Let's Swing Baby

Tuesday 11/11

Tuesday morning. The sun was not up yet, but we were. We woke up at 5:00 and went down to the bicycles within half an hour. When we went downstairs, the two receptionists were asleep on benches. And outside the guard was sleeping in a hammock right next to our bikes. At least he woke up the moment we approached the bikes. This all seemed very unsafe that there was total three of them and all sleeping. But it's their choice!
We set our bikes ready and off we went. But not for long, soon we stopped at a place for breakfast. They had just opened for the day. They said that they don't have any breakfast food. So we asked for some scrambled eggs with meat, and they also added some rice to the dish. It turned out to be a grand breakfast! We seized the internet for a bit and then we were ready to cycle.

Our grand breakfast!

The hot morning sun came, but not for long, soon clouds appeared and it started to rain! I was very happy, not only the crazy heat was gone, but it was raining! I love rain!! Needless to say, we kept cycling in the rain. Some woman that was passing by on a scooter was indicating to her back. I asked Pedro if my back was just wet or wet and dirty, and dirty it was! But I was not bothered much. :D
It was soon coming to break time and Mr Peter Lamb had an idea to buy hammocks that we could rest in during breaks. I was very sceptical about thus idea, because finding a place for hammock is hard, and would be even harder for two. We turned into a temple and there Pedro found a nice tree where we were able to hang the hammocks. It was brilliant!!!
At the temple area there was also a school for monks. One of the young fellas thought us how to tie knots for the hammocks so we would not fall, and also so we could easily untie them when needed. 

Peter Lamb resting.

We rested for a very long time, had some snacks to eat and blogged some bit. While sleeping a big bug landed on Pedro's neck. He threw it to the ground. It looked like two leaves stuck together. Very strange creature. 

The strange insect.

At one point a few kids showed up, they sat on benches that were right next to us and just stared at us like we were animals in a zoo. The feeling was very unpleasant. Actually the staring follows us everywhere we go! I think after this one would be ready for a reality TV show where filming goes on 24/7.

When it was about three o'clock in the afternoon it was time to keep rolling, we both knew that it would get dark before six. And so it did. We were in a town Boeng Khnar and asked people where is a guesthouse or a hotel where we could rest in, but again most people did not understand or did not know.
Then Pedro asked some kid if he knew where we could sleep, and the kid pointed back towards where we came from, Pedro kindly asked if he could show us, and the kid gladly did. It was less than 100 meters back. Lucky us they even had a room for us! The price was 6.50$. We took the bikes inside the room, so we did not have to worry about their safety. We then went to the next doors 'restaurant' for some dinner. And then it was bed time!

Marta and Pedro. :)

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 

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.

Say Goodbye to Thailand (For Now)

Thursday 06/11

Wednesday's night was spent on the train. We arrived to Surin at around 4:45 in the morning. Pedro ran to get the bikes, and soon enough I could see him coming from the location where the first wagon had stopped with bikes safe and sound.  The sun had still not come up, so we sat down to wait for it. The station was already quite busy for it's size despite the early hour. Trains were coming, then leaving for close and far away places. While I walked about in the station several scooter and tuktuk drivers were offering me a ride, but of course I already had my ride! :)
When morning came we went to grocery store to buy water and some food for later. As we cycled out of the city along the way we saw many elephant statues and figures. Our host in Bangkok, Chana, told us that elephants are symbol of this region. We wondered about a bit and finally found the road 2077. We cycled a lot in the morning. The air had not heated up too much just yet, so it was relatively easy to keep going. We stopped at city called Sagkha for lunch. We went to a market to buy some street food. We had chicken that we ate with bread that we got in the store earlier. We also bought some strange green things. I figure it had some flower in them, as they were tasting a bit like pancakes. But not sure what the green colour was from. Then we also bought two types of sweeties. One was, I think, chick peas with sugar and dough around. And the others were something with coconut taste. All was yummy!
We then kept cycling but not for long as the heat was too much to take. We stopped to rest amongst trees and had a nap on banana tree leaves. :D
After a long while of resting we kept on rolling. We left the border crossing for the next day and stopped in a guesthouse in a town called Charat. The owner was from Thailand, and she spoke at least a little English. At first she offered a room for 500 baht, room with TV and warm shower. As we did not need any of these extras, we asked for a better price or a different room. She showed two more, and we decided to take the last one, the price was 300 baht, which is around 7.50 €. Not so bad considered the place was right next to a lake where we where delighted to take a swim! It was dinner time, we ate the food we had purchased in the morning. And so we went to ved early because we were tired and the next morning we had set to wake up at 5 a.m.

And So We Hopped a Train

Wednesday 05/11

We had a very, very long and lazy morning of sleeping, blogging, packing and breakfast eating. We finally got out of our host's place after noon. Chana was nice to walk us down to our bikes. Goodbye hugs and off we were. Today we cycled to a peninsula called Bang Kachao on the south of the city. It is very different than Bangkok, much greener and the air is almost visibly cleaner. The streets there are narrow, and between houses there are mazes of narrow paths. It was fun to cycle through them. To and from the peninsula we took a boat taxi across the Chao Phraya river. It was interesting as we had to get our bikes on and off the simple boats.
After that we had a nice street food lunch and headed to the train station. The traffic was very busy, but by now we had a good hang of getting trough it! We arrived early sat down to rest. Then we went to purchase tickets for our luggage-the bikes. When the train arrived and we went to bring the bikes to the luggage wagon, they didn't let us lock them to the train or one another because apparently it stops in Surin for only one minute! So we were forced to trust that the men working on the wagon would take good care of the bicycles. Car Nr.10 was where we had our seats/beds. The ride in total is 8 hours long, departing at 20:30, and arriving in Surin at 4:30 the next morning.

And off we go!! :)