Cambodia Trip Part 2: The bike ride!

One thing I forgot to mention about our ride from Phnom Penh to Kep was seeing buses along the way so packed full of people that it looked like they were sardines in a can and there were tons of people sitting ON TOP OF THE BUS as well. Now, this road is so bumpy that at one point Meredith held up her arm to see what time it was and couldn't read her watch because her arm was flying around so much. But we all had our own seats and had air con. The people on the other buses that we were passing had neither. I asked someone later and these are the people that go from their villages into the city every day to work in the garment factories. So an hour in the morning and an hour at night, at least 6 days a week, this is how they travel. I felt so bad for them!

Onto our accommodations in Kep. We stayed at a little place that had about 8 bungalows. The "reception area" was an open air structure that also served as the restaurant, the bar, had a pool table and wireless. We ate there on Saturday both breakfast and lunch, pretty good food. The owner's wife, I believe, was the cook. He was from somewhere in Europe, didn't recognize the accent, and I think his wife was from Cambodia. There are walkways connecting all the houses, it's very lush and green. Our bungalow had 2 beds complete with mosquito nets, a very small bathroom with cold water only and a fan mounted on the wall. It had a roof and walls but also cut outs above the windows for fresh air. It had a little front porch and a hammock. The roosters somewhere in the distance seemed to be confused as they woke me up at 3:00 AM and kept going until about 5! Here are some pics.

Saturday morning we walked towards town and the resort dog followed us. It's really pretty there, so much green as it rains quite a bit, also very humid. We finally jumped on a passing tuk tuk, taking the dog with us as he seemed afraid and we didn't want to lose him. We got to the crab market which had people selling various things and lots of little restaurants. There was a monkey chained to a tree, not sure what his purpose was but we were squatting down talking to him, and realized he was eating his own vomit. We decided to keep walking. Fun to see everyone going about their daily business, did have to stop a couple of kids from terrorizing a kitten, Meredith is as big of an animal lover as I am! Walked all the way back to our bungalow and was just dripping with sweat, exhausted, with 2 hours until the race! Saw lots of burned out homes or places where homes used to be, can definitely see how this area was once where the rich had vacation homes. Not a lot left of it now but I think it may be coming back.

Finally it was time for our bike race. Not really a race, just a 10k ride through the country side in order to raise money for an organization, Bridges across Borders for Southeast Asia http://www.babsea.org/. There was also a 10k walk and a half marathon the next day but we were flying out early in the morning and would miss that. Our entrance fee of $50 (USD, everyone in the country wants USD and even the ATM's dispense it!) got us a cool shirt, all the transportation to and from Kep as well as the races, a nice dinner Saturday night and covered the price of the bicycles that we rode which then went to the villagers. Sixty bicycles were donated and I'm sure, are making a huge difference in 60 families lives. Over $50,000 was also raised (we had to raise at least $250 each ourselves). We got to the starting point where all the bikes were waiting. You'll note these are not 10 speeds (or any speeds) but did have handy baskets on the front for our stuff. It was to begin at 3:00 PM so Meredith and I thought we'd LOVE the cold showers that were waiting for us as we knew it would be so hot and humid. I even bought an expensive visor that was made to keep the sweat off your face and out of your eyes. Just as the starting gun was shot a HUGE crack of thunder hit and as we were pulling out onto the road the downpour began. This was not a little rain, this is what we refer to as TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR. Not just downpour but sideways pour right into our faces. That visor of mine proved even more valuable. One thing I didn't know, 85% of the race was on dirt/rock roads. When those roads get soaked, they are actually mud roads. NOT EASY. I kept trying to tell myself that the person who gets this bike deals with this on a daily basis, it didn't help too much from feeling sorry for myself and wondering why I was doing it. I wondered why we couldn't just give them the darn bikes. And, ironically, it was FREEZING. The cold air and being literally soaked to the bone made for a very chilly ride. Not to mention all the stuff in our baskets were soaked, all of our money, our passports, cameras and phones, Meredith's camera never did recover. The kilometers were not marked so we never knew how far we had gone. I won't go into all the detail but it was a LONG ride. Especially for poor Meredith who is totally in shape and could have finished in less than half the time it took us as she patiently waited for me. I told her to go ahead and send someone back for me if I didn't finish an hour after her but she stayed with me, bless her heart. Once it finally stopped raining we were able to enjoy the beautiful countryside. We made it to the finish which was at a school were villagers were waiting and cheering (along with 97% of the other participants who had already finished). We didn't get to hand over the bikes then, that was to be done at the closing ceremony on Sunday which we missed and were disappointed, but it was still fun to see some of the people. We climbed onto the airconditioned bus, still freezing as we headed towards our cold showers waiting for us. During the ride I thought I wouldn't do this again but even by the time we got onto that bus, we were planning for 2010's ride!

That night we had a nice dinner and some entertainment, at risk kids from Phnom Penh doing a breakdancing show. They were just adorable. Then, early the next morning we had our arranged taxi ride back to the airport in the city. We had been told the drive back would be a little shorter since we were in a car rather than a bus. It was still dark and a Toyota Camry picked us up. The driver (hardly any English) wanted $30 up front and the other $20 when we got there. I gave it to him and we drive about 4 minutes when he stopped and said, "My associate will take you the rest of the way." An almost identical Camry waited for us. I explained to him I had just given him $30 and he said, "It's ok!" So he got 30 for a 4 minute ride the other guy got 20 for a (supposed to be) 5 1/2 to 6 hour trip. This second car had no seatbelts in the backseat. He did have a little screen covering the rearview mirror that showed music videos and played the music very loud (all in Khmer). It's still dark and he starts driving. We asked a couple times to turn down the music (using charades since he doesn't speak any English). He is driving incredibly fast on these narrow roads. There are already people on bicycles, people walking and buses and trucks on the road. He honked his horn constantly for everyone to get out of his way and swerved around everyone, no worries at all at what may be coming towards us in the other lane. As daylight came more and more people were on the road, many holding children on their bikes or mopeds. This did not phase the guy. I yelled at him many times to slow down especially when we were driving through towns where people (many kids) were just steps off the road. He didn't. I thought we truly might die especially with no seatbelts and wondered if that would be better than surviving a crash in rural Cambodia with no doctors etc. We obviously did survive but a dog and a chicken did not. He slammed through both of them while we gasped in horror. We made the 3 hour trip in 2 hours and 5 minutes. Even in the city he continued to drive this way. I had planned to tip him as I thought he got the raw end of the deal but of course, by the time we got there, I didn't give him an extra cent. After he unloaded our suitcases he turned to us with a big smile and said, "Bye!" Just another day at the office for him. We tried not to think about who or what he hit on his way back to Kep. Other than that experience, we loved it all. We had to pay another $25 to get OUT of the country but had such a fabulous time. We can't wait for next year, we hope to bring our families this time to cheer us on and stay a little longer so we can be at the closing ceremonies. May even throw in a quick trip up to Siem Reap and Angor Wat so we will have really experienced all of Cambodia. I have to say every single person we met (besides the murderous taxi driver) were just as nice and sweet as anyone I've ever met anywhere in the world. Thanks for reading!!! :) I will send out my kodak gallery of pics now. If you don't get it and want it, send me a note tracyefaulkner@yahoo.com .