Day 7 Charat - Srao Nouy

Dear all,

 

We woke up at 5AM with out alarm clocks buzzing and it was still completely dark outside, which is great, as we would have time to pack our things and start cycling when the first sun rays would let us see where we would be cycling through.

We reached the main road in a matter of minutes and we started our way.

A couple of kilometers later we reached a crossing: either we continued straight on the same road, or we turn left to a road we have no clue where it is going. No living creature around to whom we could ask for directions, the map we have at the tablet only indicates one road out of Charat and that is slightly to the left. Well, lets take the left one, may the luck protect these travellers :)

We cycled for about 15 kilometers and then we found a good spot for street food, so we had a break for some "breakfast"!

About to choose what's for breakfast

Breakfast's ready!

We had chicken, rice and some other meat wrapped in a leaf. This wrapping is also grilled. Have no idea what it was, but it was good, and that is all it matters!

We tried not to take too long, to seize the lower temperatures ( around 27 degrees). They told us at the street food place that Cambodja is to the right at the next crossing. Great, we were always on the right track!!

Wanna see, how hard is to cycle when you do not know the basics of the language where you are travelling?

That is easy: STOP!

 

We have cycled then for some more kilometers, until we reached a village, apparently the last one before the Thai border. There we asked for directions and a girl on a scooter was speaking very good English and she helped us out.

Last kilometers on Thai roads

Then we saw a sign indicating the distances for upcoming places and we saw that we were still 164 km short of Angkor Wat (plus about 12 to Siem Reap). As we were already cycling for a while, and not knowing how much time it would take us to cross the border, it would be hard to make it in just two days. Well, distance is what it is, and if we cannot make it in two days, we will make it in three.

A few kilometers after that sign a different one showed up: a truck over a hill and a sign of 10%. Yes, our way was uphill!! It lasted for some kilometers, not many though, but showed us that we are not totally fit yet and it is hard to cycle under this hot weather. After a while a small van stopped some meters in front of us and the driver indicate us the back side of his car. I asked Marta what we should do, and why not to take that ride for a few kilometers? I showed the guy the right tumb up, but maybe he understood like "we are cool" and not like "cool that you are taking us", so he left. Well, uphill it is!

Not yet at the summit. We came from near the river down there

After the rain the sun always shows up, for the hills is similar: after an uphill there should be always a downhill. It was nice to see the sign of a truck on a triangle this time facing down and a 10% sign, but unfortunatly the downhill was not more than 250 meters, dammed!

About to reach the summit. Downhill signs on the left

Not much left to say till the boarder in Choam.

First we need to leave Thailand, they check our passports and ask for the little piece of paper they give us at the Thai border when entering the country. In that office there is also a Cambodjan officer who asked us what we going to do in Cambodja. We answered tourism and that we would stay for about 10 days.

When we were ready to grab our bikes there were already 4 or 5 officers gatthered together and starring at us and one asked: "where are you going"? to Siem Reap, we said. They laughed like it is the most funny thing in the universe! We asked if there is any problem and what is funny about it? They said that it is far and usually people go by car or bus. We tried to explain that some people travel by bicycle and some other people we know makes the same, but well, the best is to smile and keep going. Afterall, no one like that much when people are making fun of you, right?

Border crossing, Thailand side

With everything clear from Thai border, time to go and face the Cambodjan side. What if the visa on arrival is denied? What if it is different for Latvians (we searched online before the trip and it should not be a problem, but that could deppend on someone's mood or bribing)?

At the gate, we found it strange that it is on the right side, as we were riding on the left side in Thailand. Turns out that in Cambodja they drive on the right hand side, so the border control it is in that side.

An officer give us some paperwork to fill and we said that we are expecting Visa on arrival. He replied in a quite rude way to go to the back. I smiled and replied, yes Sir, Have a nice day!

Well, at the back there is a large table and two officers under a tree with some blanket creating a shadow. He gave us more paperwork and asks for passports and one picture. We said that we do not have pictures with us. Ups, is that going to be a problem or a reason for "overtime" charge as we read on blogs about border crossing in Cambodja?

First he had a look at my passport, check the visas, double check, triple check. Stops by Saudi Arabian visa, looks again, followed by Algeria and Angola... Well, you keep your "yellow smile" while you think that he will come up with a reason not to give you the visa and after some questions about duration of the stay, where we are staying (well, I will be cycling, how ahould I know where I am staying, can I write down Ritz Hotel?). I ask what I should right on vehicle number, he replied bike. And there it is, he just filled the Visa and sticked it into the passport!

For Marta's passport also no much trouble and the visa was issued.

