We arrived in Saigon at our hotel and promptly went out to explore. Unfortunately most stores were closed for the Vietnamese New Year. We had a wonderful dinner at a fancy local food restaurant and said good by to our guides and driver. Saigon was decked out in it’s finest of lighting at night for the New Year and flowers for enjoyment by day.

Our last day was spent walking and exploring this bustling Asian City. 10,000,000 people and 4,000,000 motor cycles, yes 4,000,000 and none obeying any traffic laws! We opted for a western lunch at a local pizza restaurant as none of us had eaten anything but local food for the past three weeks. It was strangely good but you just can’t beat good ol’ Chicago Pizza. Janie acted as our tour guide and in good Vietnamese fashion, promptly got lost. But that was okay because we discovered a few souvenir shops that were open.

I would say that we all really liked Thailand and Cambodia the most. Our guides and routes were the best and the people were the most friendly. I am not so sure I could ever recommend Buffalo Tours to anyone and that is only because their operational/corporate structure has a lot to be desired. We did not have the bikes they promised, they changed up our itinerary without letting us know ahead of time (including hotels) and did not book our final days in Viet Nam like they said they would. We asked several times if the New Year celebrations would impact our tour and they said it would not but it did. Almost every town we went through was closed up and 2/3 of Saigon was shut down. Our guides were the only saving grace of the trip and that is good because they are really the heart and soul of the company. They are actually saving company face as far as I am concerned.

I doubt I would ever come back for another ride in this part of the world and it is not because of anyone or anything other than the heat and probable lack of amenities that this old body needs after a good ride: soft bed and a hot shower! I don’t ask for much but a hot shower is almost always key. And a washcloth! What is it with washcloths? Even traveling in Europe there aren’t any washcloths! (Someone sounds like they need to get home!) I am glad I did experience this part of the world and come to appreciate the lifestyle and struggles many people face here. Always becoming more aware of the different cultures of the world makes me appreciate more and more my homeland. As we rode through Cambodia, Janie and I kept saying, “By the grace of God, we were born in America”.

We packed our bags and are waiting now to make the long journey home. This is truly a journey for the memory books. We have so many stories to tell and pictures to pour over. I will miss our guide Vuttha and our driver Sawath the most and always hope for their future in such an impoverished country. Cambodia will be in our hearts forever.

Ride on....


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I had a very restless night of sleep in our hotel. Maybe the end was near and what has been a long and fascinating ride was coming to an end or maybe I was suffering from restless leg syndrome?! Whatever it was I woke up at 5:00 a.m. and even the sun wasn’t ready to get up. I played a few mindless games of Bejewled until I woke Rich up. If one of us isn’t going to sleep than someone needs to keep me company. No, really, he just woke, too. We talked about coming home earlier than scheduled and when we got to Saigon we would see if we could change our tickets. I think we were ready to come home.

Our breakfast is always interesting. Asians eat some crazy things for breakfast. Not that one has to have eggs and bacon as a norm but noodle soup with all the fixins? Just crazy icky for me! I have been settling for a little toast, jam and lukewarm coffee. Not only do the Vietnamese drink their coffee incredibly sweet but lukewarm, too. I swear it looks hot as it comes out of the pot but by the time it hits my lips the heat has evaporated into a sugary coffee flavor drink not at all considered drinkable by me! Oh, how I miss my coffee machine! (And my cats, my pillow, a hot shower, Thai food and pizza!)

We are riding from the hotel today, which is a semi good sign. Jim has a new bike for the last day of riding and that makes him a little happier. We are all struggling with really trying to find the good in these last few days of riding. Something happened as we crossed over the border into Viet Nam. I don’t think it was the whole border crossing fiasco but we just are not clicking with this new country and the guide. The driver, Tanh, is darling and was doing his best to keep us comfortable. He has even expanded his vocabulary to, “Good morning. How are you?”, Thank you very much. You are welcome.” He runs to the water cooler every time I touch my water bottle. I say “thank you” in Vietnamese and he answers, “you are welcome” in english. We laugh together. And, he’s small enough to fit in my suitcase, I am sure of it!

Back to the road: We leave town weaving in and out of the morning traffic. Inh stops twice to ask for directions and I fear that we will do 60K just trying to get out of town! Getting lost in Viet Nam was not on our itinerary. Fear not, Inh speaks fluent Vietnamese and we are back on track. Before leaving town we visit two mega stone Buddhas. Inh told us one had just been finished at the cost of 2M USD. Kind of weird here in communist Viet Nam. Most of the Buddhist temples that we have seen throughout Thailand and Cambodia have been replaced with statues of the new government; just an interesting observation.

We spend most of today on the back waters of the the Mekong Delta. It is an extremely lush growing arena for rice, vegetables and fruit. We are all amazed at how green everything is here. It is no wonder that wars have been fought over the domination of this land. Vuttha (Cambodia guide) says that Viet Nam is continually taking little bits and pieces of Cambodia on the border. The Mekong Delta area produces around 30M metric tons of rice a year and exports over 6M tons worldwide.

It is an interesting fact that most of the roads in the Mekong Delta were built by the US armed forces during the Viet Nam war (or American War as Viet Nam calls it) and they are still standing strong. Inh’s father fought against the USA and was part of the re-education of the people movement. He has some pretty strong views about what happened during the war and I am sure it is because of his upbringing. He grew up in a communist country and he learned the history through their eyes, just as we learn about ours. No judgment, just an observation. It might also be why he is not super warm and fuzzy like our other guides have been. Not that he doesn’t like us but he is just not amiable.

At one point Inh took us on a path through the rice patties. Oh, my, God! The path was about 18” wide. Sometimes it was cement, most of the time dirt. It made very sharp turns and I had to click out fast or go down. He asked if we wanted to go on the path and when we said, “No”, he said it was really quite pretty and peaceful. So, trying to make him feel like we wanted to ride with him, I said, “okay” and we took off on the path of terror. When we got off, I said let’s not do that again and he laughed. Still trying to find out what he thought was so funny!

