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.

Phnom Penh Weekend

Saturday 15/11

Wow, time sure passes quickly. We begun our trip two weeks before this Saturday, can't believe that two weeks have already passed. But luckily this holiday of ours will keep on going for a while longer! :)
On Saturday we seized the time to sleep in and rest well. When we finally woke up it was close to check-out time. Since we had no replies on CS we asked if we could stay another night, and it was no problem. So we slept in a bit more and in the afternoon we realized that we are getting really hungry! :D
So we finally got out of the hotel took our bikes and went out to the city. We cycled a bit around, then cycled a bit along the river. The water was not very clean, but the riverside was pleasant. Later on we stopped at a place called Variety, the restaurant had a lot of seating places, and many waiters were sitting about. We got off our bikes, 'parked' them, and sat right by. We assumed that one of the bored out waiters or waitresses will bring us some menus, or at least tell us what they have that we could order. But as it turned out, none of them spoke English, yes, out of about 10 people, none spoke any English at all. They ended up calling another girl from the kitchen, I assumed, as she didn't have the same T-shirt as the rest of them. We told her that we wanted to eat something (which should have been obvious). She asked one of the waiters to bring a menu, she apologized that it is not in English, but it had some pictures and she stayed around so we could asked her what was what. We ended up ordering some stake and vegetables for the two of us to share. While waiting for the food, all the waiters and waitresses where stating at as. Also, while we waited we were thinking what to do later on. We decided to go see a movie - Before I Go To Sleep. It would start only at 22:10, so we still had plenty of time. We had our meal, the stake arrived and it was much too rare for us. So we asked for it to be cooked a bit more. After the meal we decided to head back to our hotel to rest a bit and blog a bit. Then it was time to go back to the movie cinema. We decided to walk there, the air was nice, not too hot, and the distance was about 2km, so less than 30 minutes to walk. Cycling did seem as an option, but we decided it would not be safe to leave bikes outside while we watch the movie. We were maybe half way there while crossing a smaller street a scooter passed right behind us. It seemed to be very close, but nothing unusual..until I felt that the back person on that scooter had grabbed the strap of my bag and was pulling it as the scooter kept going. I was pulled sideways as the bag was across from one shoulder to the other side. Luckily the man let go fairly soon after realizing that he could not get it. Was also lucky that he didn't have a knife to cut the strap. Would've been a big loss for me as my wallet and passport were in the bag. After all it also contained tickets for the movie, so the trip to the cinema also would be a waste. We kept on walking and only then we realized that we were pretty much the only people who were going by foot in the streets. We were glad to arrive to the cinema. The movie was nice, I liked it, as it was a mystery. But Pedro found it a bit too scary. :D
After the movie we decided to save yourselves from the streets of Phnom Penh and took a tuktuk back to our hotel. It was late and time to head to sleep. 

 

Sunday 16/11

As we had had a late evening, and not many plans for the day, we were sleeping in again! When we finally woke up Pedro was checking his email where he had a response on Couch Surfing that a girl called Maria was willing to host us! Oh the joy!!! At around 11 o'clock we called out potential host to ask if she is still OK to host us for the night, and she said that she could! We agreed to meet up at 13:00 near the Russian market. So we packed our things, went for a quick lunch (breakfast, really) and the cycled our way to the meeting point. There we greeted Maria with hugs, and with all three of us on bicycles she showed us the way to her place. It was a few narrow stairs to go up, and then we arrived to her cosy place. She said she had moved in there just about a week ago. Her flatmates, a French couple, had been gone for the weekend. We sat down and had a great chat with our host. Maria is originally from Argentina, but had lived in Australia for quite a time, and in Cambodia for a bit less than a year now. She also just returned from a holiday in Indonesia.
Later on we went to the market, there we got some nice pants for Marta, and two t-shirts. We managed to bargain with the seller. He firsts said that the pants alone would cost 5 dollars. Of course, I did not agree, but in the end we paid 6 dollars for the pants plus two shirts. We then met up with our host, she had not been feeling too well, so we decided to make her and us some dinner. We were super happy for the opportunity to cook, and she could rest a bit. We cycled to the supermarket where while shopping for groceries we decided to make some pasta salad, and for breakfast we got some buns and sausages to make hot dogs.
The dinner turned out to be OK, we mixed a lot of ingredients, and covered the dishes with a nice salad dressing.
We stayed on the balcony eating and talking about all sorts of things! It was very nice to stay with a couch surfer after having spent a lot of nights in hotels and guesthouses. Night came, we all were tired and it was time to sleep! 

On a Bus to Battambang

Monday  10/11

Finally a day we could sleep in. Very strange for a Monday morning! But heck it was nice!
However, Pedro was upset because he had some issues with his Garmin GPS cyclo computer. Since we had wifi we tried our best to find the solution online. With some button pressing we at least got it to turn on. Apparently there were some corrupt files. And we're still not able to access some of the day info. But the device is working now, and Pedro's happy. :D
After the technology problems we still had an hour to go up to the swimming pool and have some breakfast. But then noon came and it was time to checkout from the hotel.
We then cycled to the ticket office we were at yesterday. They still had seats for the last bus that goes to Battambang at 13:30. The price, luckily, had not changed over night. Which could easily happen. We asked where the bus station was, but the five people working there could not tell us. The truth is, we had a map the previous day, and one of the guys showed us where the bus station is, but today the map had magically disappeared. I was also very surprised that so many people where working at this one place. Customers didn't come so often, and most of the time they were doing their own things. 

