Penang Island - Christmas Day

The boat from Langkawi island to Penang island could not have been any easier. For a change, we didn’t have to pay extra to get the bikes on board and we had comfortable air-conditioned seats. When we arrived in Georgetown, Penang, we found our hotel within 5 minutes! It was nice to know exactly where we were going and not have to cycle around trying to find somewhere suitable. As our time on Penang was over Christmas, we wanted to treat ourselves to somewhere nice and a bit more upmarket than a backpacker-type guesthouse, and wow did we!? We spent four nights in one of the most amazing hotels I have ever stayed in; the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, or the blue mansion as some call it. This mansion was built in the 1880s and was owned by a great Chinese entrepreneur and businessman who had a worldwide status; Cheong Fatt Tze himself. Left to his sons and daughter-in-law who neglected it for years, when conservationists, historians and architects eventually got their hands on it, it was in a bit of a state. It was soon renovated to its nearest original state and opened to the public and is today one of Penang’s major tourist attractions. 16 of the twenty-something rooms are now open for guests to stay, every room being different and featuring all sorts of art and sculptures. Naturally we attended one of the tours and learnt that the house was so deeply thought out architecturally that everything in its build had a reason. It is feng-shui perfect according to experts and passes many of the Chinese traditions and embraces luck, happiness, success, wealth and other common Chinese symbols in every corner. I will let my photos show you…

Front of the house

Old Chinese rickshaws

The courtyard

Close up of the roof murals

Original tiles preserved for years underneath inches of dirt and dust, imported from Stoke-on-Trent would you believe!

Many thanks to Poh and his team for the laughs and good, chilled service they provided, and thank you to Eric for entertaining us with your lordiness!

Georgetown is a UNESCO World Heritage site, the same as Hoi An in Vietnam and I can see the similarities. The streets are full of narrow two storey houses, row after row, but beautifully built with petite front doors and windows with shutters. We spent most of our time here wondering the streets and taking it all in.

Famous Campbell Street

Christmas day was far away from the Christmas most Westerners know. There was no snow (or most likely rain), coldness, Christmas trees or decorations, or presents to open, certainly no roast turkey or potatoes! Instead we woke up to bright blue skies, burning hot sun and a yummy breakfast that the hotel provided; that was the morning taken up. In the afternoon we hired a scooter, something James was a little terrified about after a bad motorbike experience he had in the past. Nonetheless, we wanted to be on a beach and that is how we were going to get there. The man hiring out the bike to us got a shock when he went to explain the workings of the beasty 125cc to James who then told him I was driving! On, off, go, brake, sorted! Off we drove the 16km to the very north of Penang island to Batu Ferrenggi beach. We parked up right at the end away from all the hustle, dumped our stuff and went for a Christmas Day swim in the sea! Admittedly it was not as nice as Langkawi at all, but we didn’t care! We sat in a beach café and ordered our late lunch of chicken satay, chips and spring rolls, followed by ice-cream, of course. Back into Georgetown before the sun set to spruce up a bit and go out for our proper Christmas dinner; Indian! And wow what a meal it was. I had three humungous prawns, bigger than my hand in a delicious sauce with rice, naan, Chenna masala, tandoori chicken and vegetables. The most stunning Indian food we have ever had. We then spent the rest of the evening Skyping and calling various family back in England.

Boxing Day saw us both having our hair chopped, which amusingly took exactly the same amount of time and money… mmm. We wondered around the markets and bazaars that sell traditional Malay dress such as the Islamic skull caps for men and all sorts of head scarfs for women. Every single pattern and colour you could imagine with also lots of different styles, which I never realised, existed!

We wanted to explore a little more of Penang island so we left Georgetown and retraced the road to the beach and carried on going until we reached the furthest north west tip of the island where the world’s smallest National Park lies. We camped for two nights, this time for free! The camp site was popular with tourists and visitors due to the man-made swimming pools they have carved out in the waterfall, with pretty trees surrounding it and the village just down the road. We sampled the pools whilst there of course only to come out again five minutes later because the water was so cold!

The village down the road had many seafood restaurants, and we cycled around to get a feel for what was available. We came across one restaurant that was the only one with people in it, so decided to go there as all the others were empty and we have learnt by now to go where the locals go as this usually means it’s good. This restaurant was pretty shabby, with the usual plastic chair affair, with paint chipped off the walls, broken tiles and generally in need of a refurb. We sat down quite early but in the time we were there, it filled up very quickly and by the time we left, people were waiting for tables, and we could see why. We had the best calamari and sweet and sour chicken we have both ever had. It was so good that we went there the next night as well!

The camp site ablutions were an experience; a good one though! Squat toilets we were used to by now, but SE Asia style showers we weren’t. A tiled bath like area would be filled with clean water, and then you were provided with a plastic saucepan to pour the water over you to wash with. I have never had a full shower like this but it was actually very enjoyable and must save a lot of water.