At 50K we met up with the two support vans and we called it a ride. I am not sure I could have done anymore; not because I had spent myself riding but because my butt hurt so bad from being in the saddle so long and going nowhere. I have to say, it was kind of anti-climactic. Rich was waiting for us with the drivers at a little cafe and we took pictures to commemorate the final ride. I really missed having Rich on the ride. It seemed like I was on vacation with myself without him being on the bike with me. I know it had been a difficult journey for him, too because he would have loved the ride. Riding is something we have always done together and only half is not the same as a whole. Ouch, sounds like someone needs a little therapy time?!

Back in the van, the Viet Nam van ride we’ve decided to call it. Destination: Saigon and the Vien Dong Hotel. The ride has ended, now just a little sightseeing and souvenir shopping before coming home.



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Richard here: This day turned out to start very early. At 12:00 AM a bombardment started outside our hotel room. It seems we were destined to have front row seat at the fireworks celebrating the start of Vietnamese New Year, the year of the Tiger. For 20 solid minutes we watched the most fireworks per minute I have ever seen. It was like the 10 second finale we get with American fireworks shows only never stopping.

This night was also a restless one for me. I have been able to ride on and off with a separated shoulder and very sore upper chest. It has been riding on stamina and a high threshold of pain. I rode the day leaving Cambodia because I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. This was the craziest, worst, fun road I have ever ridden on. It was much more like technical single track than a road. The road did take a toll on me and finally the wise part of my psyche has prevailed. I am hanging up riding for the rest of the trip and will struggle mentally finishing in the van for our last two days. Hopefully rehab will be quick when I get home.

Once again today’s ride is nothing what our itinerary says. Our plan was to pedal from Cao Lanh to My Tho on a mix of country trails and paths and some minor tarmac through little villages. Quintessential Viet Nam. I think I am through with quintessential everything. At first I thought that Viet Nam was much, much better off than Cambodia but even seeing the river people and the way they lived, not much difference with their Cambodian neighbors; maybe just a wee bit less poverty. We boarded the bus for what was intended to be an hour’s ride and then get on our bikes. Instead it was a two hour ride before we stopped to unload the van. When we got out, the van with our bikes was nowhere in sight and lost! Now it was 10:30 a.m. and we were suppose to ride 60K yet today and we hadn’t even set pedal to the pavement yet!

45 minutes later, the van pulls up and we are told the regular support van will not be able to follow us on the little roads so we will have to carry enough water for 2 hours of riding. Thanks, but I only have one small water bottle and not way to carry water except in my jersey pockets. Rich loads me up, Janie fills her handle bar bag and Jim loads his jersey. I cross my fingers that we do not run out of water and we are off and pedaling towards quintessential Viet Nam.

Actually, once e got on the paths it was really nice. I started to think about the film “Apocalypse Now” as we followed this sidewalk path that served as a road through these small water front villages. Most of the crops were rice but also some fruit and even several Bonsai tree farms. It takes many years to harvest Bonsai trees and Inh says they are very profitable; especially the bigger trees. The path is shared by motorbikes as well as pedestrian and bicycle traffic. I had to really keep my balance when a motorbike wanted to pass. We crossed so many little bridges that looked like they would collapse with our weight!

We rode for about 25K and guess what? We loaded into the van once again. This was not looking good. We drove at least two hours to a lunch area and Inh was once again amazed at how little we were eating. Hell, we hadn’t even ridden far enough to warrant being hungry. And he was leading the pack so we couldn’t go running off without him again! It was beginning to get on our nerves.

Once again we had to take water with us since the support van would not be following us. We travelled on a dirt road that made the Cambodian border ride look easy. This one was no more than a foot path that followed a canal and past people’s homes. Luckily there were no motorbikes. Hell, there shouldn’t have even been us! At one point I almost hit a tree because my front wheel got stuck in a rut and I almost couldn’t clip out in time! Was there a point to this riding? Were we headed in the direction of our next hotel or were we just running in circles?

Inh explained to us finally that he just has these routes and he likes to give people tastes of different areas and different road conditions. This was not us. We are point A to point B riders. We love going through villages, meeting people and taking pictures but not getting in and out of a van to ride 20K here and 25K there. Yep, you guessed it, we were getting back in the van after another 30K to go to the hotel. We started asking some questions and found that we could probably do another 15K on these sidewalk roads, so we saddled up and rode some more. We were not happy. Because the pace was so slow, it was 5:30 by the time we got off our bikes and my butt was sore.

Tonight’s hotel was called the Chuong Duong Hotel and it was just a bit better than the last hotel. I still would love to have a hot shower; maybe when I get home?! I am running low on all my toiletries and I think for the first time I have packed rather well. I am leaving clothes behind as I usually do and that leaves me more room to bring home momentos of our trip; like the stories and pictures aren’t enough!

Hoping for a better ride tomorrow as we head towards Saigon. It has been a pretty stressful time here in Viet Nam so far. I am not sure we have bonded with Inh and we definitely don’t like his riding agenda. Maybe less van riding tomorrow? Anyway, hoping for internet access in Saigon!

Ride on......

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My first impression of Viet Nam is not that it is so different from Cambodia in the way people live but in the lack of garbage that was around. Kind of sad that is the first thing I notice. Our first hotel in Viet Nam was called the Victoria Chau Doc. It was stunning and the rooms were filled with wood. Very schnazzy for four dirty cyclists! Our new guides are Inh, pronounced like “ein” in german, and Tanh. Inh is the cyclist and Tanh is the driver. Inh speaks English rather well but has the most overwhelming accent. The more I listen to him the more he sounds like Tanya from our favorite Sushi restaurant in Wheaton, IL. Tanh on the other hand speaks no English, except for the obligatory “thank you” and “hello”. Both are absolutely adorable. Janie and I laugh that we found Zach in Viet Nam. (Too long a story to explain, just smile and nod your head in agreement!)

We are starting rather late for ourselves today, 8:30 a.m. to get our bikes ready. Inh told us last night at dinner there was only one size bike the company sent. There are four different size riders ranging from 5’2” to 6’2”. One size does not fit all. We tried to explain that there might be a problem but the best remedy was going to wait and see. The bikes were a bit big for Janie and I and probably a tad small for Jim and Rich. They made arrangements to see about getting Jim a new bike. Rich wasn’t riding today because he wanted to save his shoulder for the final push to Saigon.

