Day 4 Bangkok to Saigon

Day 4 11th November Distance 65Km Soi Dao Highland Resort (Thailand) Pailin (Cambodia)

It was a fairly relaxed start as we did not have too far to cycle to our next destination – Pailin, Cambodia, but we did need to cross the border and we needed to get visas. The pre-trip blurb had warned us that a passport photo would be required along with $20. I also remembered to use some Sudocrem to head off any "rear end" problems caused by sitting on a small bike. I also checked the seat post, and found barely 1cm still in the bike so had to put the saddle down a few more centimetres, further increasing the discomfort of the bike, better than wrenching the saddle of though.

Before breakfast I had a stroll around the grounds of the Highland Resort Hotel the weather was very nice, more like a pleasant summer's day in England. Here is the front of the hotel and our support van ready to take the luggage and meet us at the next stop.

As well as the golf courses the hotel also had a swimming pool and various lakes around it.

For breakfast I again had rice soup this time with chicken and decent coffee this time. The route backtracked along a little of yesterday’s route before turning towards the border. As we cycled I had a nagging feeling that I could not remember where I had put my mobile phone. As I had lost one for the first time two weeks ago I did not want to lose another so soon. Khun Lec had gone ahead in the van to park at the turn and also to stock up on supplies for the few remaining stops left. Their support for us finishes at the border and we are handed over to a Cambodian team.

When we reached the turn-off I caught up with the van and looked in my laptop bag but could not find it, Chris tried ringing it, but we could not hear it ring in the van. Khun Lec rang the Hotel and they looked in various places in my room but could not locate it. In the end I looked in my suitcase and found it lying on top. Before setting off I generally have a routine of putting things in certain places. The phone was going to end up in my bar bag, a switch in routine, but got piled in with the various cables I am carrying to hook my gadgets together. While I was looking the others took the opportunity to do some shopping.

I think the local stall holders were a bit bemused by what they saw a bunch of westerners in cycle shorts milling around and emptying luggage on the ground.

Although we we stood out, Khun Yuo managed to cycle past us without seeing us. So after that impromptu stop we set off again, for a real stop at 25Km, the temperature was very pleasant, the tarmac smooth and there was not much wind. I went speeding off, trying to catch up with Khun Yuo, and at around 20Km I noticed her on the other side of the road, I waved and went sailing on. A little later on the van past me and then pulled over, it turned that I had missed the scheduled stop, so they packed up and chased after me. Jim took the opportunity to do a bit of faffing (something to do with his shoes). I also managed to drop my sunglasses on the ground without noticing, fortunately Jim picked them up for me.

The road was really smooth with a margin at the edge, here is Mary cycling down a hill after the stop.

One of the last pictures I took on the road in Thailand was this one of a man working in the field.

After a while we reached the border, the road got worse and was no longer a straight run in. There were soldiers manning a checkpoint a few kilometres before the border, they waved and laughed at us, thinking there were easier ways to get to Saigon. The border itself was quite chaotic with people milling around including us as we had to go through the palaver of taking all the kit off the rental bikes (we were getting different bikes for the Cambodia/Vietnam legs) and Jim swapped his smooth tyres for treaded tyres, more suitable for the Cambodian roads. We got our passports stamped by the Thailand officials and once again had to have a picture taken. We then walked into no-mans land where somehow our Cambodian team had got permission to bring the van so we did not have to carry our stuff very far. The last team picture before setting of over no-mans land.

We then got to the Cambodian Visa and Immigration side. Straightaway it was apparent that Cambodia was not as wealthy as Thailand. This time there was no electronic Camera to take our picture on the way in. First we had to fill out a Visa form and pass it to a gentlemen along with $25 (yes US dollars) and a passport picture. He then checked every page of the passport, by flipping through twice. Another man with a typewriter then processed the paperwork and stuck the Visa into the passport. Then we moved to the next window "Immigration" where we filled in another form. Once again we had each page of our passport inspected and then the Visa was stamped with three different stamps. That was then it, no Customs we were in Cambodia. There also appeared to be a Casino and a "wine" supermarket. The Casino was aimed at Thais as gambling is illegal in Thailand and the shop selling alcohol had mainly whisky, again aimed at Thais.

We then got our "new" rental bikes, my third so far. Mary and I swapped out the relevant bits, something I can now do quite quickly with all the practice I have had. The good news was that this was a larger bike - my size. It was quite old but Chris did say it had been checked over. Here is my "new" bike and Tenyat (I am not sure how to spell his name), bar bag, saddle and pedals in place, along with the GPS bracket and Custard on the other side of the bar bag. While we were doing this an audience gathered closely around us. Little kids at the front, old kids and one or two adults behind. They would point at things and seemed quite amused by us occasionally a hand with extend to hold the bike steady.