We wanted to explore the National Park so we were up early to cycle down to the main entrance, lock up our bikes and off we went for the day with backpacks full of water and food, Craghoppers and trek sandals donned. And wow did we need them, the path we followed through part forest, part jungle was steep, uneven, craggy and root filled, but it was fantastic and we thoroughly enjoyed our day long trek, especially with no leeches!

After our fabulous trek, we cycled back along the hilly coast line to Georgetown to then start our New Year’s Eve adventure – with a difference! Stay tuned to find out what we did next! :)

Langkawi Island

We strolled through Malay immigration on Langkawi Island with such ease that we didn’t actually get looked at, scanned, stamped or given a visa. Once ‘through’ I though it didn’t feel right to not have anything official to say we have actually entered the country so we went back to ‘Immigration’ and it took a while to explain that we have just come from Thailand, (and not we want to go to Thailand) and that we need a stamp. We were then presented with the most pathetic of stamps in our passports. We were amused by the sheer laxidasical attitude everyone seemed to have. Anyway, Langkawi is the most north island on the west coast of peninsula Malaysia. We decided to take this route into Malaysia mainly because we wanted to rest on a beach for a while, but also to avoid the troubles in the most northern states of Malaysia that borders the troubled southern states of Thailand. Although nothing serious has happened for a year or so, we would have rather not risked it.

From Langkawi onwards we needed to plan day by day because the Christmas and New Year period is so busy and accommodation was booking up fast. It was the first time on this trip we thought further than the next night and it took two full afternoons and evenings pouring over Lonely Planet guides, maps and the internet to get from the 18 December 2010 to 13 January 2011 planned and accommodation booked with contingency plans as well just in case! Planning this much took a lot of patience and effort; another reason why we were so looking forward to just chilling by the beach!

So for 4 days that is exactly what we did. We stayed in a cute little guesthouse just up from the beach and the main tourist strip so it was quiet and had everything we needed. The most exercise we did was walk 10 minutes to the beach, find a bed, lye on it, read, swim and eat. It was fabulous to get back into my book and just relax and not have to think about where we’re going next. The beach was beautiful. It is 2km long, very white and very shallow which meant you could swim out for miles and still touch the seabed. During the day, the beach was super quiet with only Western tourists scattered along it. Come 5/6pm when the sun was much weaker and starting to set, local and Muslim people would come out and the beach was suddenly rammed full of people swimming and picnicking. I can only guess that it is because they don’t want to get tanned by the sun and ruin all the hard work they have put in to whitening their skin with all sorts of nasty products that should just be banned.

Considering we were staying near the main tourist strip with all the tacky souvenir shops, there was a surprisingly broad selection of restaurants. We ate very well while we were there and we have had some of the best food of the trip so far. Arabic style wraps, chicken satay, coconut crusted calamari, mango chicken, mango duck and curry – yum. Langkawi hasn’t quite gotten so developed yet, which meant no highrise chain hotels or annoying touts - bliss. The highest building for miles was four floors and even that was surrounded by trees so it didn’t look blindingly obvious, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it gets to be more developed in 10 years’ time because it’s the most beautiful beach I have seen in South East Asia so far.

We could have happily spent 2 weeks there but we needed to move on so after cycling back across the island to the ferry port, we took a boat to another Malay island, the biggest of them all, called Penang, where we would spent Christmas.

The left view from my sunbed



The right view from my sunbed



Khao Sok NP to Malaysia - a new country!

Off we set out of the national park having packed up the sopping wet tent and our damp stuff, hoping to find somewhere the next night to try it all. Luckily we found another 'shag station' hotel to stay in with the drive way and the curtain - identitical to the one outside Bangkok. This was brilliant for us as we put the tent up in the drive and rigged up a big line to dry out sleeping bags and various other things.

A town called Satun in the very southern part of the West coast of Thailand was essentially where we were aiming for. It took us five straight days of cycling to get there from Khao Sok. All throughout Thailand, James and I got into a routine of getting up a 05.30am to be out on the road by 7/7.30am. We would have cracked out the majority of the miles by lunch time which would normally be between midday and 1. During these five cycling days, I really felt the early mornings and the long days on the saddle. Every night I crashed to my pillow and didn't wake up until the horrible alarm went off at this God-awful hour of 5.30am. I don't think I've ever gotten up so early in my life and now here I was doing it every morning, as well as cycling 100km during the day.

There isn't really much to report on these five days. It was just heads down and let's get to Malaysia where we knew beaches were waiting for us to rest on! From Satun we cycled down to the ferry port, had our passports stamped out of Thailand and off we sailed through No-Mans-Sea until we reached the Malay island of Langkawi where we were casually stamped in. We then had to cycle across the island for about 15 miles to the best beaches; Cenang.