Let’s just throw our itineraries out the window because they are nothing what they say. Today we were scheduled to get on a ferry boat and cycle on dirt roads through the villages along the Mekong Delta. The only thing that happened according to plan was the 85K of cycling. Instead we headed out into the morning traffic of Chau Doc, which is totally filled because it is the Chinese/Vietnamese New Year celebration and people are out everywhere getting ready for the festivities that will last a minimum of three days. It was rather exhilarating once again to be involved in the chaos of traffic. Not much time to point out potholes or people in the way. It was pretty much everyone for themselves. Staying relaxed was the best policy.

We stopped for some pictures of people dressed in red and a dragon. According to Inh, the business owners ask the fortune tellers and spirits to let them know when it would be good for them to reopen their business. I did not get to witness the whole ritual but it did involved rather loud banging of drums and gong like instruments. There are many other rituals for the new year and many involve around the souls of ancestors and burning things, including money! It is rather refreshing to hear and see that most of the new year celebration revolves around family. People go back to their places of birth/origin and stay with relatives to welcome in the new year. Inh says there is lots of eating, much like our Christmas holiday.

There were a few short climbs in today’s ride. After so many days of flat in Cambodia, I forgot what it was like to have to do a little more than pedal. They weren’t really hard climbs, just those annoying 2-3% grades that went on for a couple kilometers or so. It was kind of nice to do something different. I even had to go down to my middle chain ring!? The wind popped its ugly head out again today and it always felt worse on the open roads. This is when we found out that Inh really wasn’t a seasoned cyclist.

Before I knew it Janie and I were trying to paceline it as best possible. Our new bikes are way too big for us but we were going to make the best of it. It is only three days of riding. The van was in front of us and I thought if only the driver would slow down just enough, we could motor-pace behind him. Jim pulled in about 3K from the town ahead and said that Inh could not keep up and he couldn’t go that slow! I felt bad that we had smoked our guide but the wind was merciless and I just wanted to get some relief.

My real relief was getting rid of the two bananas I ate at our little rest stop about 10K or so back. Inh said they were a little green but they did not look like it. Something about them did not agree with my stomach so gone they were and I immediately felt better. The thought of catching another stomach bug was not something I wanted after all it took to get into Viet Nam. (Sorry to be so graphic but I want you to feel like you are with us!) We waited for Inh, with the van, in the next town. It didn’t take him to long to catch up with us and he scouted a place for a lunch break at a local restaurant. He ordered all our food and was very considerate to me and made sure there was at least some fish on the table.

Inh is amazed that we do not eat a lot of food. For me, it is hard to sit down to a big lunch and then get back on the bike. Not that Vietnamese food is that heavy but I just don’t like pedaling on a full stomach. I never have. And taking an hour off on the bike makes it hard to get back on too! Janie, Jim and Rich all agree. We are quite sure that Inh is not familiar with our style of riding and he finally admitted that he is used to leading very casual riders on 30-40K max trips, which would explain the painfully slow pace. And it is not so much that we are world class cyclists but pedaling 10 mph in the blistering heat of Viet Nam can be deadly. And then Inh is amazed at how much water we drink! Let me see, 95-degrees, 95% humidity, ferocious headwinds. I believe that all equates to drinking lots of water. Fill that cooler with water, Inh because we drink a lot of it!

At 85K we stop and load the second follow truck with our bikes. Seems like overkill on support but I don’t run the company. We then drive about three hours to our final destination of Cao Lanh A sleepy little town as Inh tells us but in reality it is like Rockford and more people because of the new year’s celebration. We are staying in a government run hotel called Song Tra Hotel. It was quiet sterile. Janie had to change her room because there were bugs and Jim didn’t have hot water or air conditioning that worked. So far, Rich and I have been pretty lucky on our rooms. I don’t think any of the three countries we have visited believe in really hot showers and I can live with that for three more days! We did keep our suitcases off the floor though!

About 12 midnight, Rich and I awoke to the sounds of fireworks. Right outside our hotel window we could see the city celebration as they rang in the new year with a 20 minute extravaganza of fireworks. Rich stayed up to watch the whole thing but I fell back asleep, even with all the blasting outside. It is a quality I like about me. I can sleep through anything!

Ride On....

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This is a day that will live with me for the rest of my life. If I was young enough, I would say it is a story for the grandchildren; instead I will tell it here. Since the traffic in Phnom Penh is downright dangerous, we asked to be driven about 20K outside the city and begin our cycling in a more relaxed atmosphere. Plus, 106K is a long way to go on mountain bikes with the last 20K total dirt roads. Once again, an amazing drive through the morning rush hour with Sawath. I did take some video this time and maybe will find a way to get it up on the blog. Internet service has been less than stellar here in Cambodia. I just blog and whenever we get a connection, we publish.

At 20K out we started cycling. Today we had everyone on a bike, even Rich. Once again I must say it was grand to have back riding with us. And boy did we need him; another hellacious day of headwinds. We tried to do some drafting but it is almost impossible because of the traffic. There are only 7 main roads in Cambodia and almost no back roads that are passable by a support truck, so we had to stick it out on the main road towards Viet Nam.

And then Janie got sick. Man, are we ever going to keep four of us on the road? I knew something had to be up because she was getting slower and slower. Really not her style! She has been such a strong rider so far but something got hold of her stomach and that was it. She said it was amazing how easy it was to get into the truck but how hard it was to stay in because she felt like a wienie! I told her not to be a hero because I knew what it was like to try and ride while you are sick. But after another 15K or so, she said she was better and got back out on the road with us. Rich was riding like a man on fire and it was all I could do to keep his draft. After a while I gave up and let him go. He has always been very strong on the flats. I think he was just so excited to be back on a bike again. I cannot imagine what it has been like for him to watch us ride and not be out there. But he is a good sport and what I love about him is his ability to let the chips fall where they may. He fell, he got hurt but he wasn’t going to let that keep him or any of us from enjoying the trip. It would be a hard lesson I was going to learn in just a few hours.