When we asked for the price, he replied that was 32 USD per person. We said that we knew that the price for visa should be 20 USD, so we do not understand why it is that expensive. The other officer told us that the price has changed to 30 USD on November 1st, and if we want we could check online. Well, if they say that the price of visa was updated to 30 USD and we even could check online, it seemed real enough to believe it. So, why the other 4 USD? It is for the pictures.

We ended up paying only 2USD for the pictures, after telling him that we find out 4 USD very expensive, as all he have done was to take a picture of the passport with his cellphone!

We have read that sometimes the border offices tries to take more money asking for what they call "overtime". For sure the picture thing it is just money for him, but well, we ended up not paying the extra 2 USD (that it is a lot of water bottles on our way)!

First picture in Cambodja

The Cambodian visa

We stopped by some shop just to buy some water. It seemed as well that it was a currency exchange, but we could not understand the exchange ratio, neither we had any idea if it would be a good rate or not, and we had read that USDollars are accepted almost everywhere. As we have dollars with us, we just procceed.

At the shop's front

We could see that the road starts downhilling, but I would never imagine to be such a nice, rather long and most of the times steep downhill. I was going first, and the speed was increasing and increasing. I could not stare at the gps gadget all the time, but in a glimpse, the indicated speed was over 68km/h!!

At first I was not recording or taking pictures, but after a while, and after overtaking some cars (!), I stopped for some pictures and to make a video of Marta going downhill.

The downhill

The downhill

Peter Lamb ridding at about 50km/h!!!

It was a great feeling to start cycling in another country. My first time in Cambodja and my 32nd visited country.

Rather empty Cambodian roads

We found a street food place with a table and two chairs under a tree. Great spot for a small break and some more street food.

Marta having a melon juice and some fried dish we could not understand what it was.

I asked for some othe fried "roll" that i had no clue what it was, but it was easier to identify: fried banana.

We did not stay longer, as the temperature was still "standable" for some more cycling. The road is good, there are almost no cars and the landscape quite nice. We were keeping a good pace and taking some pictures along the way.

Cambodian road

Marta ridding with no hands

Peter & Marta

When the sun was just too high in the skies and the temperature way too high for cycling we started to look for a place for an extended break. We stoped at the association for environment conservation and human rights protection. Unfortunatly no one there spoke english, but they let us use their upfront shelter and even their chairs. They were very kind.

The shelter

Looks like we found a good place for a rest

We had a nap for a while and then we updated our blogs.

Peter & Marta blogging

We started cycling at around 16h and we thought that we would find some guesthouse in the following 30km or so. The kilometers were passing, as well as the sun was coming down and we could not find ANY place to sleep. We started to ask some people in the small villages we were passing but all of them were pointing down the road with a sign that seemed to be that a bigger village would be far far away.

When it was really the last days of sunlight, I decided to stop in a small cafe and ask where exactly it is that village, as we are cycling for a long time and we do not see that coming at all! After some mimics and some writting in the floor, we could understand that we were about 25 to 30 km away from that village. Well, coming back it is not an option and we have not been offered with a place to stay, so we also did not feel like we should ask. Afterall, it is close to full moon, and it is not that late, it is only after the sunset. There are not many cars in this road and I have front and back lights, so maybe it will not be a problem!

The only problem is that we are tired, we already cycled a lot of kilometers and we had the hill for the Cambodian border to overcome.

The last kilometers were quite painful, very tired, with lack of food and also very little water.

When we reached the village, we asked some locals for a place to sleep and one of them could talk some English. He said that the guesthouse is 10 km away. What?? 10 km? That is half and hour more, at least! He volunteered to take us there to show us the place, very kind guy! He just expressed himself bad, the guesthouse was only about 1 km away!

We said thank you for his kindness and we started to unpack the bikes.

They were not expecting any guests, so they had to prepare the room, which costed us 7USD. We had some dinner (eggs, sausages, noodles and juice in the small shop in front of the guesthouse). The girl who prepared us the meal asked us how many kilometers we were cycling today. We said 109km! She said that when she has to go to the other end of the village ( about 1km she thinks that it is too much!!!)

 

Summary of the day:

• Daily distance:109,0 Km
• Daily time: 6h17m32s
• Average speed: 17,32 km/h
• Maximum speed: to be added when I can open the corrupted GPS file, but it should be a bit over 68km/h

 

Total travelled so far: 264,10 km

Total time cycling: 15h32m35s

 

And that is all for now folks!

 

Best,

Peter & Marta

 

PS - We ending up understanding how many works in Cambodia. 1USD equals to 4000 riels. So, when you have to pay, lets say 9500 riels, you can give 2USD and more 1500 riels. They work with both currencies!