I didn't warm to Thailand like I did Cambodia. Although we had wonderful encounters with Thai people in the north around Bangkok, it seemed that southerners kept themselves to themselves. Thai people are obsessed with their cars, blinging them up to the max, so they probably couldn't relate to a pair of white cyclists and in some ways, couldn't really care. No one ever walks anywhere here and we rarely saw anyone on a bicycle. I guess they have the opinion of 'why would you want to when you can easily jump in your 4x4?', especially as petrol is so cheap. They also seem obsessed with their mobile phones, many having 2 and they had their noses stuck to their screens most of the time. Therefore it seemed that many Thais have been completely consumed in the latest technology and have forgotton how to communicate without any form of electronic device!

Khao Sok National Park

Khao Sok National Park; think the film Jurrasic Park and you got it. Mountanous and craggy, the park has jungle, rainforest, rivers and a lake. All of which was unbelivably stunning. We were very excited about Khao Sok NP as it was our first opportunity to get away from the hustle and bustle of the roads and cities and experience nature, as well as it being our first opportunity to camp. The camp site of the park was actually situated in the rainforest, not just any though, this is one of the oldest rainforests in the world. And when I say rainforest, boy do I mean rainforest; we were in a forest and yes it rained - a lot!!

Luckily for us the park also has a touristy strip, so we able to get our laundry done, emails answered and eat some pretty good meals, although we did cook our own dinner on one of the nights, which is a must when one is camping of course!

Our first day in the park, we were up and had breakfasted and were down by the river for 9am. James, myself and our tour guide boarded an inflatable bright blue canoe. Our guide paddled us down the river for 2 hours, taking the small rapids very well; we could tell he was an experienced canoeist! It was great to sit and enjoy the ride. We didn't see another sole in sight for the whole time and all we could hear was the rapids. We saw wild monkeys running along the trees above us, kingfishers, herons, and a snake asleep in the trees.

Much to our delight we stopped on a 4 metre long beach for a rest, well at least our guide rested. J and I however saw it fit to climb up the bamboo ladder with rope in one hand and swing out into the river - brilliant fun!!

The great thing about the canoe trip was we didn't then have to come back to same way, but we scrambled up the banks and on to the main road to then be picked up in a 4x4 pick up truck (naturally) with the canoe in the back!

The second day, we were up early and into another pick up where we were driven out for about 20 minutes to an elephant park. Both incredibly excited as James has never ridden on such a beast before and it has been a long time since I have and I just generally love elephants. I was delighted that our elephant was controlled only by his masters voice and not by whips or metals rods with sharp edges as I have seen previously. He also looked healthy. James was a little terrified, it was quite funny! We were taken up on the elephants back up the most beautiful track and I would not have looked at it and thought it to be an elephant track but guided by his master he walked us up a craggy and narrow opening in the forest. It had rained heavily the night before so the track was almost a mini waterfall from the high mountains above - and very muddy! We got off at the top to let the elephant rest and have a play and a splash in the muddy water. To my utter delight, one the way back down, the master let me sit bareback behind the elephants head with my legs dangling round his ears and neck. I have to say I was a little nervous as I had nothing to hold on to and going down hill along an uneven path there were a few times when I thought I could have easily toppled off! We asked the elephant master to take a photo of us and he got the nelly to lift his very muddy trunk up to me leaving me filthy, but the muddy hand prints I left on the top of his head was very cute! I then enjoyed feeding him bananas at the end, which he grabbed off me with his trunk and gobbled them two at a time - magical!

After our elephant trek we decided to go for a mini jungle trek. We set off down a track to a waterfall marked on the trail. It was incredibly muddy though and we were slipping and sliding all over the place, it was hilarious watching James scoot around as though he were on ice! We didn't make it to the waterfall as our trek sandals weren't quite up to the terrain - we needed full boots and gaiters! Leeches were also a problem. Having had a leech on me before (out in India) I know not to pull them as they suck harder, but to either pour salt on them or burn them. Burning them with a lighter was our only option (as one doesn't normally carry salt with them), but they were so diddy that I ended up burning my toes instead. Luckily because they were small, James managed to pick most of them off. Checking our feet every now and then, I think between us we had about 9 leeches on our toes. Once back to the tent I discovered that somehow, three of the little blighters had crawled inside my clothes and had a right good old suck. One of my elbow, one on my heel and one on the back of my calf!

From Khoa Sok we then headed south, eventually to the last town of Thailand called Satun. From there we will take the ferry over to Malaysia.