Really most of the ride to the last 20K before the border was pretty uneventful. Rich got back in the car because he want to ride the last 20K to the Viet Nam border with all of us. It was also the most interesting road of the whole trip. Forget Pailin, forget the 15K into Siem Reap, the last 20K to the Viet Nam border were an experience not soon forgotten. As Jim said, “We wanted an adventure vacation, we got one!” And kid you not today was an adventure I will never forget.

Just before we approached the dirt road, we stopped the van so we could get water, get Rich’s bike out and change the support van to a 4-wheeled drive jeep. As we doing so, many of the villagers came out to see what all the ruckus was about and we had a wonderful time taking pictures and talking as Vuttha did double duty as an interrupter. Everyone liked getting their pictures taken and I told Vuttha to tell them they were all so beautiful. When he did they all laughed and one lady said that we were more beautiful because we had long noses, as she is pointing to her little stubby Cambodian nose. I was thinking but has she ever seen anyone with such a big butt?! Janie and I have laughed this whole trip about the size differences between us and all the people we have encountered thus far. The same village lady asked us what we typically had for lunch and then invited us to have some food with her. It was too bad that we needed to move on because that would have been a real experience.

Can we say the most destroyed, potholed, bridges falling down road in the universe? The last 20K to the border was the only reason we had been riding 50# machines these past two weeks. Our itinerary says we follow the Mekong River on dirt roads as it flows past scenic villages. Well, they were right about the river and the scenic villages. The road was so broken up that you couldn’t even describe it as potholed. It was more like bomb shelled. Most of the 30 some bridges were nothing more than planks and the reason we had to switch our support van to a 4-wheeled drive jeep just to make it through. Darryl would have had a blast because he is such a good mountain biker but the first 5K or so were teeth jarring to me until I could get my balance.

Rich was having a good ol’ time because he loves this kind of riding but he said it was doing a number on his shoulder. Once he got on the bike there was no turning back because there was no way to transport him in the jeep. But he was loving it. We stopped about 8K out to gather our brains and get some final water. The end was near and I could taste it. Sad and happy at the same time.

Then it happened. We got to the Cambodian immigration office to get our passports stamped for departure and there was a lot of fast talking behind the glass window. It looked like the Kuhlmans’ visas into Viet Nam were not good for three more days and they were not going to let us out of Cambodia. At first I kept saying that the visa was good until 15 March 2010 but that was not the problem. The problem was that the visas were not valid until 15 February! Today was 12 February. How could this be? I sent in the itinerary of our trip with the visa application. I figured I did my job, the Vietnamese visa office should do their job and give me a valid visa. I did not even think to double check. A very hard lesson to learn because there was no way they were going to let Rich and I across that border.

I was over the top. I cannot tell you how mad I was. How could this be happening? After all that we had already gone through on this trip and to have it end this way. Vuttha did his best to try and get the officials to let us out of Cambodia but that just was not going to happen. The only option was to return to Phnom Penh, go to the Vietnamese embassy and try to get a new visa. Janie and Jim would cross over to Viet Nam and continue the tour. We said our good-byes (me crying) and watched as they made their way to the jeep. Rich and I sat on a bench to wait for the jeep to return and take us back to Phnom Penh.

Here is where Rich’s ability to accept the chips where they fall lesson begins. I had to come to terms with the fact that there was nothing that I could do to fix this problem and make it all better. I kept trying to go back to the application process and fix the date. I kept trying to say, “If only I had checked the date!” But it was all too late. The tour was virtually over for us. Jim came back a few minutes later and said he was sorry to tell us this but it is the Chinese New Year and the embassy was going to close at 5:00 p.m and not reopen for five days. It was 2:30 and Phnom Penh was 106K away. There was only a very small window of opportunity to get back in time for new visas. We sat quietly together and reflected on a trip that has not been the best for us. I wanted to go home.

Half an hour later, here comes Janie and Jim. What the hell?! They made it to the border but the Cambodian officials did not stamp their exit visas from Cambodia. Now for sure we were not getting new visas. We sat there again quietly until a man came up to us with a Buffalo Tours t-shirt on and introduced himself as the Viet Nam guide. He asked to see our visas and then he went and talked to a man in a military suit. There was much fast bantering of Vietnamese, we got our passports back and he said to wait a moment. Another 30 minutes goes by and they come back and look at our passports again. We quietly made an offer (if you know what I mean...wink, wink). He says there is a very small chance of getting us across the border. If our visas were just one day away from the date than no problem but ours were three days and that was a problem.

Phone calls were being made and more talking with men in military outfits. The guide left again and about 45 minutes later he was ushering us to the immigration office to get us out of Cambodia. I am not sure what happened our how much we (Rich and I) were going to be paying but we were on our way to Viet Nam and that was great news for us. (Laura can call whatever she wants but $100 US to three people got us out of Cambodia and into Viet Nam and saved the last portion of the trip.)

The final 3K to the Viet Nam border was nothing more than a foot path. I am not sure how the truck got us as close as it did. The Viet Nam guide met us at the van, we said some tearful good-byes to Vuttha and Sawath and made our walk towards the border. I felt like there should have been some major Hollywood film score playing behinds us as we moved closer to the border. It was the weirdest feeling I have every experienced. I felt like we had been released from a prison camp. We were absolutely filthy from riding, carrying our helmets and a couple bags. Janie was on the other side waving at us. Just three more check points and we were home free.

Again, lots of talking back and forth with officials as we made it through the first two check points. We all walked on a pier where the Viet Nam immigration office is held (due to boat traffic on the Mekong). We filled out entrance and departure papers, handed our guide our passports and he disappeared into an office. After about 40 minutes he came back out and we loaded ourselves onto our new van and off into the Vietnamese sunset. Not until I was sitting in the van could I let go and breath. I still felt like an illegal and probably will until Monday when our visas truly are valid. I hope that we will not have any trouble at the airport on our final exit from Viet Nam but that is a hurdle we will jump at a later date. For now we were in a van headed to our hotel and all was good with the world again.