Postado com o Blogsy

Day 6 - Surin - Charat

Dear all,

 

Sleeping on the train was not that easy, as sometimes it is quite bumpy. I slept for about 3 hours, then I just switched to blogging, as all the cabin was damned silent! Moreover, you cannot imagine how cold it was inside that wagon, with that air con boosting up. I cannot recall it 100% reliable, but my gps gadget has a temperature sensor that was indicating a bit less than 19 degrees!

We arrived into Surin a few minutes after scheduled, and yes, our bikes were disembarked trouble free!

The sun only raises about 5h30, so we spent that time left chatting, blogging and preparing our bikes for the upcomming day!

Surin train station, sun raising!

It is interesting that they control all the train lines from the station itself. I did not know if it would be allowed but I sneaked in to take a picture!

Surin's railway tracks control room

We passed by 7 eleven for some water, bread and some canned food for some emergency and we hit the road and build up some kilometers before the heat would be just too strong to cycle.

Finding the way out of the city without a map and hardly understanding the local language was surprisingly simple. On the last crossing we just found the right way according to the sun position. Soon we were on the road we wanted to, and that would takes us to Sangkha.

Surin region is known for the elephants, having the city and surroundings quite a lot of references of that fact. We stopped by one ruoundabout to make some videos and take some pictures.

Marta, Mr. elephant and Mr. lamb posing for the picture

The road is quite boring, with little traffic (at least at the time we cycled through it), but the Thai landscape is quite nice when you go out of the city.

On our way to Sangka

On our way to Sangkha

Marta was cycling strong, so our average speed was over 20 km/h, which was great!

When we cycled for about 50 km, we were starting to feel VERY hungry and we almost had no water so we decided to go straight to the local market and see what we can get! What a joy, loads of street food!! We were still not prepared to try the flies, so we ended up choosing grilled chicken. There was another vendor selling what it seemed to be some green dowe and some little balls that I assumed to be fried banana but ended up to be something we could not figure it out at all. Anyway, it tasted good!

Street food at local market

We went to another shop to get some drinks and also water for the trip and sat down at the shadow from a shop's wall and had the meal just there.

As soon as we finished, we had to options: to wait some hours for the temperature to go down a bit, being in a not so pleasent place, or push it harder a bit more untill we find a nicer spot to be or simply could not stand cycling under that heat and stop at any shadow.

We ended up choosing option 2, and as we did not find any other park or village along the way, we stopped under some trees. They collect some liquid from it, but we could not figure it out what it is. There is quite a lot of these trees along the way.

We were resting over banana tree leaves and Marta eventually fell asleep.

Marta resting

We spent in that place perhaps 4 hours, as the sun did not allow us to cycle before. We arrived to Sangkha, but we felt that would be too early to look for a place for the night, so we proceeded.

At this point I could not recall the rough planning I have made some months before in Portugal. We tried to ask some locals, but they were saying that Cambodja was to the right, and I was sure that was either to the left or on a smaller road going straight. Well, intuition was telling me that I could go straight, afterall Cambodja would have to be heading South!

We took that way and it was not a steep, but rather long downhill. We stopped at a local shop for some icecream and decided to ask again for directions to Cambodja and Anlong Vang (first village after border). They did not speak any English, so just for them to understand the word Cambodja, you have to try 3 or 4 different versions. I thought that showing a small map from the tablet would help. I showed roughly the place where we were, the city we just passed, and the following one, so we could all speak the same language. When I show Cambodja, they were poiting right. I pointed to Anlong Vang and, if it is to the left how can you be sending me to the right? Why the maps I have has no resolution at all in Thailand and Cambodja? Why I haven't done the homework?

Well, when I see myself in "troubles" while travelling I take 3 baby steps:

1. Breathe
2. Checkout the options after cooling down
3. Choose what it seems the most adequate.

In this case, following the opinion of the locals did not seem logic, as they were probably talking about another border point, and I wanted to use the one I have read about at another cycling blog.

Going back, facing the uphill, did not seem too much of a joy, so we decided just to go straight, as the road we were cycling now, would connect to the main road in about 40 km, and that would be the worst case scenario, that we would return to the main road one day after.

 

We were getting more and more tired as the kilometers were building up, and we could not find any place that would look like a guesthouse or something even close to it.

 

After some time more there was a small shop open, with some locals having a meal and I stopped my bike and showed them by mimics that we are looking for a place to sleep. They smiled, laugh and pointed to the very next narrow path. Well, there was a sign at the road we were cycling, but all in Thai language and not even a picture of a room, so we would never guess that it could be a place to sleep.

