March 8, 2006
March 8, 2006
Kompong Thom to Kompong Kdey (91km): Colette did not join us for this ride since her friend unexpectedly decided to ride from Kompong Cham to Kompong Thom in spite of his ill health. She thought she should lay over there another day with him to see if he would feel better. We will miss her.
Again we did not get the early start we wanted but managed to get going around 7:00AM. The ride out of town was fun because of two large schools on the north end where we encountered many children riding their bicycles. It felt as if we were riding in a big race. Out of town we continued our brisk pace of the day before of 25km/hr. Neither one of us felt hungry in the morning so we opted to get some breakfast along the way but unlike other sections of highway we have ridden there wasn’t much and we had to ride 60km before finding a restaurant. We stopped in Stoung for a baguette and some fried eggs that did not sit very well. Our pace for the next 30km really suffered and we dropped down to 18km/hr while we tried to digest the heavy sitting eggs. While riding I noticed that most homes in the outer villages have car batteries siting out front. I have wondered what they are for and during our ride I found out. The homes do not have electricity so people use car batteries to power lights and other 12V appliances. When the battery is dead they set it out front on the street, where a guy exchanges it for another and takes the old one to recharge and use again. I became very excited since the system is one step short of being renewable. All the people need is a bank of solar cells and they will have reliable and cheap energy.
In Kompong Kdey we found two guesthouses. Each had squat toilets in a small bathroom with uncomfortable looking beds and a cave like feel making neither one of us too thrilled to stay there. We decided to get some lunch and discuss what to do. I had a little trouble getting some food at a restaurant since the hostess couldn’t seem to understand that my guidebook has both English and Khmer script....not just English. I tried repeatedly to point to the script for fried mixed vegetables and rice but she wouldn’t look. Finally a tuk tuk driver helped me get what I needed. We then sat in the shade drinking soy milks and debating the pros and cons of our situation. It was only 11:00 am in the morning and staying meant that we would have to pass the remaining daylight hours in a crappy room. If we decided to move on we would have to ride another 59km to Siem Reap. It was a tough decision because it was a hot day and with few clouds to provide breaks from the searing sun besides the fact that we were feeling pretty weary. In the end we decided to move on.
Kompong Kdey to Siem Reap (59km): Doing the math it was 150km in one day or 94 miles and a total of 530km in the last week or 330miles. Whew! I wish I could say it was wonderful but something happens to my body the minute I cross the 100km mark in one day. My hands begin to ache, my neck cramps, shoulders begin to tire from supporting my body and my butt feels like hamburger. To help me cope I broke the remaining distance into halves. The first half was 26km, followed by a break at 15km and another at 7.5km. It helped me psychologically to shorten the distance and to focus only on completing the half I was riding instead of thinking about the entire distance all at once. The pavement was incredibly smooth and somehow we managed to regain our form to crank at 25km/hr. Along the way I thought about Justin and how riding with him in the heat of the day had helped us gain the confidence and strength in the heat to complete the additional distance (Thanks Justin!).
Seim Reap: We arrived around 4:00PM and unlike other days where we arrived late we did not take the first room we saw. Instead we found a street where there were many guesthouses and we went from place to place to see what they had to offer. I even found they would negotiate with one Chinese woman who called herself “Mama” pulling the bait and switch. I pulled into her driveway and asked if she had rooms and how much. She said yes and they are $15. I said that was more than I had planned to spend and was pulling away when she asked what I wanted to spend. I said $12 was my maximum. She then said ok I will do it for $13. I asked if I could see the room but instead of taking me to the room she had in mind she took me to another that was very nice and said this room is $15. I looked at her with a smile and said half jokingly “oh, I know this game, the ole bait and switch” and then completed the statement with “have you ever been to HVAC sales?” Realizing that this wasn’t the place for me, we moved on. We looked at 10 different places and finally settled into a room that had most of everything we wanted, air conditioning, mini fridge, cable TV but no hot water. It turned out the hot water would have been a waste since the cool shower felt so good after riding in the heat all day. The remainder of the evening we laid in bed watching TV. Luckily, Jodi was channel surfing when she happened upon a show on the Discovery Channel that was about Ankor Wat, the reason we came to Seim Reap. It was a good primer because it gave us some history of the many temples and trials and tribulations of becoming the giant tourist destination it is today.
Today we plan on recovering from our long day and heading over to the temple complex around 4:00PM to get our ticket for the following day. We will use the remaining afternoon hours to do the short tour until dark and then ride back to our guesthouse for a night of sleep and return early the next morning for the long tour. It should be fun!
