Keep Pushing Those Pedals

Day 5 12th November Pailin (Cambodia) – Batdambang (Cambodia) 94.82Km


The day started well, breakfast sitting in the open air restaurant at the hotel in Pailin - the french influence in Cambodia's history meant that we got some delicious bread and a freshly cooked omelet. Although it was going to be a long day we would also be travelling to lower lying countryside which means going down hill - at least on average. The hotel manager came to ask us what we wanted for our packed lunch, although the road from Pailin to Batdambang was the main connection between them there would not be any suitable restaurants at the half-way mark. In the end we chose Chicken fried rice.

A hut by the roadside shows that the general standard of living is very different from what you would see in the West. Many people seem to rely on keeping fishing, keeping chickens and growing their own food.

We had been warned that the route was pretty much dirt tracks all the way (despite being a main road...) Once we were out of Pailin the road seemed good, in the main it was solid, although you had to keep your eyes open watching for potholes. Cycling into a pothole can easily bounce you off the bike, even with front suspension. We found that very often there was a solid line followed by the motorcycles, this would often be on the left of the road (where the on-coming traffic should be) instead of the right side. However when there were large potholes all two wheeled traffic tended to head for the same line, regardless of which way they were heading. Here Jim and Tanyet head up a slight rise either side of the rut of the road.

When the road passed over a river there were three options, one a concrete bridge, of reasonable width, the second was a wooden bridge, and in some cases no bridge, or a broken bridge forcing traffic to ford the river. This bridge has the planks placed across the bridge, sometimes they are placed along the bridge, when that happens then you have to make sure the bike wheels don't fall in between two planks because then you fall off. There are worse things though. During the war huge numbers of mines were laid in this area and we were advised not so stray of the road. If we wanted to pee we had to do it in the road. Even villagers who have farmed an area for years get injured by old unexploded mines.

However progress was pretty good and Jim, Tanyet and I arrived at the first stop. We took on some water and waited for Chris and Mary before setting off. It turned out that Mary's bike had dodgy front forks, they did not provide suspension so when Mary hit a pothole it bounced her off the bike. Fortunately she fell well, she is a seasoned cyclist, but had quite a graze on her knee. Tanyet washed it with water and put a plaster (bandaid) on it and a bandage.

While this was going on Mary's pedals were swapped to a spare bike and Jim tweaked the gears and brakes so that Mary had a bike with usable front suspension. As we sorted things quite a crowd gathered to watch.

It also appeared that our driver was fixing a tie-rod (connects the front wheel to the steering) on our car. The roads are pretty tough on all vehicles. The onlookers arranged themselves as if they were at an organized event, children at the front and adults to the rear. Their concept of personal space is very different though. The "audience" would happily press right up to the people they were watching. It can be quite testing on a scorching hot day when you are trying to fix a bike and 20 people press up around you.

The kids looked on just as intently as the adults, in the main they were not at all shy, but seemed quite respectful of property, although they did like my mascot Custard.

The town seemed to see quite a lot of lorry (truck) traffic hauling loads of produce to Thailand such as corn. They used Cambodian trucks up to the village than swapped the load onto a Thai truck for its journey across the border. This is probably because the Cambodian trucks had suffered so much driving on the dirt roads that they weren't considered fit for the Thai roads (and speeds). Often the lorries carried people on top as well as their loads.

In many ways a motorbike is a better form of transport on these types of roads, as well as being cheaper, easier to maintain and open to the weather. Of course the drawback is they don't carry as many people as a car. Although in this part of the world it is common to see four on a motorbike and youngsters driving motorbikes.

Some of the bridges look to be straight out of an Indian Jones movie, this one has planks running along its length so it is better to cycle down the middle. For me it looked like the sort of Bridge I wanted to cycle on in the Challenge.

We did find ourselves stuck in a traffic jam at one point, a bridge was on its last legs and so cars had to crawl over it and the big trucks had to splash though the river by the side. There was a lot of horn blowing but we sneaked through and quickly cleared the jam only to find ourselves being passed at top speed by rattling cars trying to make up the lost time further down the road, leaving us in clouds of dust.

This photograph does not do justice to the ruts, although the road at the start was pretty reasonable it got much worse, in fact it was bone-shakingly awful. If you keep hitting the potholes it is incredibly tiring keeping the bike going. You constantly have to keep watch for potholes and vehicles on the road move around all over the place. The bigger the vehicle the more right of way it has. Lorries and cars constantly beep to let you know you should get out of the way as they are coming through. Then as they rattle and bump past there is a cloud of dust that blinds you and makes your eyes feel gritty. None of these pictures really do justice to it because I did not want to expose my cameras to the dust and I was just too tired.

We stopped for lunch and virtually commandeered the "table" of a roadside stall. I think we bought something in the end. The fried rice was alright, but not the most appetising thing to eat lukewarm. You won't be surprised to learn that I opened my first packet of Jelly Babies on this cycle run. Of course I offered some to Mary to try, but I ate the rest - a big packet too.