Well, we had no clue how far would that be, we passed down some houses, no one seemed to be a guesthouse, then we found a lake, with some children playing in the water. I greet them and some more mimics about a place to sleep and they pointed to a wodden house just at the lake's shore. Really? Are we THAT lucky?

The lake, see from the owner's frontyard

The owner, a Thai woman apparently married to a Belgium guy asked if we need a room, that she has one with TV and hot shower for 500Bath. That is outrageous!! No way we are spending that money (12,5€)! I said that we are travellers and travelling for many days, so we need a cheaper room. She asked me how much we would be willing to pay and I said 250 Bath. Then she showed us a room for 300 Bath (7,5€) that we needed to accept, after all we would not want to cycle even one more kilometer! Not much comments about the room!

She asked if we want to have dinner, we replied that we do not want, thank you, which I believe that she did not like that much, but who cares?

When we talked about the trip to Cambodja, she told something about soldiers, military, that the husband was trying to go through border and could not cross it. Well, we did not get it too well, the next day we'll figure it out!

Yes, we went to swim in that lake and had some meal at the room's frontyard till we got sleepy which came very quickly as it has been a long day with lack of sleep the previous night. Moreover, we would get up at 5 AM the following morning for one more day of cycling!

Summary of the day:

• Daily distance: 82,6 km/h
• Daily time: 4h19m16s
• Average speed: 19,12 km/h
• Maximum speed: 48,69 km/h

Total travelled so far: 155,10 km

 

Total time cycling: 9h15m03s

 

And tha's all for now folks!

 

Best,

Peter & Marta

Postado com o Blogsy

Day 5 - Bangkok - Surin

Dear all,

 

I woke up just a bit past 6AM and ready to roll, but Marta was still sleeping, and also we would not leave before meeting Chana in the morning.

So we ended up having a slow morning, sharing some breakfast and packing our things to have our bikes ready for the trip.

We had basically 2 plans:

1. Visit some other monuments and a high terrace in the city center to have an overview of Bangkok;
2. Cycle to and within Bang Kachao, wich is called th lung of Bangkok

We ended up choosing the option 2, as we have been told that was quite nice to cycle in the peninsula and we could see the floating market. Moreover, I am not sure about Marta's opinion, but I was getting a bit sick of Bangkok's air pollution!

 

Chana invited us to share some of her food, which we kindly thank for! It was very nice staying with her and maybe the path of our lives make us meet again? Thank you for your hospitality Chana and all the luck with you projects, both architecture ones and the personal ones! We do hope that your bagpack will be a huge success!!

Marta, Chana, Peter & the couch

 

After saying bye bye to Chana, we took the BTS with our bikes and, if the way to reach the BTS was smooth with the elevator, coming down to the streets at our destination had to be done by taking our bikes on the staircases, as the staff was not there and the people we met did not speak any English.

Marta @ BTS

 

As soon as we reached the road, i noticed that my speedometer was not indicating the speed. I have experienced some peoblems lately and it seemed to be a malfunction on the connection between the case and the device itself, usually easily being solved with some fine adjustment on the position. I have been trying to fix it for a while, but regardless of my effort, I could not succed! I thought that the only possibility was that the magnet that is on the wheel would be far from the sensor, so I should check the position of the two of them.

I was surprised to find out that the magnet was not on the wheel! Never had any problem like this before, after 3600 km on this bike and luckly I brought the Garmin device from the road bike (as it would record pur track, to be seen afterwards and to share the route in here). Anyway, I am having problems to connect the garmin GPS tp the tablet via Bluetooth! Technology sometimes is just a pain in the... Cof cof, I should not write the word ass in this blog, right?

Navigating within Bangkok with the tourist map they give you for free at the airport it is not easy, as most of the roads does not appear there and communication with people is not easy at all. Moreover their letters are very different from ours, so it makes map reading very tough.

We could reach the pier we were looking for, thanks to Chana that wrote it down in Thai language, so we could show it to a Police officer. When we got to the place, I was afraid that we could not take the bikes with us for the other side, as they had that stated that in more than one place, but when I asked for tickets they asked us for 40 Bath for both of us. Then we understood that it is not for the regular boat but for a taxi one! The trip takes few minutes.

Our tickets

Our first stop was In Sri Nakhon Khuean Khan Park, which is very large park. We just cycled a bit through it, as we would like to see some other places in this peninsula, and getting back to Bangkok could take a while, as navigation is not easy and the traffic is, like Marta says, Wild! :)

Marta & Peter at the long name park

The roads have quite limited traffic! It was dammed good to ride the bikes without cars around and most of all, with the feeling of fresh, unpolluted air!