Cycling Chumphon to Khao Sok

From Chumphon we rode directly west the whole width of the country and then when we reached the Myanmar (Burma) border, the road sharply turned south to Ranong. Only mountains on our right stopped us from peering into a country that not many people know about, which may have something to do with not many nationalities being able to obtain a Burmese visa. At times, it was only a river that separated the two countries. This was our longest day. 78.2 miles in one very long day, hill after hill in continuous torrential rain, thunder and lightning. It was the first time we both actually wanted a hot drink during our breaks as opposed to cold. Even though the temperature was still 23 degrees, when soaked to the bone, it got quite chilly. Along the way we saw a beautiful waterfall and passed official viewpoints (that was how high we climbed!).

Soaked, but warming up with hot coffee during break time

Beautiful waterfall right on the switchback of the steep road

As soon as we turned south, the head-scarfs among the girls in the villages along the road became more and more apparent, as did luscious forests, while villages were less frequent. This may be the time to also write about the continuous battle against the dogs in Thailand. There are two kinds of dogs in SE Asia; stray, homeless ones who are very skinny and often have wounds and various other diseases who run away as you cycle towards them. Then there are the dogs who ‘belong’ to people, but are trained as guard dogs and hang around with nothing to do outside their houses. To their delight, when two cyclists amble by, they either see it as a bit of fun to break their boredom or see us as a threat. Either way we have been chased by countless numbers of dogs down the street. Some of them chase for longer than others, and some have actually tried to bite; it is terrifying every time. Unfortunately James was left a little shaken after he was attacked by one vicious canine, but luckily the dog only punctured a hole in his pannier and not his leg, much to his annoyance but my relief.


One of our evening stops was in a place called Suk Samran. We weren’t actually meant to stop here, but our epic day to Ranong the day before had taken it out of us a little. We stayed in a beautifully carved wooden bungalow on stilts. We had a charming room with more windows than wall and all the furniture was made from bamboo including our bed frames. Our host, P.P. was delighted to have us and made us so welcome. What we didn’t realise was the guesthouse and surrounding buildings were work left by US Aid who visited the area after the devastation the Tsunami left Suk Samran in. The guesthouse was a gift and around it was a school and learning centre, a museum and a community bank, all with the aim of educating local people on how to deal with possible future tsunamis. Apparently villages around were given lump sums of money by charities to help rebuild their homes, but normal Thai corruption set in and the money was squandered. Only one village invested the $1 million they were given and now their balance is $3m, hence the community bank who are also trying to educate villagers on the benefits of investment. PP used an interesting analogy; do you give a victim of the tsunami a fish or a fishing rod? The answer is neither if you do also provide them with education on how to cook the fish or fish responsibly with a rod. Interestingly, PP also told us how certain things have prevented the learning centre from being as successful as it should be. Firstly because not many Thai country-folk travel and so do not know the centre exists, and secondly because of religion. PP is Buddist and the surrounding villages have a high Muslim population, so they are reluctant to go because they fear he will not understand. Far from it; PP was so passionate about education that I have no doubt that he couldn’t care whether you were black, white, purple, Muslim, Christian, gay or otherwise, but trying to get people to understand this is another matter in itself. Dinner in the village was Muslim influenced; saffron rice with curried chicken and potato roti, much to James’s delight. For pudding we cracked open a fresh watermelon we bought in the local market. Happy days.

Not so happy days when we were woken up at 5am by the call to prayer by the mosque next door, which we hadn’t actually realised it was there until the loudspeaker felt as though it was in my ear. Still, it was only 30 minutes before our alarms went off!


On we cycled until we reached the mountains of the beautiful landscape in the centre of Thailand just east of Takua Pa. Up and up we climbed, and down and down our sweat poured off our bodies and evaporated instantly on the hot tarmac. It took us 3 hours to ride 26 miles; it was seriously hard going, but we were rewarded by unbelievable views. Remember the film, Jurassic Park? It was as though we had walked on to the set of it, but instead this was Thailand’s Khao Sok National Park…

Cycling from Bangkok to Chumphon

We rode for 5 days straight out of Bangkok to a town called Chumphon. The first four days were along the only road south of Bangkok which was a rather unpleasant motorway. Getting out of Bangkok was a terrifying experience as there were parts when we were merging on to the Thai equivalent of the M25. There was actually a cycle lane most of the way out but this was blocked by parked cars, food stalls, buses and people in general so this seemed utterly pointless. Luckily, there was a smaller road at the side of the motorway out of the city that ran parallel for about 30 miles so we kept on that until it all merged when we had a nice wide hard shoulder to bomb along while the cars sped past us at at least 70 mph. The motorway ranged from having two lanes on each side to 6 lanes on each side in some places! The road was long, straight and boring but we knew there were smaller roads to ride ahead so again, it was heads down and shed the miles.

