start the day. It was truly a beautiful sunrise. As the sun was up, most of the people begun to walk about to enjoy the temple itself, and so did we. It's an amazing construction. I could try to describe it, but it's not that easy, best if you go see it for yourself. Because no picture or description is fair for this wonder!

One we had a good long walk in this temple we were ready for our tuktuk driver. It was a pity we didn't think of preparing something for breakfast the day before. So now we asked our driver to take us somewhere so we can fill our empty bellies. But of course he took us to the most turistic place, where the prices were much to high for the food and the service. As Pedro said, we're not tourists, we're travellers, so we should not be treated as tourists. But what can we do? We had our freakfast and headed to our tuktukt to go for the next temple.

Temple by temple we explored the area. To be honest, I don't recall exactly how many we saw, but it was enough for us. It was passed noon and we were ready to go back to the hotel. We had a rest, and then went for a quick cycle trip in the city. We found out that a ferry to Battambang is expensive, so we decided to take the bus there. We found Capitol bus ticket office and passed for the price and if they would take the bikes on the bus. The charge per person was 6.25USD and price for bikes was 3.75USD. We decided to buy tickets tomorrow.
By the market they made some fresh juice mixes, and I finally got my fruit fix. Pedro is not a big fan of fruits, so we haven't really bought any. I picked mango and dragon fruit for my drink. The vendor also added some milk and condensed milk. The taste was very nice and fresh! Yumm!
We then went to a place to do our laundry, at first they said it's too late, because the sun was practically down and they would not dry anymore, but we asked if she could just wash them, and we'd take them wet. She agreed. The price was 1$ per kg. We had four and a half, but be bargained it down to 4USD (16 000 Cambodian Riel).
While it was washing we went for street food dinner, we found a place where locals were sitting, so we figured it was a good place. But sadly the attitude from the girls working there was very unpleasant. At least the food was nice. It was a piece of bread, with marinated vegetables and some grilled meat. With full bellies we went to get our clothes, then went back to the hotel. Blogging in the evening and then we headed to sleep. It had been a long day!