Vietnam Velo Vacation

 Jenny has a fear of rodents and I’m not awfully keen, so I was surprised when she said she wanted to visit the Apopo Hero Rat Centre. These are no ordinary rats, they are highly trained animals that are able after their training to sniff out tnt a major ingredient in the production of land mines and other explosive devices. The Apopo organisation is a not for profit charity that clears land mines from war torn countries and ensures that productive land can be made safe and put back into food production. The Tanzanian giant rats are used for this purpose and using Pavlovian techniques are trained to find buried mines using food as a reward. The place was fascinating but we both declined the offer to hold Alvy the Tanzanian rat. The number of deaths and injuries from the remains of these weapons of war is staggering and the number of areas still awaiting to be cleared is alarming, venturing away from paths and roads could be fatal!! These mines are the consequence of the war between...

 Temple Day!  I researched the numerous blogs on line and found a suggested cycle route for a day tour. The temples are quite far apart so we knew we would just see a few but hopefully we would remember them.  With another 36 degree heat looming, we left at 7.30am after Mr Buns scrumptious breakfast of pancake and fruit. Angkor Wat was our first stop. Built in the 12th century, and described as a hindu- Buddhist temple, it is huge and magnificent. Thousands come here each morning for sunrise, but not wanting the crowds or the early start, we found the numbers fine at this later time. After a chilled stroll around and a cold drink we cycled onto the next temple. All the temples we saw were subtly different in size, construction, level of condition and degree to which they had been restored. One in particular was known as the temple with trees growing out of it. We overheard one guide saying at this temple that if a seed takes root within the walls, this is now removed to p...

 Apologies for the appearance of yesterday's blog. Not sure why the bold text was there and Pete spent a good while trying to delete it but to no avail.  Started the day with a lovely breakfast if pancakes and fresh fruit cooked by Mr Bun, our homestay host. Pete and I chilled for a while before venturing to the market where I bought some baggy trousers for the temple visit, Pete topped up the internet on the travel mobile and then had a haircut for $2.  Back to the homestay for a few hours before venturing out again on bikes to purchase a ticket for the Angkor Wat temples for tomorrow. If you buy a ticket after 5pm for the next day you can that evening go and see the sunset by the temples. Unfortunately I picked the closest temple. Arrived at 5.20 and the temple area  closed at 5.30, so we viewed the sunset from our return cycle to the homestay.  As well as breakfast, the homestay provides an evening meal. There are 6 of us staying here so with the family it's ...

 We left at 12:30pm having had a relaxing breakfast and morning dip in the pool- that is me anyway. Jen decided to get up at 5 to cycle up a mountain to see the sunrise- an 11 mile round trip. Not a problem as today was an easy 12km to our next planned stay in the nearby village Homestay.  Things didn’t work out as planned, when we got to the Homestay that was very primitive and not the best accommodation, they began with a charge of $50 (including meals) we paid less than that at the boojie hotel yesterday. With some negotiations that came down to $25 but by which time we did not feel comfortable about staying as they had tried to rip us off. It was now 1pm and very hot. Should we stay and forget our principles or leave and take our chances - we decided to leave and cycle the 60 km to Siem Reap in the burning afternoon sun. Jen was worried as she had already put in some hard miles. We followed Komoot into Siem Reap unfortunately the road it took us on was restricted to those ...

 In the Tour de France the penultimate day is the last day of racing proper with the final day just being a procession into Paris- racing done and celebrate the three hard weeks in the saddle. Today being our penultimate day to our final tour destination felt a little like that feeling - work done and look forward to that feeling of accomplishment on the final day's ride. Some random thoughts about Cambodia, the people are humble and many are poor but they are always welcoming, courteous and smiley. What I found staggering was every home we passed whether close to the road or some distance from it, we could hear the shouts of 'hello' from small children and upon our reply we would hear the sound of distant laughter. We have not figured out how they are aware of our approach but it is uncanny that we cannot go unnoticed- maybe they have better eyesight, hearing or even sense of smell but they always spot the westerner and send us on our way smiling at their beautiful smiles ...