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It was a pretty bleak day today as we visited some sobering monuments of the Khmer Rouge Regime. Jim found that the breakfast provided by our hotel was less than stellar so we walked next door to a cafe and ate some breakfast as we watched Phnom Penh come to life or at least more life. A little homeless kitten came up to our table and stole my heart. If we were at home that kitten would be a new addition to the Kuhlman litter! Unfortunately, I had to walk away and hope that it would live a long life. On the streets of Phnom Penh I am not so sure that was going to be a possibility.

Right on schedule, Vuttha (that’s our guide’s real name) and Sawath (our driver) pulled up to our hotel and we made our way to the Royal Palace. The government in Cambodia is a bit like the British government where the Royal Family is pretty much a figure head and then there is Parliament that runs the everyday workings of the country. There is a King here is Cambodia and he is single, ladies! I am surprised that with the current state of the government that the whole Royal Family wasn’t abolished. Oh, well, too much for me to think about.

The Royal Palace is a magnificent compound of buildings surrounded by a heavily guarded wall. It is the roof tops of these buildings that I find the most interesting. They all gradually peak into a stunning spiral and the bottom edges are all turn to the sky.The pictures will be a better description. Most of the buildings are not being used and house historical artifacts from the Royal Family. Unfortunately during the civil war much of the treasures were looted. And that is not only of the Royal Family but also most of Cambodia. During the reign of the Khmer Rouge, the Royal Family was under house arrest in the compound. Not a bad place to be imprisoned but I am sure it wasn’t the plushy life that a King and his family usually get.

We got to go into the coronation hall of the complex and it was breathtaking. The outside pillars were made with imported Italian marble and the walls and ceilings inside were painted like European churches, except the story was different; instead of Jesus it was about Buddha. We saw the “throne” chair where the King sits only once in his life and that is when he is crowned. The king does still live on the compound grounds and he was actually in residence while we were visiting. We asked Vuttha if he could arrange for us to have tea with the King but I think even that was a request above and beyond. When the King is in residence, the flag flies high, just like Britain.

Leaving the Royal Palace we are back into the Phnom Penh traffic. I really have to give it up for Sawath because he can maneuver in and out of traffic better than anyone I have ever seen. Of course the driving here is anything goes and that is just something I am not used to back home. I am thinking I might try to shoot some video tomorrow just to remember what traffic is like here. Anyway, we are heading to the infamous S-21 prison camp and then the Killing Fields.

On 12 April 1975, the Khmer Rouge took over the government of Cambodia and what ensued was one of the bloodiest annihilations of people that Cambodia had ever seen. Before it was all over, some 3 million people would loose their lives at the hands of this ruthless government. The Khmer Rouge took their cue from the WWII concentration camps and set up over 150 detention camps around Cambodia. I say detention camps because no one ever stayed longer that 8-9 months. Pol Pot was a paranoid and no one was safe from possibly going to jail and probably being killed either from hard work in a labor camp, torture or plain ol’ execution. One of the most notorious prison camps was S-21.

S-21 was a former secondary school called Toul Sieng. When the Khmer Rouge came into power, they cleared the city of Phnom Penh in order start fresh or as they called it Year Zero. The walls of the school, where once children played and learned, tells a terrifying and sickening story of acts against humanity that are so ruthless, even the most hardened are weakened. There were some 20,000 men, women and children killed at S-21. When I asked why the children, Vuttha tells us that Pol Pot did not want the children of slain parents to grow up and later retaliate against him. There is one building on the grounds where the pictures of all those that came through S-21, even the children. I could relate more stories of the atrocities committed here but it is just too upsetting. I will never ever understand how people can be so cruel to each other, especially children.


Once a prisoner was through with S-21, he/she was taken to the Killing Fields about 15K outside of Phnom Penh. After the downfall of the Khmer Rouge, the fields were discovered and the bodies of over 8,000 men, women and children were discovered. The remains were excavated and housed in a wooden building as a memorial to those that lost their lives. On the 10th anniversary of the Khmer Rouge downfall, the Cambodian government built a beautiful glass pagoda that houses the remains and clothing of those they found in the surrounding fields. It is a stunning memorial and a just reminder of what happened to these people during this bloody regime. It is very quiet here and yet somehow peaceful. All around is a reminder of the terror that must have lived here and yet there is a peacefulness that says we are here and we forgive.

WOW. It was a tough day! At one point during my visit at S-21 I had to leave the buildings because the emotions were overwhelming. I think it is good that we remind ourselves of how in an instant, life can change and how wars can make people do unthinkable acts. Like the Holocaust museums and camps, it is good to go back and try to learn and understand. Janie finished “First They Killed My Father” just as we entered Phnom Penh and she said it helped to put the S-21 and Killing Fields experience into perspective. I have not yet begun but will as soon as I can stay up later that 8:30 p.m.!

Janie and I washed off the Khmer Rouge experience with a long walk to the central market. Oh, the streets of Phnom Penh are so crowded! Sidewalks, we determined, were just another parking space for motorcycles, bicycles and some cars. Janie was looking for another long sleeved shirt she could wear while riding. The afternoon sun is just merciless and on mountain bikes we are not moving nearly as fast. Not that we could anyway with the road conditions as they are here. At the Central Market we found where all the Nike clothes are being made because you could buy anything for $4. A shirt that would cost us at least $30 at home was $4. The biggest stumbling block was the size issue. Asian women are much, much smaller than we Amazon USA women. Poor Janie was checking out 2XL and I know she was crying inside. Actually she swore me to secrecy that she bought the 2XL. I told her to cut the label out and her secret was safe with me! Don’t tell!

On our way back to the hotel, right in the midst of all the Phnom Penh traffic came walking an elephant. Yes, you heard me right, an elephant. And no one was even concerned. Like it was a normal occurrence. Of course you quickly spotted all the tourists because we had our cameras out and were pointing! Call me a tourist but it is not everyday I get to see an elephant walking down the street.

Our dinner was at a lovely restaurant called, “Friends”. It is a restaurant owned by the Mith Samlanh charity. All the staff are ex-street kids or orphans who are being trained so that they might find full time, meaningful jobs that will keep them off the streets. It is a big problem in Cambodia because there is not enough work and the families cannot afford to feed their children. There is a lot of death due to starvation here. Luckily, organizations such as this and The Goldstone School of Hope, another charity started by the parents of one of our friends at Pactimo in Colorado, that are working as NGOs (non-government organizations) to help the youth of Cambodia. It is believed that it will take at least two generations to begin the upswing of prosperity for the Cambodian people. Next to the school and restaurant is a shop where we had the opportunity to purchase products made by the students of the school. It was money well spent.