Anyway, I asked the guy if he could tell me the password for internet, then I could load the map and find the station. So we did that. But finally Pedro decided that we'll wait for a car they provide for other people going from ticket office to the bus station, and follow it. This turned out to be a success. 

Now when we were there, we just needed to still buy tickets for the bicycles. Pedro took of the front wheels from the bikes and placed them in the baggage section of the bus. While I got on the bus he went to buy some water and snacks to munch on on the way. The ride was long, about four hours, odd considering the distance was roughly 150 km. The time was ten minutes passed the departure time when the bus finally left the station. It stopped in some other places still in the city. The bus was like any usual one, and it had good air conditioning. Everyone aside from us was sitting in long sleeves, some even in sweaters indicating with their body language that it's very cold for them.
We seized the time to chat and to blog a bit. 

Soon enough the bus arrived to it's final destination for this trip, Battambang. When it arrived in the station there were several tuktuk drivers waiving their prepared signs outside our window. They were offering a ride, a hotel, or both. When we went out of the bus, they literally attacked us with their services, trying to make us choose them. To have the right image, imagine a group of fans trying to get close to a famous musician that's getting out of his/her ride. I had to push to get through them. But then they got to see that we're with bicycles and one by one they disappeared. Now we had to find the guesthouse we booked earlier that day. At first we did not worry so much, because how hard could it be to find a guesthouse. We cycled about asking people if they knew the place, the street or at least which direction to go for that area of the town - nobody knew. One girl though said to go straight on the road we were on. We stopped at a pizza place, which supposedly had wifi, but turned out it was not working. But at least we had a dinner. The sun had gone down by now. We were glad that the girl serving us food spoke English and was able to tell us which way to go. Once we arrived to the correct area, a man on a scooter said that he would lead the way for us. But sadly this was the wrong place. We asked some young guy, he called out his friend to assist. Then we went inside a driveway where we thought the guesthouse could be. But it turned out to be some martial arts school, the teacher there was nice to call the guesthouse to ask them how to find them. The young lad then said that he knew the way and that he would show us, but again it turned out to be the wrong one. We cycled some more metres, then asked a street food seller if he knew where the place was. The young boy listens to instructions and lead the way again. BUT again this was not the right place. By now we were tired and upset! We know they all tried to help, but in the end we were nowhere. At the last hotel we were lead to we asked for wifi password so we could find the directions to our guesthouse. Turned out it was not far, in fact very close to the street food seller who directed us to the wrong direction.
We finally got to the place and the receptionist said that the place is full! How is this possible if we booked a room online??? We were now more upset!
The guy made some calls and finally said to follow him where we would have a place to stay. It was a hotel almost just across the street. And he also arranged for the price to be the same as on our reservation, so we stayed at a 12$ hotel for 6$. Ufff what a day it had been! We were glad to get to bed!!

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!

To Siem Reap

 Saturday 08/11

In the morning we had our alarm very early again. Since yesterday we had cycled total of 109 km it was now clear that we could make the last 70 km to Siem Reap in this one day. We departed the city early and again, the heat at first was not bad. It was warm, but not hot. The way was simple, we just had to keep cycling along the same one we had arrived to the hotel. But soon the roads split. One lead to Angkor Wat and other to Siem Reap, we took a turn for Angkor Wat since it was supposed to be a bit closer, and then from there we would go to the city. Once we arrived to the area of the beautiful temples we also found Bangor Wat. Pedro heard some people speaking Portuguese, and asked where we could get the tickets for the temples. Their tour guide pointed us in the direction that we had just came from. The plan was to get the tickets for tomorrow so then we wouldn't have to worry about that. So we cycled the direction we were showed to go. We ended up wondering around a lot. At one of the shops were some cyclists. We stopped and went to greet them. Turned out some of them work in a school in Siem Reap. And one of the guys actually is visiting, but works in a school in Latvia in Jelgava!!! David, the guy we spoke to, has lived here for a longer time, and was very nice to give us tips! (The guesthouse we stayed at was actually recommended by him!) We were happy to have met these guys, they also said that the best way to Siem Reap by bicycle would be taking the way on the West side of the lake which is much less busy. After the chat it was time to keep rolling!

