Wednesday 19th
Our final long ride of the holiday, as we head off to complete 70km of cycling, before reaching Beng Melea Temple to see the ruins. Along the way Pier spots a man on a bicycle collecting Palm juice from the road side and asks us if we would like to try some. We all agreed and made Mike go first, drinking from a dirty looking bamboo holder. The palm juice was surprisingly good, tasting very sweet. We noticed that the guys finger was wrapped in a dirty looking bandage, as he'd chopped it with a machete the day before. We gave him some new plasters, together with some antiseptic wipes, which he was really grateful. He then climbed to the top of a number of Palm trees to collect more juice for us. (no safety harness or hard hat - just a bamboo ladder!).
After a further 10k, we came across a massive boiling cauldron, steaming away in somebodies front garden. It was just like one of the pots that the kids had been using for boats the day before. We cycled in to the garden to meet the chap that was boiling palm juice, so we chatted for a while, before being offered Palm sugar to try. It was in a dirty looking plastic bucket and looked like industrial waste, but tasted really good, in fact it was just like fudge. His Mother had really strange orange teeth and looked like she was in serious need of dental treatment, but we soon discovered that this was due to the fact that she regularly chews tobacco, wrapped in a palm leaf, mixed with snail paste and coconut berries.She claimed it was non addictive, but judging by the state of her, it didn't look like that to us. She had 9 children.
On route to the temple we met another cycling party, who joined our group, including a french lady from Mauritius, who had, had enough cycling and had blagged a lift in our van.
We cycled on through numerous small villages and continued to whip up a frenzy with the local children as we traveled through. We found that the cyclists at the back of our group were welcomed every 50 yds by groups of children, jumping and screaming as we approached - wanting high fives, as we cycled past. We've had children hanging off our cycling shorts, running along with us and even a whole family chasing us down the road, wanting to say hello!
We visited the temple ruins after lunch, before heading back to watch the sunset over Angkor Wat - this was a bit of a shock to they system, as it was the first time in 10 days that we had encountered hundreds of tourists, bus loads of Japanese and Koreans.
Thursday 20th Jan
This was to be a full on day of Temple viewing, including the world famous Angkor Wat (a world heritage site). Our last cycle of the trip, setting off from our hotel for the short 35km, which took us through a real wilderness on a single sandy track, in a densely wooded area. We have been pretty lucky with the dogs on this trip, with only four taking chase, as most were uninterested as we cycled past. Today, we cycled through what seemed a very, very poor district with a couple of vicious dogs waiting to pounce as we cycled past.
We have covered over 357 miles and seen some real sites and captured some great memories.
Tonight ,we have to bid fair well to Ham, our mechanic and trusty sweeper and Som our temple guide, who has joined us for the last couple of days. Mr Tel has taken our luggage back to Phom Phen, this is sad as it feels like the end now.
Friday 21st Jan
We have an early start again, up at 5:15am to catch the 7am boat, from Seim Reap back to Phon Phem, which takes 6 hrs. After boarding, we soon noticed the lack of 'Health and Safety', as we had to balance along a narrow edge with no hand rail once aboard, to reach the entrance. Fortunately, we were the first to board and we managed to bag the best seats on board. This was an ideal position and kept us entertained for the next hr, as we watched many others struggle with their large cases, as they balanced along the side of the boat. The look of horror on peoples faces, when they saw in side the vessel, with no allocated seating, its just like easy jet and made Network Rail look good, as an hour later we still hadn't set sail. Some of the chunky tourists arrived and one poor lady, even got wedged in the door. Mike decided to clean the windows by hanging over the side with the ships mop that he'd found. 8:05 and we are finally underway, no safety briefing, no life jackets and the crew seemed quite happy to let people hang off the sides and sit on the roof outside drinking beer. We've only been gone ten minutes, when the boat shoots forward and we come to an abrupt halt, having run aground on a sand bank - no worries, the man has a 10 foot long bamboo pole to push us away from the shore.
The journey back to Phon Phem was very pleasant and the 6 hr journey soon passed. We witnessed along the way many fisherman and remote villages, some parts resembled the Amazon.
Our final farewell meal this evening with Peir and Tel in a really nice restaurant along side the Mekon river.
We leave tomorrow to catch a flight back to Bangkok for a few days, before heading back the the UK.
It truly has been a remarkable journey and adventure !!!!
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