Kompong Thom to Kompong Kdey (91km): Colette did not join us for this ride since her friend unexpectedly decided to ride from Kompong Cham to Kompong Thom in spite of his ill health. She thought she should lay over there another day with him to see if he would feel better. We will miss her.
Again we did not get the early start we wanted but managed to get going around 7:00AM. The ride out of town was fun because of two large schools on the north end where we encountered many children riding their bicycles. It felt as if we were riding in a big race. Out of town we continued our brisk pace of the day before of 25km/hr. Neither one of us felt hungry in the morning so we opted to get some breakfast along the way but unlike other sections of highway we have ridden there wasn’t much and we had to ride 60km before finding a restaurant. We stopped in Stoung for a baguette and some fried eggs that did not sit very well. Our pace for the next 30km really suffered and we dropped down to 18km/hr while we tried to digest the heavy sitting eggs. While riding I noticed that most homes in the outer villages have car batteries siting out front. I have wondered what they are for and during our ride I found out. The homes do not have electricity so people use car batteries to power lights and other 12V appliances. When the battery is dead they set it out front on the street, where a guy exchanges it for another and takes the old one to recharge and use again. I became very excited since the system is one step short of being renewable. All the people need is a bank of solar cells and they will have reliable and cheap energy.
In Kompong Kdey we found two guesthouses. Each had squat toilets in a small bathroom with uncomfortable looking beds and a cave like feel making neither one of us too thrilled to stay there. We decided to get some lunch and discuss what to do. I had a little trouble getting some food at a restaurant since the hostess couldn’t seem to understand that my guidebook has both English and Khmer script....not just English. I tried repeatedly to point to the script for fried mixed vegetables and rice but she wouldn’t look. Finally a tuk tuk driver helped me get what I needed. We then sat in the shade drinking soy milks and debating the pros and cons of our situation. It was only 11:00 am in the morning and staying meant that we would have to pass the remaining daylight hours in a crappy room. If we decided to move on we would have to ride another 59km to Siem Reap. It was a tough decision because it was a hot day and with few clouds to provide breaks from the searing sun besides the fact that we were feeling pretty weary. In the end we decided to move on.
Kompong Kdey to Siem Reap (59km): Doing the math it was 150km in one day or 94 miles and a total of 530km in the last week or 330miles. Whew! I wish I could say it was wonderful but something happens to my body the minute I cross the 100km mark in one day. My hands begin to ache, my neck cramps, shoulders begin to tire from supporting my body and my butt feels like hamburger. To help me cope I broke the remaining distance into halves. The first half was 26km, followed by a break at 15km and another at 7.5km. It helped me psychologically to shorten the distance and to focus only on completing the half I was riding instead of thinking about the entire distance all at once. The pavement was incredibly smooth and somehow we managed to regain our form to crank at 25km/hr. Along the way I thought about Justin and how riding with him in the heat of the day had helped us gain the confidence and strength in the heat to complete the additional distance (Thanks Justin!).
Seim Reap: We arrived around 4:00PM and unlike other days where we arrived late we did not take the first room we saw. Instead we found a street where there were many guesthouses and we went from place to place to see what they had to offer. I even found they would negotiate with one Chinese woman who called herself “Mama” pulling the bait and switch. I pulled into her driveway and asked if she had rooms and how much. She said yes and they are $15. I said that was more than I had planned to spend and was pulling away when she asked what I wanted to spend. I said $12 was my maximum. She then said ok I will do it for $13. I asked if I could see the room but instead of taking me to the room she had in mind she took me to another that was very nice and said this room is $15. I looked at her with a smile and said half jokingly “oh, I know this game, the ole bait and switch” and then completed the statement with “have you ever been to HVAC sales?” Realizing that this wasn’t the place for me, we moved on. We looked at 10 different places and finally settled into a room that had most of everything we wanted, air conditioning, mini fridge, cable TV but no hot water. It turned out the hot water would have been a waste since the cool shower felt so good after riding in the heat all day. The remainder of the evening we laid in bed watching TV. Luckily, Jodi was channel surfing when she happened upon a show on the Discovery Channel that was about Ankor Wat, the reason we came to Seim Reap. It was a good primer because it gave us some history of the many temples and trials and tribulations of becoming the giant tourist destination it is today.
Today we plan on recovering from our long day and heading over to the temple complex around 4:00PM to get our ticket for the following day. We will use the remaining afternoon hours to do the short tour until dark and then ride back to our guesthouse for a night of sleep and return early the next morning for the long tour. It should be fun!
posted by Kirk & Jodi Roberts at 6:44 PM
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