Our first night out of Bangkok was hilarious. After the town we were aiming for on the map just disappeared or didn't exist, we sought refuge in a motorway hotel we stumbled upon, again by accident. It was literally on the motorway, but we didn't care as we were knackered from the adrenalin used up to concentrate on the roads out of Bangkok. Once we were in, we then realised that this hotel was more of a, errrm... shag station. Yes, it had a light outside each room, showing white or red, depending on whether it was occupied. It also had a large curtain to cover the little drive where one parked their car to conceal ones identity. The room was equipped with large mirrors on two walls opposite each other, tissues on each bedside table, and yes, there was free porn on the TV. We walked out of our room, the light glowing red, down the hard shoulder of the Thai equivalent of the M4 to the restaurant to get dinner. How romantic.

The next day, we were up and rolling out onto the motorway at 7.30am. We cracked out 60 miles and arrived at the coastal town of Hua Hin at 2.30pm where we found a little hotel on the end of a pier, dumped our stuff and ran down to the beach for a well deserved swim; our reward for cycling that day. The beach was pretty, well kept and this place is the nearest beach resort to Bangkok, so very popular with both Thais and tourists. Tempted to stay, in deed we were, but the next town was also a beach town, so on we cycled the following day another 58 miles to Prachuap Khiri Khan. This was the day my speedometer ticked over to the 2000th mile! Far quieter; an idyllic seaside town where no tuk-tuk man or hawkers bothered us. We stayed in a psychedelic guesthouse painted crazy bright colours with a balcony overlooking the sea and some of the islands. We watched the pretty sun in all its glory come up from behind one of the islands in the morning before having breakfast with the Thai lady owner and her artistic, eccentric Austrian husband who was drinking beer while we were breakfasting at 7am.

Celebrating 2000 miles!

Our balcony in the guesthouse at PKK

The next day, and another 62 miles cracked out and the first time we turned off the main highway. We stayed in a very cute bungalow on stilts in a little jungle, complete with jungle noises of exotic birds, insects and monkeys!


The final day was spent entirely on secondary roads that flirted with the beaches all the way down to Chumphon. The road was fantastic and our first cycle day of seeing proper Thailand other than what you can see from the motorways. Rich and luscious forests, perfectly lined either side of the roads. James spotted all sorts of birds of pretty colours and every now and then we got a glimpse of the sea! It was however, rather continuously hilly so we arrived in Chumphon rather tired!

Undulating hills = want sleep at lunchtime

Yucky hills but beautiful scenery.

We rested for one day in this rather uninspiring and dull town to also catch up on emails and research the route going forward as this is where the road splits down either side of the coast due to the mountains in the middle. We decided on the west coast as this appeared to have more towns and beaches along the way and also made sense as our crossing into Malaysia will be on the west coast too. And off we go!

Bangkok...

We ended up spending 5 days in Bangkok with the last one spent researching the route ahead. Bangkok is pretty crazy but actually far more structured and western than I had imagined. We stayed in the old town area where the metro or sky trains haven’t quite reached out to yet, so to get anywhere we always had to get a tuk-tuk or taxi first, which we then spent at least 30 minutes stuck in traffic somewhere as the roads are so atrociously rammed with far too many vehicles. Most of our outgoings that week were spent on transport as the city is so big. It’s very different to the previous cities I have visited on this trip which were all walk able.

Here are the sights we saw in pictures:

Grand Palace

Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo

Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo

Scary weird statue at the Bangkok Cultural Arts Centre

Awesome sketches at the Bangkok Cultural Arts Centre

More strange stuff at the Bangkok Cultural Arts Centre

Jim Thompson's House - pioneer of Thai silk

Eating in the road in crazy Chinatown

Huge reclining Buddha at Wat Pho

More gold at Wat Pho

Relaxing on the red and gold beds in the best Indian restaurant in Bangkok with a Shisha!

One rather blog-worthy story that happened to me in Bangkok involves a cockroach. I am usually OK with bugs and spiders, but I hate cockroaches. I can just about dodge them and skip round them in the street without too loud a whimper. On our last night in Bangkok after packing up and everything was ready to go, I lay on the bed in our hotel room with my arms spread out, a little tired. All of a sudden I saw something move at the speed of light in the corner of my eye and before I could move, this thumb-sized cockroach ran across the bed, up onto my arm and into the scrunched up bed sheets. To say I screamed was an understatement. Holy crap, I have never moved so fast in my life. Urgh! It crawled on my Arrrrrrrmmmmmm!!!!!! I shiver just thinking about it.

Cycling to Bangkok...

I was sad to leave Cambodia. I didn't feel anywhere near ready to leave as I did Vietnam. But, time is marching on and new places are to be explored. The border crossing into Thailand was very simple and very quick, surprisingly. Once through no-mans-land and in to Thailand, I was completely thrown by the fact they drive on the left side of the road. The same as the UK, yes but I got so used to cycling on the right for all my time in Vietnam and Cambodia!