Tomorrow we say good-bye to our friends, Vuttha and Sawath. At first we were very skeptical of their abilities and another lesson to be learned, patience and understanding. Vuttha turned out to be a fabulous guide as he told us stories of his beloved Cambodia. You could tell it in his voice that he has such a love for his country despite all the problems in the government. Sawath was a fabulous driver and always ready with a bottle of water, fruit and a most welcomed wet towel at the end of the ride. I really did not want to say good-bye to them and I yet knew that I wanted to see Viet Nam, too. Can’t I have both?!

Time to call it a night and get ready for an early start tomorrow. 106K to the Viet Nam border.

Ride On....

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We really have to be careful what we ask for on this bike tour because the guides are so eager to make us happy. In Bangkok, it was finding a Starbucks on the way out of town and here in Cambodia it was getting us cheese for our afternoon lunch stop. Cheese is practically non-existent in Cambodia! Because the areas we were going through today we quite rural, the hotel was to pack us a lunch. When Waht Tah asked what we wanted, we said just some bread and laughingly, some cheese. Little did we know he was going to spend the next 45 minutes trying to find cheese in Kompong Chhang. He came back a broken man and apologized profusely. We all tried to explain that it really did not matter and we really were just joking. No more joking because it gets lost in translation.

Anyway, crisis diverted and we were merging into the morning traffic and on our way to Phnom Penh. We had the option today of the short route (140K) or the long route (180K) or a semi-shot straight into Phnom Penh on Hwy. 5 (95K). We opted for the straight shot and I am so glad we did. We figured if we could pound out some kilometers before the noon hour heat began, than the less fried we would get in the afternoon. Janie and I were still smarting from sunburns acquired on the ferry boat. It is also cooler in the morning hours; if you can call 85 degrees cooler! Our biggest foe was this hellacious head wind pounding on us. Janie and I led the ride about 95% of the time, although I must admit there wasn’t much drafting because it was a head/cross wind and we couldn’t really draft to the best advantage due to the onslaught of traffic all day long.

We got to see some interesting things along the way that took our minds off the treacherous riding conditions. I just had to stop and take a picture of the makeshift gasoline stations. They were pumping gas out of 55-gallon drums! Of course there were the usual food and fruit stands along the way and an abundance of children yelling, “hello,” to us as we passed. “Hello” here is more like “Hallo” or an occasional “Hi”. There were loads of bikes on the road again and many more ox carts. Today I even saw small ponies pulling carts. I am really amazed at the whole transportation system here because vehicles take on a new meaning here in Cambodia. Back home we have nice cars and we might see a car that has more than one person in it or someone using a van to move. In Cambodia, cars, trucks, carts, bicycles are used to move anything and everything from point A to B, loading it down with as much as humanly possible. Vehicles are truly a mode of transportation. And let’s no forget to mention that the emissions coming from most of these gas powered vehicles are toxic. Thank goodness we all wear scarves so we can quickly pull them over our faces in order to block at least some of the fumes.

About 55K out we turned off the busy Hwy 5 and towards Oudong. Oudong used to be the capital of Cambodia and is home to some fantastic temples high on a mountain top. Now they say mountain tops but they are more like very large hills, not like the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. High enough though! It is usually a pretty tiring trek up to see what is at the top. I think the 55K to get here was pretty hard on us and none had the energy to go to the top. Too bad because it looked very beautiful from down below.

Immediately getting out of the bus we are approached by a group of kids wanting to talk to us. Oh, we nieve tourists. What they really wanted was money and pestered us to the point of aggravation. A young girl came up to us selling these beautiful baskets and I didn’t mind buying something from her but just out and out begging drives me nuts. That is the problem with so many of the Cambodian children. Instead of being is school, they are out on the streets coning tourist for money. They learn the art from a very early age and usually they are being “handled” by an adult, who takes 99% of the money they collect. We finally gave in and gave them a dollar just to get them to leave us alone.

We walked over to the temple steps just to see how really far up it was going to be, 509 steps straight to heaven. Whenever we encounter steps like these, Rich has to sing “Stairway to Heaven” and if you ever heard Rich sing you would understand why we ask him to stop immediately! Waht Tah asked if we minded if he didn’t go to the top and that was our chance to beg out, too. Instead we bought bananas and fed the monkeys. We had to be careful because once one money saw the bananas, all of a sudden there were 50 monkeys looking for a little morsel. Some of them would get quite mean about it and the screaming could be piercing. How could something so cute and adorable make such a noise? There were a couple mama monkeys with little babies hanging off their bellies. Those I just had to feed. Once the bananas were gone so were the monkeys and we decided to do the same.

I was feeling back to my normal self. I think the medicine helped knock out whatever bug I had contracted. I wish I had not waited so long but hindsight is alway 20/20. I still think getting acclimated to this heat played a big part in my performance, too. I decided to cycle in just regular clothes today since my seat is nice and cushy. Not sure whether that was a great decision but I had to go with it since our luggage was too hard to get to change. The pictures of me today I am sure look just lovely. Mostly I look like I peed my pants from all the sweat. Little did I realize how much black cycling shorts soak up the sweat. Oh, well, live and learn.

On the road today we passed through an area with scarecrow looking things at each house gate. Our driver explained that these were to ward off ghosts that were thought to be in the area. Also Rich stopped to take a picture of Scorpion, Fish, Snake and Frog Satay all whole! We also saw a small shop making charcoal for home cook stoves as bottled gas is almost non existent in this country.

It was not a very exciting ride today. The wind was a killer and the traffic was constant. There wasn’t much to look at and we found our noses to the grind stone counting the kilometers as they went by. Around 20K from Phnom Penh we stopped for water and decided to do just 10K more before getting in the van. The traffic in Phnom Penh is too dangerous for bicycles and especially tourists on bicycles. I was okay with that and very happy knowing I finally finished a full day of riding without getting sick. Now we need to get Rich back on the bike. I know it is killing him to sit in the van all day and take pictures of us riding. He says he is learning a lot because our driver Sah Veh speaks english and tells him about many of the sights along the way.

