Day 8 - Srao Nouy - Sieam Reap

Dear all,

 

I am having quite a lot of troubles with technology that I am taking with me. First ot was the gps cycling computer and now it was this app I have here on tablet to write the blog when I am offline. All this post was already written yesterday (and it was a long one, as most of the others) and when I was about to uploaded into the blog, there was only the title. I have no idea what happened and that what it troubles me, as I do not want to write 3 times about the same!

The alarm clock started buzzing at 5AM, as we want to make much of the cycling day before the break. It was not that simple to get up and have the things set for one more cycling day, but if we made that far yesterday it is ridiculous not to make it into Sieam Reap if we are "just" about 70 km short.

Peter in front of the guesthouse at sunrise

Leaving the city, early morning

We are not 100% sure if the place we stayed is called Srao Nouy, but after cycling aome kilometers, the distance showed on the side signes was roughly the same as the GPS indicates, so it should be it.

Distance cycled fro Srao Nouy on road 67

They have this road signs in every kilometer, although the indicated city changes every kilometer. The upper number (in this case number 47) tells you how many kilometers are left to a designated city (in case od road 67, I cannot recall which city it was... I think that is clear, but lets make it an example: you are cycling on road number 5 connecting Poipet and Phnom Pehn, and you are 162 km short of Phnom Penh. You will have the number 162 on the red zone, and on the white zone will appear the distance to other city (sometimes it is also Phnom Penh indicated there). One kilometer after you will find the number 161 on the red zone and another city at the white zone. It is very nice to have an updated about the distances left every kilometer.

 

Along the road there are many small villages and sometimes just two or three houses gathered together. We would say that the most common house you find along the way is the one shown on the following picture:

Most common house in Cambodia

It is elevated (maybe due to flood prevention?) and it is used as shadow during the day. It is made of wood and for roofing they use a single layer.

As for transportation, the most common vehicles are definatly scooters and also trailers pulled by that type of vehicle used in agriculture (tractor in Portuguese).

Scooter

Another common transportation

Of course we also see trucks (loads of Mitsubishi Fuso & Hyundai), busses and cars, but those 2 types described above are the most representatives. Within the villages we also see quite some bicycles, specially used by kids to go to school.

After cycling for a while we were quite hungry and we stopped at aome shop to buy something to eat. You find loads and loads of these shops along the way, so finding water is never a problem. 2 water bottles of 500ml costs 1000 Riel, which is 25cents of USD. The water is kept on a container, usually orange, with ice and water inside it. Another drink you can find easily is orange juice (quite sweet, though) for 1000 Riel.

Well, the lady at the shop was nice and let us grab two chairs and have a sit at the other side of the road, at the shadow.

Marta having her meal

This zone is a natural park, and in case we do not have somehow a "schedule" (we have a flight booked to Simgapore of November 17th), we would stay for a visit. I am wondering how long term travellers decide their stops. Is it according to visa expiry date? It is just staying because it is nice and then "we'll see"? Or it is needed some type of schedule as well? I have never travelled yet without a certain date of return, and that always feel a bit "stucked to a schedule"!

Road 67

Road 67

The sun and the heat were quite intense and we were looking for a place for a break and, at some shop, I saw some mountain bikes parked at the entrance and decided to stop a bit and exchange some tips. Well, we have been very lucky, as the bikers are actually living in Sieam Reap. David and his friends are French and they are teachers in a tourism school in Sieam Reap.

They gave us some hints about a place to stay (even asked their local friend to check the price, if they could do the offseason price, and we got to know that the guesthouse has a swimming pool on the top floor and costs 22 USD per night) and specially that we should avoid road number 6 from Sieam Reap into Phnom Penh, as it is a very busy road. They suggested that would be better to go to Battambamg (on the other side of the lake and head down to the capital on road number 5.

They also gave us very precise directions how to get to the temples area and how far we were from Angkor Wat (about 10km only).

We were really lucky To find David and his friends, as their hints were very nice to us, cheers guys!

Peter, Marta, David & his friends

We decided to push it a bit harder, as the image if the pool before the break sound VERY appealing!