We decided to stop for lunch, a bit annoyed since finding tickets for the countries main attractions shouldn't be difficult. At the place we had lunch we rested for a while longer and let the heat pass. After more wondering about we started to check hotels for prices, but the two we stopped at were too pricy. But the second one was a joke! The guy at the reception spoke very, very little English. We asked for a price for two nights, and the guy spent about 10 minutes looking through some papers and still couldn't give us a number! Then he said that he'll show us the room, the bed was hard as a rock. But once at the reception asking for the price again, he looked through papers and showed us a random contract that they have between the hotel and some travel agency. We were not happy about the time spent, so we headed for the exit. Then at the door we looked for WiFi, and then we asked the guy if he could tell the password for it, and he gave it to us. While on WiFi we booked a room at the Okay Guesthouse that David suggested to us. The price online was also much better than what they had said over the phone. We booked two nights double bed in a hotel in city centre with a pool for total of 34 USD. Great! We now just had to finally find the place to get tickets for the temples.
We asked many more people, wondered a bit more, but finally reached the ticket office!!! We were joyous. The time was about 16:15. Pedro went to ask about the tickets, but turns out they need a picture for the ticket, more so, tickets for the next day are sold only after 17:00. So we settled to wait. To our surprise soon people started to line up! But there was still much time till five. So we didn't bother to rush...until we saw several busses stopping in the parking area. So we stood in a line, but an officer came to us and told us to stand in a new line next to an other ticket booth. So now we were first in the line. While waiting we read on the information board that ticket offices close at 17:30. So when you think about it, we were very lucky to find the place when we did. They ended up opening the booths sooner. By 16:40 we had our tickets with our pretty faces on them! :D

With ticket problem settled we were ready to find the hotel. It was not very difficult, we arrived there, the staff was super friendly and most of them spoke good English. We settled in the room and headed for the rooftop for the pool. We had a great time there. Also met some Australian visitors and had a quick chat with them. We went to the room to change, but soon came up for the restaurant to have some dinner. We split a starter, Cambodian spring rolls, and split a main dish of chicken and fries.
In the evening we blogged a bit and headed for sleep. Again, in the morning we were to get up early as we had booked a tuktuk small tour with sunrise for 18USD. The pick up time was 4:45. Our alarm was set for 4:30. 

 

Tickets for Angkor Wat 

You Wanna See My Shop?

Tralalā!
I'm sitting in the park called Sanam Luang in Bangkok. Yesterday morning we arrived to the city. 

November 03/11

 

First I had to get a visa upon arrival, which in total cost us 1300 baht (local currency). Once I passed through immigration I was able to collect our bags and bicycle boxes. Meanwhile Pedro was waiting in a huge line to get through the immigration. Finally we met and went through the last customs bit and we begun assembling our bikes. Pedro was doing most of the job, and I helped with what I could. As we were doing this many people were looking at us and showed a lot of interest as to who we are and where we are going. People were generally very friendly. Then we changed and were ready to roll. When we asked at the information what would be the best way to cycle to the city, they were unsure. So we went in the general direction, it was about 30km to the city. We wondered about, asked some people along the way for directions. We met a Scottish cycler, who told us the best route to take. And so we were on the right track. Traffic in the city and close to the city flows quite busy, but the drivers are mostly respectful to cyclists and people on scooters. We stopped close to the centre in a park where we rested in the grass. Later we arrived to the train station Hua Lamphong where we managed to buy tickets for later day to get to Surin, a city to the East of Bangkok, still in Thailand, just above Cambodia. After that we cycled around, as we were to meet our host Chana only after 9p.m. By half passed eight we were at the spot ready to meet her, and after nine she came to pick us up. Chana is an architect from northern part of the country, but has been living in Bangkok for five years now. She has travelled a lot, had and is participating in multinational events and projects. Next year she will be in Milan for World Expo. We had a lovely chat with her, and finally we went to sleep. We were very tired because of jet lag, the time difference, almost no sleep at night as we were flying at that time, and of course we had been cycling. The day was long and exciting!

tbc.

November 04/11

The next morning we woke up late, and went to Seven 11 to buy something for breakfast. And so we had the worst sandwiches ever. :D But we also tried cold drinks and those were veeery nice.
We took the BTS (Bangkok train) to the city. Soon after that we got picked up by a tuktuk driver. He offered us a price of 20 baht for an hour, an offer we could not resist. As we were riding he offered to bring us to his shop, Pedro said that we travel by bicycle so we don't want to buy anything. He then stopped and said no shop, then no ride (something along those lines), we were extremely dissatisfied with this, but what can we do? We got out and headed for the river, there we took the boat to the Laying Buddha. We managed to see a lot even though Pedro was feeling quite sick. Because of this we stopped for nap time in a near by park. Then some girls wanted to interview us for their class project, but it started to rain and they apologized and run off. We were up too to get walking. It started raining cats and dogs, and we were lucky to be inside the navy building when this happened. :D So we stayed there for some minutes while it almost stopped pouring. We then ate some street food (I did, mainly, because Pedro was still not feeling well). We took the boat thinking to go to a restaurant that our host suggested, but it turned around right after we got on it. So we thought, what ever, we will go somewhere else. At one of the piers it stopped and said that we have to get off. Then we got on board of another boat which took us to Asiatique. There we walked about the different food stands. We stopped to watch some performance, but Pedro used to time to nap again. We later had some yummy street food and headed back to our host's place by boat and by BTS. There we tried Pad Tai, more chatting with our host Chana.. And then it was sleep time! 

Now it is Wednesday morning and we are slowly waking up. Today we will have another glimpse of the city, and later we'll head to Surin. ;)