Phnom Penh. Oh, Lord, it is busy! The streets are jammed with traffic and people. Our driver is amazing as he weaves through the traffic and up to the door of our hotel. We are right on the river and where most of the action of Phnom Penh is located. First things first, showers and laundry. Janie turned in her laundry right away and it was back in her room before we left for dinner at 6:30 p.m. The rooms are nothing fancy but comfortable. I finally get to have a hot shower and it felt most excellent.

We went to a restaurant recommended by Lonely Planet but it was not good at all. We decided to stop for coffee in a little cafe on the way back to the hotel. Part of the profits from the sale of the cookies benefited an orphanage and I felt we had made a wise choice without knowing it beforehand. There were a lot of homeless and beggars on the street. I saw a woman standing with her child just staring at two people trying to have dinner in an outdoor cafe. Kids half clothed and dirty. Legless old people in wheel chairs. Welcome to large city poverty.

Tomorrow we are off to see the sights of old Phnom Penh and the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge regime. It was a great day for me because I am feeling back to normal, whatever normal is! Looking forward to Rich’s return on the bike as we head for Vietnam.

Ride on....

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I am glad we decided to ride in the van to get to the ferry, especially since if we missed the ferry it would be a 300+K ride to our next hotel in Kompong Chhnang. (I cannot pronounce these city names either so no worries!) We got to the ferry boat in more than enough time and as soon as we stepped out of the van we were surrounded by kids trying to sell us food for the boat ride. Our hotel packed us our breakfast so we had no need for the bread and laughing cow cheese that I am sure had been sitting out in the Cambodia sun for most yesterday. Even though my stomach was feeling better and I had a real craving for some cheese, I wasn’t going to chance it on a slow boat (4 hours) to Komping Chhnang! And I am quite sure the bathroom facilities were first class.

When I laid eyes on the boat we were going to take a very long ride in, I almost turned around and tried to hire the van to take me anywhere but on the river. As you will see from the pictures, it was a long, long boat that had all the modern conveniences of something out of the 1800’s. Waht Tah said we would be able to sit on the top of the boat and I was rather relieved, although there was nothing more than two railings to hold onto. I am telling you, it was rather scary looking. As we waited to board our trusty ferry, more and more people began arriving. I still didn’t want to go down into the bowels of the boat until I absolutely had to. Some of us climbed on top of the boat and then more and more decided to do the same. Unfortunately, the police came and told everyone they had to get into the boat in order for it to leave the dock.

Three feet from the dock and out of police range, we all piled on top of the boat to get a birds eye view of the floating villages as we made out way onto Tonle Sap Lake. It is very hard to accept the poverty level of some of the Cambodian people. To see the way they live is heart breaking. The question for me is it as heart breaking as I make it out to be? The people seem genuinely happy but man do they work hard. They wave and smile and they endear themselves to my heart. This is not a country for people like me that want to fix everyone’s problems. I can see why people come here and then want to get involved in some way to help get the people have a little better life or some modern conveniences like running water or even drinkable water. It is obvious that the government is not getting involved. A lot of the problems also stem for the millions of dollars of aid money flowing into this country and right into the pockets of corrupt government or agency pockets. And when I see the way these people live and how hard they work, it is just enough to make my blood boil.

Some staggering facts about Cambodian life:

Life expectancy: 57 years, if you are lucky!
84% of Cambodians live without running water or indoor plumbing
The average Cambodian family is 6 children

Medical insurance is non-existent and most cannot afford to go to doctors. There is a terrible story recently about a man and his pregnant wife that walked into a hospital and the doctors would not help them because they could not afford the $25 fee. The wife and the baby died. In Siem Reap there is a private children’s hospital supported by donations from overseas and the children can be seen there for free. On leaving Siem Reap the line was a couple blocks long. Waht Tah said that hospital alone saves thousands of childrens’ lives a year.

The boat ride across the lake took a good four hours, 3 hours and 45 minutes spent on top of the boat. That was 2 hours too long for me because I got fried like a white egg. Now besides the pain of my knee, I have the pain of a bad burn. This is a great trip! All my fault, I am not trying to pass blame. Rich was smart enough to go inside. He did have a minor accident getting off the top of the boat. The boat heaved and he pulled with his bum arm and now it is sore again. We’ll have to wait and see if he gets to ride. He did go to the toilet on the boat and said it was a direct hole to the lake. Nice.

The ferry boat slowed down as we made our way to Kompong Chhnang. Yeah! Off the floating vessel! None too soon because I was turning into a french fry. I don’t care what our guide book says, Kompong Chhang is not very charming. It is dirty and for the first time since leaving Pailin, I didn’t feel very safe. We pulled into our hotel, one of the better ones mind you, and I knew straight away this wasn’t going to be good. Our hotel room smelled and the bathroom smelled even worse. The air conditioning was practically useless. The rates on the door read: $10 for whole day, $8 after 7 pm and after 12 midnight, charge for another day. Now I can be a pampered snob at times but this was pushing the limit for me. Outside and downstairs the reaction to our hotel accommodations was about the same from Janie and Jim. We needed to go to lunch quick!

Lunch was at a hotel that was a bit more expensive than ours and 100% better. While we were eating we decide that we were going to change hotels no matter the cost and we were taking our guides with us. Jim went and checked out the rooms and found out the cost was only $3 more a night. We didn’t want to get Waht Tah into any trouble but staying at this hotel was going to be better all around. Waht Tah made a call to the Buffalo Tours office and they actually agreed to pay for our night’s stay at the new hotel. We suggested they never use the other hotel ever again.

After lunch we took a ride to the village that is famous for the clay pots. About 7K out of town in the village of Ondong Rossey, you can see the people making these clay pots by hand as they have been doing for over 5000, yes 5000 years! We also saw people breaking stone up into small pieces with crude hammers and spikes that they will then sell. The road to the village is just a dirt trail that we share with cows, chickens, motorbikes and bicycles. What Cambodia lacks in the amount of dogs, they make up for in the amount of chickens running everywhere and yet I have yet to see one dead on the side of the road. People know how precious the animals are so they are very courteous to stop or get out of their way, especially the cows. Cows here are used for pulling carts and plows opposed to eating.