Struggling against the heat to reach the pool

The roads while you get closer and closer to Angkor Wat starts to have more and more traffic, with vans, buses and tuktuks packed with tourists.

On our way to Angkor Wat

When we got close to Angkor Wat, OMG, such a lot of tourists from all the possible countries! We are Glad that we did not come to Cambodia only to visit the temples. i did not miss any of this on the last 3 days of cycling!

Angkor Wat

As we would be visiting the temples the day after we thought it would be a good idea to buy the tickets the day before. As we didn't see right away the ticket office, we decided to ask some tourist that maybe could help us.

- Excuse me, where do you guys come from?

- We are from Portugal.

- You do look like Portuguese!!

Indeed, they looked like Portuguese, so I chatted with them a bit. They came on an organized trip out of Bangkok and the tickets were already included. Anyway they were helpful and asked their guide where we could buy our tickets. Straight ahaed they said...

We kept going straight, and going and going and going... We started to doubt that it would be on that road and out of a sudden we found a nice hotel with a swimming pool at the frontyard. How about entering the hotel and asking for the price?

They had rooms available but it cost us 60USD for the 2 nights. Could you please make it 50USD? The answer was no, so we left...

We kept searching for the ticket shop asking people about it but no one could really help us out. How could it be so difficult? At some point we found an advertisement for a newly open guest house. We headed there and it was totally empty! Nevertheless we asked for the price but the person on the reception kept saying Ok, Ok Sir. Then he asked us if we want to see the room. I went with him, it was ok but the bed, Jesus Lord seemed more stiff than the floor!

So, how about the price? Ok, ok Sir... I showed the wallet... Ok, ok Sir... How much do we need to pay for 2 nights? Ok, ok Sir...

Then he started to look in some papers they had at the desk. It took (not exaggerating, maybe even underestimate) 4 looooong minutes. I had a look and it said contract agreement between the guesthouse and some travel agency. It had some prices written down and the cheapest was 35USD per night. We said that we only want to pay 50USD, he replied Ok, ok Sir... So, can we pay? Ok, ok Sir...

As it was leading nowhere, we said that we were leaving. We would not get checked-in in the next 30 minutes and maybe after that we would not agree on the price... We asked for the internet password and he was kind enough to give is, so we checked the Okay1Guesthouse, that David has suggested us, and the price was 34USD for the 2 nights!!! And with swimming pool on the roof, Perfect! :)

We eventually found the ticket office, after all it was not that far!

Ticket office for Angkor Wat

We got there about 4PM. They only sell tickets for the following day at 5PM and it closes at 5:30PM, so we were lucky! At about 4:15pm people start to line up. What's wrong with you people?? Why to wait 45 minutes linedup? Well, tourists rules in here, so here we go! We were the first at our counter.

They sell one-day pass for 20USD, three-day pass for 40USD and also a seven-day pass which I do not know the price. They take a picture and print it on the ticket, so buying tickets on the black market does not seem a wise idea. I am saying this because when we were close to the temple and asking where I could buy tickets it was pointed a man that could sell us tickets, which we said sorry but no, of course!

Back to the ticket shop... We have read that only of you are very interested in a lot of details about the temples and make the grandtour that includes some more distant temples, or simply you come on an organised trip and you have a few days in Sieam Reap "to burn", then it is worthy to buy the 3days pass. otherwise, one day it is enough for Angkor Wat.

Marta & Peter with the tickets for Angkor Wat

We headed to the city center to find our guesthouse and finally have a rest.

In the city center there was some event going on with some shows and some stages mounted but it seemed very touristic, so we grabbed some street food and ate by the river.

Sieam Reap's river

The GPS gadget produced a somehow corrupted file, so the following data is approximate.

 

Summary of the day:

• Daily distance: 70,0km
• Daily time: 4h40m00s
• Average speed:
• Maximum speed:

 

Total travelled so far: 334,10km

Total time cycling: 20h12m35s

 

And that is all for now folks!

 

Best,

Peter & Marta

 

 

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