The journey to the hotel was not far around 15Km/8miles, so I put some water into my bottle and we set off. Right from the start Cambodia appeared different, far less industrial, in fact far less organised. Children would pop there heads out from anywhere shouting "hello hello" or "goodbye goodbye" or some mix of the two. Cambodians have one word for both saying hello and goodbye. One other important difference is that in Thailand you drive on the left, in Cambodia, you drive on the right, although the traffic flow is more chaotic compared with Thailand. Here is an interesting statue by the roadside.

Cambodia is a flat plane surrounded by hills, but Pailin is in one of the higher areas, around 200m/660ft according to my GPS. The countryside looked more rugged, with the mountains in the background. One other thing is that Pailin is a high-risk area for malaria, so I must remember to keep on taking the anti-malaria tablets!

The roads were very dusty and rutted, the vehicles we saw were mainly motorcycles, and large trucks taking stuff such as corn over to Thailand. There were cars, which tended to whiz by, virtually all Toyota Camrys - the car of choice for bumpy roads. Finally we arrived at the hotel, a small compound with a number of chalets in the grounds. Each chalet had two separate bedrooms, mine was the penultimate room.

Looking the other way, the open air restaurant was near the road along other rooms.

As we had so far not cycled very far the plan was to have lunch and then visit the town and cycle round. Here is the restaurant, the manager of the hotel was a Chinese Cambodian and was very keen to help us enjoy our stay and also to understand what we wanted.

In this restaurant there were coconut trees growing to one side, not something you see often in England.

Lunch was fried rice with chicken and because of the dusty roads a local beer - Angkor Beer, which I enjoyed. I've noticed that Chris tends to drink Heineken, and he lives in Cambodia. Afterwards we visited the town, first cycling to a temple. Then up a steep hill to see another temple. The views were great, there was a young Temple boy in orange robes at the top of the hill, he tended to scurry away from us though.

This is the entry to a temple at the bottom of the hill, it was build in the 1920s so is quite recent. The temple at the top of the hill (another 100m or so) was much older and in quite a state of disrepair.

This view from the top of the hill shows Cambodia (in these parts) is quite agricultural.

There were four public holidays in Cambodia during this week apparently, which might account for the large number of people around, although clearly people need to carry on as usual. There were loads of small motorbikes around.

The fruit stalls looked far more interesting, and it is all local.They have several types of bananas, I think the small ones are the nicest. The taste much better over here than in England.

The Cambodians found us very amusing as we walked around in our cycling gear, making jokes and laughing. They were also quite happy to let us take pictures. Fresh fish anyone? The only way to keep things cool is by using blocks of ice.

When I was at school I used to stack shelves in a supermarket on Friday evenings and Saturdays, at the end of the day we have to face up the shelves, whatever the stock levels we pulled it forward so that the shelf looked full and inviting. Here you can see it is the same the world over, presentation is important. It all looked delicious, although I could not identify all of it.

We also went to the money changers, In Thailand it was easy, 50 Baht is about 1 UK pound, but food, drink and things like taxis are much cheaper than the UK. In Cambodia we went to a rather scruffy market stall and handed over some Thai Baht, then we got a stack of very scruffy notes back - Cambodian Riels, I am still not sure what the exchange rate is (£1 is about 6000 Riels.) However the US$ is also accepted, in fact many of the hawkers charge in dollars - a can of Pepsi is $1. If you pay in dollars you often get a mix of dollars and Riels back again. They also will take Thai Baht, the main thing is not to have high denomination notes, that causes problems. There were more conventional shops around, well sort of. It turns out Mary is a bit like my daughter, they both love sweets, and both are happy to try out sweets from around the world. (We call my daughter a Sweetie Connoisseur :-) Here is Mary checking out their sweets.

There were lots of kids playing around the market - here three kids prepare for later in life when they will ride 3 or 4 to a small motorbike.

As we cycled back we it got darker, so I could not resist this tree silhouette

Before dinner I sprayed some anti-mosquito spray around my room, just in case, and liberally over my clothes. We had Khmer food, which is generally much less spicy than Thai food. Chris and I ordered more chillis in Fish sauce (the sauce serves as a salty addittion) - we will need all the help we can get for the long day tomorrow.