 A day off from touring but on our bikes to visit Koh Ker temples 6 miles away. The lovely tarmac road soon turned to red dust as we entered temple territory. This area was capital of the Kymer period from 928-944AD. There are loads of temples in the area but none have been restored so nature has reclaimed much of them. We were on and off the bikes exploring the ruins for quite a while until we came to the Prasat Thom Complex, built by Jayavarman IV in 928 when he became King of the Khmer Kings. He commissioned a step pyramid, 35m high which we were able to walk to the top of via some rickety wooden steps- the originals being in no fit state to climb. The view from the top was far and wide. On our way down from the pyramid- which was truly impressive we met a large delegation of what looked like important people. We stopped to let them by, their leader who looked breathless and needed some excuse to rest stopped and enjoyed us in conversation. He asked where we were from and I repl...

 On day 48 we left one rather nice hotel to cycle 35 miles to a rather swanky chalet with swimming pool and associated foliage. In between these two places we had to grapple with an ever changing wind direction and as is the norm here, stultifying heat. We stopped a couple of times for refreshments and once for a cyclist heading in the opposite direction. The hardy young German cyclist who we met yesterday was also on the road. We complain about the heat but this young woman cycles in long trousers and a shirt whilst carrying twice as much gear as us. Today she was hoping to cycle km all the way to Siem Reap a distance of 85 miles. That would be a challenge under British conditions, under these skies it’s heroic. We were content with our 35 miles and a beer by the pool, oh and joy of joys two plates of chips! They tasted so good and seemed to be just like the chips from yesteryear. I suspect they were cooked in animal fat- but let’s just keep that to ourselves! Off visiting temples...

 A day of rest and so it was apart from a 7mile round bike trip to a lake. The 'free' breakfast at the property was a help yourself coffee , toast and jam which we enjoyed on the covered seating area of the hotel. It was already 28 degrees but the breeze made it OK.  A short cycle to the lake then followed where we hired a covered area with hammocks. I had a couple of dips in a rather warm rather murky lake but because the water level was quite low, although I could  lower myself in from the pontoon- I couldn't get out so both times my knight in shining armour had to rescue the damsel in distress. It wasn't quite as elegant as it sounds but it was worth it for the slight cooling effect the water had. We had lunch at the attached restaurant - if you can call it that- a shack which had a couple of gas burners in. I said we didn't eat meat so I was shown fish, big snails and small snails but decided on just some fried noodles with a bit of cabbage and chillies of cours...

 The hotel in Chhaeb was worse than all the reviews indicated- dirty bedding, dirty room a tap  that didn’t work, a toilet that didn’t flush and no toilet  paper. But things got worse, perhaps we shouldn’t have asked for toilet paper because by the morning our water had been turned off! Oh and perhaps worse of all NO WIFI!!!! We did have a lovely meal the night before at a local restaurant though, so Chhaeb wasn’t all bad.  We left by 6:50 glad to have left and again a race against the sun. Consequently we tend to literally race in order to cover as many miles as possible before it gets unbearably hot. In theory a good ploy but in practice it just means we get hot and sweaty anyway. With no breakfast other than a few bananas we were hungry too and found no place to eat. By 10.30 we had covered the 35 miles and stood outside our new abode. We had to wait for our room to be cleaned and shown to a lovely cool room where there was free coffee on offer and bottles of wate...

 It was before dawn that we set off today! With 52 miles to ride of undulating terrain and temperatures getting up to 36 degrees, we needed to  'beat the heat'. Bike lights on, we left at 6.45 with a cup of black tea as our breakfast. Komoot soon turned us off the tarmac road onto a sandy track but after a few miles we were back on the main road and stayed on it for the rest of the ride. Our route in Cambodia seems to be mainly on the main road. It's not busy and the surface is good but we miss the deviations we had in Vietnam, through rice paddies and small villages. There just doesn't seem to be the road structure here. We passed lots of scrub land and then scores of Cashew Nut plantations.  We stopped for drinks twice, at 25 and 40 miles. The wind came from the side for quite a while which was refreshing but then it was head on!  We arrived at our destination a little after 11am, having been passed by Silvie, the french traveller about 10 mins before. She was head...