Day 4 and we’ve reached Cambodia

#Cambodia #cycling #travel #adventure

The local lager in Thailand is called Chang (it means “elephant” in Thai :bloke), and there were a fair few sunk last night during and after dinner. Not a particularly late night, but we all needed much rehydration after all that cycling. Thankfully we were given a bit of a lie in and didn’t need to meet until 8.30am as a few of us woke up with “Changovers” (copyright, the Bloke).

From the hotel we took the first of three buses for today and headed to the border. We got through border control much quicker than any of us had expected, and with relative ease (just 2hrs 🙄 :Bloke). The border between Thailand and Cambodia is absolutely mental. Crazy busy and so much to take in on, both sides. (Think Mos Isley from Star Wars “you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy” this will become an on going theme in the busiest parts of Cambodia :bloke).

On the Cambodian side, in the town called Poi Pet, there were shops for everything, including one, three floors high, selling the most enormous chandeliers. I can only presume to the most decadent of hotels. It really was so bizarre, so many sights and variations of living, in one place.

We hopped on bus number two for a short trip out of town to reach bus number three. This one was to take us all the way in to Siem Reap, our base for the next three days. We had two hours to relax a little, rest our weary muscles and look at the scenery, which is absolutely amazing. Thailand was beautiful but Cambodia is stunning. The landscape is flat, but swampy and so lush!! We passed lots of paddy fields, masses of bananas and some massive clumps of the tallest bamboo I have ever seen.

When we arrived in Siem Reap we were taken to a local restaurant, quite posh (ie, first place we’ve been to that had wine glasses). The food was fantastic and incredibly beautiful! (And they charge for it – the meal was over $12usd per head!! :bloke)

After that it was off to the hotel for a quick turnaround and on to the bikes once more. New bike day!!…..some quite old and a bit klunky Specialized Pitch hardtails with very flimsy side stands, that keep falling over. Feeling smug that I brought my own seat and pedals now.

Our introductory ride in Cambodia was bloody terrifying, the roads are mental! Remember what I told you about Thailand? Well it’s like that but with less manners. It’s a proper free for all – they are much less patient. You do hear the odd horn every now and again, but they would rather not stop and wait for you like the Thais do. Absolute bedlam. Next we went to get our access passes for all the local temples (the best way seems to be the 3 day pass for $62usd :Bloke). We took a short but crazy walk through a local market, a few brave souls tasted a few of the local delicacies, such as, Scorpions, crickets, Water Beetles, Whole deep fried frogs, silk worms and snakes. I gave that taster a miss I’m afraid (there’s not much meat on a scorpion, but try are very crunchy :bloke). Our Aussie mate Paddy was straight in there though and took one for the team.

The ride back to the hotel was in rush hour traffic and I’m very pleased to tell you that despite a few near misses, everyone made it back alive!

After another quick turnaround we were ushered in to some tuk tuks and taken to another restaurant to taste some traditional Khymer cuisine and cocktails. A nice stroll through a night market was a very nice way to end the day.