We cycling along the main highways straight into Bangkok from the border. There was not much to see or do along the way so we decided to get our heads down and get to the capital. Finding hotels appears to be a little more challenging than ever before for two reasons. Vietnamese uses the Roman alphabet and we knew that Nha Nghi was hotel so spotting these words on signs and buildings was relatively simple. In Cambodia, the word Guesthouse is presented below any hotel signs that are written in Khmer - again simple to spot. Thailand however has its own alphabet (just as squiggly as Khmer) and nothing is in English and it seems there is not one standard squiggle that we Westerners can spot on the side of the road while also trying to cycle and jostle with the traffic. Mmm... it did seem however, that many people we spoke to along the way spoke a tiny bit of English and 'Hotel' is a universally understood word here. We always somehow managed to find some where.

Instant differences when reaching Thailand are the roads. All of a sudden, they are all signposted and beautifully laid tarmac with painted lines and wide hard shoulders. The drink stops were far less frequent but I think this may be because most of the roads we took in to Bangkok were main highways and drink stops when driving I guess don't need to be so frequent. EVERYONE drives a 4x4 here and we wonder if perhaps the government hands them out as part of being Thai. Bicycles were no where to be seen, and there were barely any on scooters here compared to Cambodia and Vietnam. It was strange, we suddenly felt very alone on our bicycles. Apart from the trucks screaming past, the roads were silent, no beeping, no children shouting hello, no animals to dodge and generally no people about apart from when we passed through towns. It was... dull actually. 

I want to dedicate this post to all the Thai people that showed us kindness on our journey in to Bangkok. Firstly to Whippy. James and I were coming to the end of a full cycling day. We were heading for this one town when 3km just outside it we saw a hotel. We stopped to check the map and discuss our options when we suddenly heard 'Can I help you!?' Two young ladies stood behind a fence eager to help. After some discussing of hotels they excitedly invited us in to rest and have a drink when they found out we had cycled just over 100km. Their family ran a hardware store so we sat on their hand made benches and they gave us coke and water. After further discussions with brothers, uncles, fathers and co-workers in Thai and English, Whippy concluded that we would NOT stay in the hotel opposite as it was not good and because we were tired and come so far, she will drive us and the bikes in her pick up to the next town 10 miles away to a good hotel. After some protesting that this wasn't nessecary, we didn't actually have a choice as the 4x4 was already in the courtyard and her brothers were dismantling everything to put into the truck and tie down. She took us straight to the hotel, bartered down the price to half what we would normally pay, then helped us take everything upstairs. She would not take any money for the drinks, the petrol or her time. Before she left she then gave us a little wooden door knocker made in her warehouse. Unbelievable. We couldn't believe how kind she had been and she explained that it was Thai nature to do good for others and she would never accept payment. 

Furthering on from this, we had many people in their flash cars pull up the side of us to say 'Well done' and 'Keep going, you're doing really well!' We stopped at the side of one road to fix a puncture on James's bike and one chap pulled over, bought some freshly cut pineapple from the stall in front of us and gave it to us. And once we got into Bangkok and a little lost, we had 3 separate people ask us if we needed help and gave us directions. Their kindness was greatly appreciated so Thank You to all of you!

We made it in to Bangkok alive, we have yet to cycle out, but the roads are not as bad as I thought! I was expecting mayhem on a far more vast scale than this. So, now we will spend 4-5 days doing the sites and activities of Bangkok before heading south towards Malaysia.

Battambang

Reading up on Cambodia, we came across a town called Battambang. It is the third largest city in Cambodia and there are a few random but intriguing activities to be done around the city. Being the curious cats that we are, we decided to give it a go and see a bit more of this beautiful country before heading for Thailand. Slight problem was getting there though. Cambodia has the biggest inland waterway in the whole of SE Asia called the Tonle Sap and Battambang is on the other side of it from Siem Reap. So instead of cycling round it (to then have to come back along the same road to get to Thailand), we thought what better than take a boat and at the same time see the floating village and the wonderful wildlife.

The ferry port was between 8 to 14km away from Siem Reap depending on the time of year, i.e. how high the water is. Mmm...OK. The boat also leaves at 7am and takes 6 hours - lunch in Battambang then. So, not wanting to miss it, we got up at 5am, loaded the bikes and cycled down the only road to the port, bleary eyed in the faint dawn light. Admitedly we were rewarded with an overwhelmingly stunning sunrise with bright and clear pinks, oranges and yellows along the way. We arrived at the port at half 6. Plenty of time to load up. The boat had rows of benchs on the deck and then a roof overhead where all the luggage and our bikes went. There were only 4 of us there on the boat ready to go at 7am. Great, we can relax and spread out. Come 7.30 we still hadn't left and a few more people drifted on. Then all of a sudden, a mass of people arrived and all piled on to the boat. There were no seats left on deck so half the people had to sit on the roof (with no shelter from the blazing sun, this must have been horrific). Our luggage was now right at the bottom of a six storey high pile of backpacks and we were a little concerned for our bikes getting squished too. Eventually we left the port and were on our way by 8.15am for the most horrific boat journey I have ever experienced.