On this run we were followed by the constant "hello"s and "goodbye"s, sometimes we would hear them but not see where they came from. We normally always replied, although at the end of the day we were not quite so cheerful in our replies. It seemed that they believe in ribbon development here in Cambodia, there were quite a lot of houses strung along the road, but there were not so many towns. There was loads of cultivation of rice though and we saw people fishing in the numerous rivers and ponds on the way. The trees are used to make Palm sugar and wine.

Towards the end of the ride there were huge mud holes in places, the mud was an orange-brown colour and got everywhere. Going into a puddle you had to maintain a reasonable speed to avoid getting stuck but not go too fast in case it was a huge hole. The best thing to do was follow someone else although the downside was that you got sprayed by them. One of the other problems with the mud is that it gummed up bits of the bike that weren’t supposed to be gummed up. My bike quickly sounded like a clanky, screechy wreck after one large puddle, even Jim’s bike had problems. When that happened we would wash the chain and apply some oil, which fixed things until the next mud hole.

I don't think anyone had rear fenders (mudguards as we Brits call them) except for Tonyat. Jim forgot to pack his. I did get stuck in the mud once and had to stand in the muddy water and walk my bike to the edge. Later on we were cycling in line and a Cambodian chap on his bicycle stopped suddenly forcing all of us to put our feet down into the mud. You would think that he would have been able to cope; mind you he was carrying a big load of giant pots and pans.

The mud holes were sometimes used by the enterprising locals, they would allow a mud hole to develop then put in planks on the side of the road and charge people to walk by. As we walked by we played ignorant foreigners, even when they waved 1000riel notes in our faces (15p/25cents). I did think about taking one and saying thank you (Orkun) but was too tired.

This ride was originally billed as an 80Km ride, however the conditions of the roads were so bad as we neared Batdembang we had to take a detour. When we were told there were another 25Km/8miles to go when we were expecting 15Km/8miles there were quite a few dispirited cyclists. The problem is that to minimise the effects of the potholes you needed to be alert to the road and try to pick the least bumpy track. It also helped to cycle at a reasonable speed to “glide” over the bumps. Neither of these things was easy so as we tired we got slower and the struggle, sorry challenge, got worse. The good news was that the detour took us along a much flatter dirt road, this allowed us to pick up the pace and the thought of a shower and cold beer picked us up. Chris was the only one who relished cycling on the really bumpy roads, but he has done it before and has a lot of travel on his front suspension. To be fair though we did sign up for a challenge. As we got closer to the town we turned onto a smooth tarmac road. With the end in sight Jim cranked up the pace and we sped into town. Tonyet pulled over at one point, I think it might have been cramp. (Jim and I do like to test his cycling speed :-).

Tanyet had told us to look out for a statue of Buddha on a roundabout; it was not difficult to spot. After that we waited for him to lead the way. He was not quite sure where the hotel was, but soon found the turn; the road on which the hotel was located seemed to have reverted to a dirt track though.

Although I think I will take my own bike the next time I do one of these (assuming I get the chance) one of the advantages of having a rental bike is that it got washed for me. As you can see it was quite muddy. Mind you we were all pretty muddy except for Chris, who had mudguards. We checked in to find a perfectly reasonable hotel, used by backpackers and small tour groups. There was no elevator, not normally a problem except my suitcase seems to have loads of stuff in it. I also felt it wrong to let some small Cambodian haul it up, although they would have earned a tip.

It was great having a shower, it took ages to wash the dirt off, I washed several times over in fact – as I dried myself the towel quickly turned red, this orange dust is very difficult to get rid of. I had a go at washing my bar bag and shoes, not very well though. Later we went out for a meal, It was Jim’s birthday and he wanted a pizza, to Tonyet’s credit he found a Pizza place, (large pizza $2). The first one arrived a bit soggy, however they were happy to pop it back into the oven and they all then arrived quite crispy. In the night I had to use the bathroom and found the light had broken so it was a good job had followed the kit list and packed my torch (flashlight). I am enjoying the Cambodian food and have had no problems, the pizza did cause a minor loosening though.

The next morning we had an early start to catch a boat – here is the view from my window- yes that is razor wire.

Here are Chris and Tonyet standing outside the hotel.

Today was the most difficult, so far, of the trip in terms of challenging cycling. The distance was not a problem, the mud holes were not a problem and the shaky bridges were not a problem. What was tough was cycling on the highly rutted, potholed surface. There was no respite, it required both constant concentration and physical effort to heave the bike in and around the potholes. Even with front suspension it was difficult, without it would have been awful. Still as Chris says, the trip is not called the Bangkok to Saigon challenge for nothing. Even Tanyet found today hard and he is much better at finding good routes to pick through the bumps and ruts. The harder memories from the day faded after a shower, cold beer and something to eat, leaving behind the glow from the positives – the friendly greetings, the beautiful scenery and the sense of accomplishment.