A bit about our time in Cambodia

On crossing the border into Cambodia at Poipet, our first impression was that we'd warped into some post-apocalyptic Asian / Mad Max / western / outer-planet etc frontier town. The previously wonderful Thai road had given way to a vast expanse of poorly-linked pot holes.

What with gambling and such being illegal in Thailand and Vietnam the Cambodian border towns run monstrous ca$inos to bolster the sometimes-parasitic local 'economy'. Once out of town, heading east, the road re-satisfies, having been newly repaved, though the 'drivers' wouldn't even qualify for the type of licenses found on the back of a box of cornflakes. Private ownership only seems to have re-emerged from the yoke of the Khmer Rouge as recently as 1993, so socially there hasn't been a lot of time in which to develop any noticable road-rules, nor even notice that there's a brake available - the horn is just soooo much more convenient!!

Siem Reap, the jumping-off point for the splendid ruins of Ankor Wat, lies not so far by daemoniacal hell-bus from the border (a good bit further by harried bike however). Thanks mainly to a thorough lack of any overly restricive requirement to cover the loads of trucks hauling dust and grit, there's an abundance of each spread well over everything in the towns. With a bit of a stiff breeze, such banal everyday activities as breathing and opening one's eyes become all the more varied and interesting.

Perhaps more than the crumbling rock piles that are Angkor, one of the delightful highlights of Siem Reap was the gastronomically splendiferous cuiine. After several weeks of bland-o side-of-the-road Khao pad (vegie fried rice) we were thrilled to feast on four-cheese pizza, brekky burritos, vego burgers, four-cheese gnocchi, fresh blue-cheese salads and such. MMMMMmmmmmm.... And all with free (if speed-of-dark) WiFi...

We ended up staying there for two weeks after all, what with the reading time afforded by the lingering results of that side-of-the-road Khao pad, and then a 7day pass to see the Ancient city. I'd kinda heard it was big - in fact perhaps too large to walk around - but it really IS, actually, too large to even cycle around thoroughly in less than a good few solid days. Our first day there - on the pushies - racked up 46km and we only really saw maybe three or four of the temples, and just in passing at that... For the remainder of our stay we alternated between riding out, taking a local take on the 'tuk-tuk' (moto-remorque actually) just to get there, and a one-day 'tuk-tuk' tour of the bits we'd previously missed. The extortionate entry price is charged in US dollars at $20 for one day / $40 for three days / or $60 for seven. Had we been a bit more gung-ho, or gotten out of bed a bit sooner, maybe the three-day ticket would have sufficed, but the lure of all that tasty food...
For a sampling of the 2000-odd photos Gaby took, follow the links on the right to our picture sites.

Drafting has a Feels-Like Index.
I'd always though of racing cyclists' drafting as a wanky pursuit of just another 0.742% in speed/ efficiency, until we had the chance to draft on and off behind a couple of tractor-dragged timber wagons on the highway. Ordinarily we usually cruise at 14 - 21 kph on the flats, though with a stiff headwind, in the rain, that can drop quite a bit... Anyway, we easily managed to keep up a solid 21kph for about 25km, and the Feels-Like Index was somewhere around a mere 12kph or so.

For the last 130-odd km into the capital, we decided to jump on a passing bus because Gaby's guts were again rather inconvenient (good thang that there was a toilet aboard), and I had broken yet another spoke. Which prompted me to wonder exactly why my guaranteed-to-be-indestructible wheels were somewhat markedly less than satifsfactory...

I had made a point of purchasing the most reliable, robust and regular-sized components deemed suitable by the touring community, however the 'professional' wheel builder who promised to get it done perfectly in a few days failed to get it right. Long story short, _really_ don't bother with Anthony at Velofix [742 Darling St, Rozelle, http://www.velofix.com.au/] for your touring needs. Nice, friendly, charming guy, but hardly a reliable professional. Kinda makes me wish we'd had enough time to just go with the boys at Cheeky Monkey in Newtown.

Phnom Penh itself is actually quite compact, everything within a walkable distance. Nevertheless, the omnipresent Tuk Tuks flock like rabid seagulls to anything remotely touristy...

Highlights of Phnom Penh, in my opinion:
* The food at the Okay Guesthouse - while kinda staid - made for reliably tasty fare, notably without any gut'icularly uncomfortable repercussions...
* The National Museum has perhaps the best range of pre-Angkorian figurative stone and bronze sculptures around. Absofuckinlutely fanbloodytastic...
* Otherwise, our most memorable visit was to the Tuol Sleng S21 Genocide Museum. The sobering, macabre exhibits expose the terribly ruthless side of Cambodian dictator Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge. I guess it ranks with Auschwitz on the list of 20th Century evils. There are hundreds of photos showing newly recieved prisoners. It seems the photos were part of the detailed documentation considered necessary so as to prove to Pol Pot that none escaped to survive the ordeal. Actually, exactly only seven of the roughly 20,000 brutally tortured inmates got out alive...

The road from Phnom Penh to the border was relatively uncomfortable - poor roads, and headwind - making for the THIRD broken spoke in only 2500km. As a result of narrowly avoiding a maniacially-driven bus, Gaby rear-ended me, knocking her overboard, and sending one of her front panniers flying. The bag was ok, but Gaby got another few cuts and bruises to add to her already-sizable collection so far.

Health-wise, Cambodia was a bit of a roller-coaster. Between, and perhaps due to, courses of antibiotics to treat the dysentry, Gaby found the time to somehow swell enough in her thighs and buttocks that people on the street asked when the baby was due - images of Willy Wonka's Violet Beauregarde sprang to mind - but it's all back to normal now...

At the moment we've been in Saigon / HoChiMinh City for about two weeks, and tomorrow we're off northwards, bound for Dalat and a spot of elephant riding....

Our mobile number while in Vietnam is 0122 651 0422