It started off well and James being nature boy was spotting all sorts of birds I had never seen before. The floating village was interesting as literally everything you imagine to be in a village, was here and floating, with everyone getting around by canoes. People had dogs though, which puzzled us slightly, do they get walked? But we saw a floating Police station, a school, a chemist and a doctors along with shops and plenty of homes. Then the pump stopped working and the boat started to fill up with water which was discovered when the guys pulled up the wooden floor boards on deck. As a result of the bottom filling up, it meant the slightest turn of the wheel and the whole boat leant over to one side because the water was sloshing about in the bottom and increased the leanage. How, with all the weight on the roof, the boat did not capsize I do not know. It leant over so badly at one point, everyone actually screamed, and people's stuff went rolling around the deck all over the place. Eventually we arrived at 3.30pm and I couldn't wait to get off!

There is not really much to see in Battambang itself and considering it is meant to be a city, it seemed more like a lazy quiet town to us. On our first day, we ventured out on the bikes, pannier and trailer free to find a Pepsi bottling plant that was abandoned in 1975 by the Khmer Rouge who forced it shut. It hasn't been touched since, and thousands of bottles still errily stand on top of one another. From there we went on to a crocdile farm. Not my idea, but J wanted to have a look!

Our second day saw us taking a tuk-tuk out to the country to a single rail line. Cambodia only has single train tracks from French times and the Khmer Rouge did away with the train services and they haven't quite been able to recover. After the Khmer Rouge, local people built what they could to go on the train tracks and they came up with the Norri train. It is a 2 x 3m platform made from bamboo. It sits on metal wheels and has a small petrol engine. You simply load up the flat surface area and bomb along the delapidated tracks at about 20 mph. As the Norri train idea caught on, more and more were made and as a result of the single track, the bizarre thing about the train was what would happen when two trains met along the same track. The lighter load of the two trains would have to remove itself from the track to let the heavier load pass by. The train drivers would then reload the train back on to the track and continue on its way. This would also happen if the train reached the end of the line and needed to return to its departure point! This has now turned in to a tourist attraction and one that intrigued us! Even though our bums have sat on more comfortable, smoother rides, it was fun to whizz along through the countryside. In December, the Norri train will no longer exist as Austraila have been successful in their bid to upgrade and run new railway services, which I imagine will change Cambodia quite significantly.

Turning the Norri around to go back to our start point

After being shaken by the rickety tracks, we headed out of Battambang to Phnom Sampeau, the highest point for miles, with temples and shrines built on top of it. Half way up, we also visiting the Killing Caves, which was where 10,000 people died here by the Khmer Rouge. After climbing the hill, which felt more like a mountain, we sat looking out at the view of miles of flat land, snacking on crisps. The rustling of the crisp bag was clearly a magic noise to a family of monkeys who suddlenly appeared. Now, I don't mind monkeys, but seeing what these red-arsed viscious animals can do from living in India, I am not going to put my rabies jab to test, so when one of them advanced towards me, I jumped out the way and he stole my bag of crisps. Damn, I wanted those! He took them up the tree, being careful not to tip them out and sat there munching away on the much needed salt I could have done with after sweating up the hill. 

From Battambang we were two days cycling from the Thai border and five days from Bangkok. We spent a considerable amount of time researching the route and possible places to stay, along with mastering the Thai language and hotel availability as much as the internet could help us. We then set off to the Poipet/Aranyaprathet border.

Siem Reap and Angkor

Siem Reap is the small town where tourists base themselves when visiting the vast number of temples included within the Angkor complex. The town has been purpose built to cater for tourists, and don’t you know it. For us, this is good because we can gorge on decent western food, coffee and ice-cream – yum. But, after a while, it got on our nerves. 

Take three steps out of one’s hotel and you get the following:

“Hello, tuk-tuk?” No.

“Hello, moto?” No.

“Hello, marijuana?” No.

“Hello, opium?” NO!

“Hello, tuk-tuk?” No.

“Hello, splif?” No.

Then, once you have fought your way through the rickshaw men, and reach the main hub-bub of restaurants and market-place, you get the following:

“Hello lady, you want massage?” No.

[Having glanced in the direction of a shop/stall] “Hello lady, buy som-sing?” No.

“Hello lady, you want scarf?” No.

Then you get interrupted by, “Hello, tuk-tuk?” NO!!!!!!!!

Then when you are resting your feet in a café/restaurant within the temple region, you have children selling things coming over to you with the one of the following two:

1. “Hello lady, where you from?” England. “If I tell you the capital, the population and the name of your prime minister, will you buy som-sing?” No, but tell me anyway, and so they reel off the facts – pretty impressive. To test this, with various different children, we were from Germany, France and Holland to which we learnt their population. Finland failed.