Peter & Marta cycling

One of the things you see the most is power cables. They have from time to time transformers and from there the electricity is distributed apparently in one to one basis. Sometimes you can see more than 100 cables in a very messy arrangement! Look at the picture, I think it speaks for itself!

Power cables, thailand!

We found then a petrol station. They look way different from what we are used to, but they are automatic, which means that to pay the fuel you must to have cash with you!

Fuel station

Next to the station there was a coffe with a funny name: Mom & Me.

Mom & Me cafe

We found the floating market, but unfortunatly was already closed. They probably just run it in the mornings!

The floating market

Near the place we parked there were a bunch of people and a van parked nearby. Well, I think that the only result people would be the one shown on the next picture:

You know what guys, I am on of those type of guys that grew up playing around with friends in the parks and so. What I mean is that I do not belong to the lets call it Playstation generation, not being sure if it is just a generation or only people's choices. I remember when I was playing in the parks with sand and one day they just removed it because it is not hygenic enough! Some calls it progress, some calls it being too much fussy with our children today. The truth is that none of my friends came to hospital poisoned with the sand from the park... Anyway, maybe I also agree that the surfaces that they have in the parks are just better than the sand ones? The truth is that I miss it! Confusing, right? Well, all of this nostalgia I guess is because of the playground we found! Easy, peasy, Japanesy!

Playground!

It was supposed to have a normal road from this point till the pier we needed to go, but I guessed we missed it. Instead, we came on a quite narrow path, made of concrete and connecting several entrances for people's houses. We just randomly turned left and right and we could not believe how lucky we were to reach the normal road just about 300 meters from the pier! It was a great place to cycle!

There we took left

We kept going straight

Peter Lamb followed by Marta

When we got to the pier we realized that we could not take the normal boat, so we needed to take again the water taxi for 40 Bath, 1€!

We stopped for some delicious street food and luckly it was very easy to find the Avenue Rama IV that would took us straight to the train station!

Peter Lamb & Marta @ Bangkok's train station

Ticket counter's at Bangkok's train station

Waiting hall

Departures hall

We got there one hour before we had to. The reason we needed to be there 2 hours before departure was the need of buying tickets for the bikes at the train station, as they only sell them on the day of departure. The cost of transport for the two bikes was 180 Bath.

After buying the tickets we needed to wait untill our train would be on its platform. We would be departing from platform 9, the train towards Ubon Ratchathani.

Our platform for the night's train

The bikes must go on the cargo wagon which is at the front of the train. Roughly one hour from the scheduled departure time, we took our bikes to the cargo wagon and there was an officer that looked at our tickets and let us put the bikes on the train. When we were about to lock the bikes, he said no lock! We tried to explain him in every single way that we want to lock our bikes, that bikes are important for us, that they are our mean of transport, we even explain them that they are expensive and we need to sleep without any bad feelings... Well, nothing worked out, no locks! The reason, he said it is they only stop one minute in Surin (where we would disembark), so there would not be enough time! I tried to explain him that I take around 30 seconds to my wagon till that front one, but itwas impossible to convince him!

Then appeared another guy, that would tie up th bikes and disembark them in Surin. We would need to pay him 20 Bath for that! I explained that I already payed 180 Bath for the bike transport, so I do not need to pay anything more. They said that was the cost of service of disembarking the bikes! I thought about saying that I would disembark them myself and actually would lock them down, but that would come to the point where we were before, and for 20 Bath discussion, it was just better (and perhaps wiser) to give up!

Our bikes at the cargo wagon

As for us, we took the second class sleeper, which means that it is a wagon where you have 2 seats in front of each other, those 2 seats transforms into a bed and there is another bed on top. That is on one side of the wagon. On the other side is exactly the same. I did not count how many seats there are in each wagon, but I would say that is over 40 in each wagon. About 2 months before our departure we sent an e-mail to the railway company (as they suspended the online sales), to book an 1st class sleeper on which every 2 seats makes 2 beds in a separate compartment, but we never got a reply from them. I think that the price for the tickets would be around double, but we decided to save that money for something else.

On the second class sleeper, when the train starts its way, ther is an officer that unfolds the down seatds, put a foldable mattress that is stored at the upper bed, puts pillow covers, new sheets and provides blankets. I forgot to mention that the upper bed has no window. Once you are ready to sleep, you just unfold your curtain and voila!

2nd class sleeper wagon

 

That's all for now folks!

 

Best,

Peter & Marta

 

Postado com o Blogsy