2. “Hello lady, here is free bracelet for you.” Errm, no thanks. “No lady, free for you.” [Bracelet forced in my hand] “You buy from me later”. Uh-oh. Of course, we are then hawked down after visiting temple because they gave me ‘free bracelet’. “Please buy, only one daaaallaaaar” they whine.  

To further amuse you, James nipped to the shops on his own one evening, returning a little flustered. I asked why and here was what he was offered, all by the SAME guy:

“Hello sir, tuk-tuk?” No.

“You want joint?” No.

“You want lady?” No.

“Massage?” No.

“Opium?” No.

“Heroin?” Really no.

“Two ladies?” Slight hesitation… NO!

Oh, to be a tourist!

Anyway, so the Angkor complex; the eighth wonder of the world, which is why we are here. The templus (the official word for two or more temples, completely made up of course) were built between 802 – 1200 AD. This once was the capital of the powerful Khmer Empire. The complex stretches 25km wide and 10 km north to south (apparently the same size as Manhattan). Unbelievably, the whole city was abandoned in 1431 due to Thai occupation of Angkor. It wasn't rediscovered until 1860 by a French naturalist, then rather disturbingly, a French archeologist got his grubby mits on many of the most beautiful statues and carved stones in 1873 and took them back to France to 'enrich' their culture. There are still ongoing disputes about where they belong between Cambodia and France today. Ever since then, the templus have been cleared and are slowly being restored, primarily by France, but many other countries have poured money into conservation too, such as India and Switzerland. Many of the temples were modelled on Indian temples, with tall central towers communicating to the Gods above. Most were built with sandstone; easier to carve, with laterite used as the foundations.

We decided to do two days and a half days of the temples. Many would say this isn't enough, but actually it's pretty tiring! On our first evening, we climbed the rocky hill and temple of Phnom Bakheng to watch the sun set. It was absolutely bursting with tourists all trying to get the best picture. I of course managed to nab one of the best and highest (so not to get heads in the way) spots and watched the sky turn from bright beautiful blue to gray to orange, to pink and to red. We watched it disappear behind a cloud to then reappear from underneath it as though it were an upside-down sunrise. Magic. In the dusky light we explored a little and it was easy to see how much of the film 'Tomb Raider' was filmed here. Photos below:

Day 2 saw us exploring the Angkor Thom complex. Angkor Thom is a huge walled square full of dense woods and beautiful trees. The main road into the centre of it was a wide boulevard that reminded us of various royal estates in England. It included one of my favourites of them all, the Bayon. Dramatic, with wall after wall, level after level, passageway after passageway, smiling Buddha faces everywhere you look and intricate carvings in every nook and cranny. 

From the Bayon, we walked through the trees over to Baphuon and Phimeanakas, further through the trees and around the lakes on to the Terrace of Elephants and the Leper King. After lunch we then explored another of my favourites, the temple of Ta Prohm. This one was in the centre of another walled rectangle surrounded by enormous trees, except the trees did not stop growing on the outside of the temple; they had also taken over much of it. It was unbelievable to see such huge, old trees tangle its roots through the walls and bricks. I thought it showed perfectly just how old the temple was by the sheer size of the tree trunks. It was amazing and I felt a little like Alice in Wonderland, totally magical. 

Spot the face in the wall where this tree eerily and conveniently grew around.

Headless Buddhas; the works of the Khmer Rouge.

Day 3 then saw us up at 4.30am to race down the biggest and most impressive all the temples, the one we deliberately saved until last; Angkor Wat. Anyone who knows me knows I am not a morning person and really not my best at anytime before 9am. So, bleary eyed and chilly in the cool air before the sun heated it up, we stood, again with many others to worship the sun.We had one up on most people there though because being the good scouts that we are, we had cans of various coffees and mashed banana and Nutella baguettes! Unfortunately, the sun rise was not as spectacular as the sunset, but nonetheless it was enjoyable and I've never actually managed to get my butt out of bed for a sunrise before!

It was amazing how quickly the air was heating up once the sun had risen. After exploring Angkor Wat in the daylight, we took a tuk-tuk ride 20km north to a temple that was the furthest north of all of them. Banteay Srey is affectionately known as the Lady Temple. What is fascinating about this one, was because it was so far out, it was not discovered until 1914. It is a very small temple, with a walled square and moat surrounding it. The designs on this temple are the most intricate of all. Parts have been restored beautifully and the eye can clearly see Buddhas, elephants, serpents, dragons breathing fire, as well as horse and chariots, kings and servants and their swords, monkeys and the Khmer language. You could spend hours studying them. 

Our last day was spend chilling out, updating blogs and giving our bikes a once over, getting ready for the next day of travelling to Battambang by boat. Stay tuned.