We did stop to visit with a family and soon had many people coming around to see the interesting white folk. They loved to have their picture taken and then get to see. I am guessing most of these people did not have many pictures of themselves, if any. The women are very shy but the children cannot get enough attention from you. They are so precious, dirty faces and all! Janie and I want to scoop them all up and take them home with us. We passed a young man carrying a huge rack of palm tree juice on his bike and we gave him the thumbs up. I am telling you, there are some future Tour de France riders here. Put these kids on bikes that actually work and they would blow your socks off.

This is a climate where 3+ crops of rice a year are possible but because there is no central water system there is only water for one crop a year during the rainy season. Occasionally we see a rice field but usually it is near a river for water. Most of the rice fields we see are brown and have cows grazing in them.

And speaking of bikes, every family has at least one and most only one. And everyone uses it no matter what size you are. Since the family can only afford one, they buy the biggest because more can use it. We see kids standing and pedaling because they cannot sit on the seat and reach the pedals. Or maybe they can reach the pedals barely and they push with one leg until the pedal makes it up on the other side. Today I saw four people on a bicycle! Yep, count ‘em, four people. Mom on the seat rack with a little person, the young daughter pedaling and another little person in front of her. She wasn’t moving fast but she was moving. I shake my head in amazement and chuckle when I complain about the bike I am on (which still is a piece of....).

On the way back into town we stopped at one of the clay pot stands and bought a few things to bring home. Our way of helping the local economy! I am not sure if they will make the voyage home because they are quite fragile but I will do my best. It will be a nice momento of our trip.


I think Waht Tah is trying to gross us all out or shock us. Tonight he had Beef with ants. Beef with ANTS! He said they are very good and held one up for us to see before he promptly put it in his mouth. Nice! Thank God my medicine is kicking in otherwise I am not sure I would be able to handle the sight. I had garlic fish and that is what I got! There on my plate lay two little fish, heads and all. I can do this! Actually, they tasted very, very good.

We decided that tomorrow we would begin pedaling towards Phnom Penh at 7 a.m. to help beat most of the mid-day heat. Our itinerary said 110K but Waht Tah said in reality it was 160K door-to-door. Too far for me on a mountain bike but we will have to discuss that at breakfast. I needed some sleep and yet another shower! I really don’t believe I have ever smelled this bad in my whole life!


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We have all decided that this trip is calculated in Tracy miles. In other words, whatever the mileage on our itinerary, add at least 30K. And on mountain bikes in this Cambodian heat it can be deadly. I have stopped drinking coffee, which is quite strong here, thinking that the acid might be what is disturbing my stomach. I am eating pretty bland, too. No eggs in the morning for me. Everyone else I want you to know is enjoying the Cambodian cuisine very much; nothing too extravagant but tasty none the same.

Today it is just Janie and I on our bikes. Jim has decided he needs a little R&R from us and Rich is recouping from yesterday’s ride and walking without his arm sling. He really wants to ride into Phnom Penh so he is going to take it easy. Jim is going to go back to bed, get a massage and do a little exploring on his own. Janie and I will ride the 29K to the temple complex, then another 20K to the next one and then a ride back in the van for lunch.

The first temple we are going to visit is called Banteay Srei. The advantage of biking to the temples is going through little visited villages along the way. Not many people venture out to this temple and even fewer stop in the small villages along the way. Our guide book says rural and they are not kidding. Most of the houses are huts; fours walls made from wood planks and thatched roofs. I wonder what they do in the rainy season because there are no doors. Everything is wide open so a breeze can get through. One of the villages we traveled through had booth after booth of baskets. I asked Waht Tah if the villagers weaved them and he said no. The baskets are imported from Vietnam or China to sell to tourists. Darn, some of them looked rather interesting.

There are signs everywhere for the Cambodian Peoples Party and I asked Waht Tah about them. He said that is the ruling party, which is very corrupt and if they want to stick a sign in front of your house, you do not oppose them or life for you will not be very pleasant. The villagers don’t care one way or the other because they are just trying to survive. Another village we passed though had signs on water pumps that were donated by different people. Most of the ones we saw were donated by USA citizens or organizations. Water is a commodity here that you cannot take for granted. The downside is that most drinking water has to come from plastic bottles and the empty containers are everywhere. There is a real garbage problem all through Cambodia. It is very sad to see all the garbage but it doesn’t seem that there is any garbage collection either. Waht Tah says it is a growing problem in Cambodia.

We finally reach the Banteay Srei temple which is 35K (not 29K) and a welcomed dismount from the bike. This “Citadel of Women” is dedicated to the goddess Shiva and is a stunning display of intricate carvings. Our guide says that they believe women built this temple because no man could ever carve such beauty! Oh, yeah! You go girls! Once again, the French rescued this gem from the jungle.

Back tracking, we began our journey to the final destination, Phnom Bo, where we would get the chance to climb the short 629 steps to the top of the mountain. There we would find remains of temples and Khmer Rouge gun placements. On the ride to the mountain, which was suppose to be only 20K and was more like another 29K, my stomach decided to re-enact the civil war. Between the heat and my stomach battle, I had to get into the van for the last 12K. When we stopped to let me in, Waht Tah took a little pre-lunch snack. Janie said I was lucky it didn’t see him eating because I would have lost it right then and there. You see in Cambodia, they eat anything, as we are learning. Waht Tah ordered up a glass of sugar cane juice and a boiled egg. Harmless enough, you say? Sure, except the egg had a little baby chick inside. Waht Tah couldn’t understand when my face drained of blood when he told me that these eggs are a real delicacy here. I guess if one grows up eating this sort of thing? I don’t know, I shouldn’t judge. All I know is that I couldn’t do it. Just as I couldn’t eat the bugs that they eat here! Our driver stopped to let us take a look at a stand selling roasted crickets, grasshoppers, water beetles and finally water bugs the size of a small horse. I chose not to get out of the van to take a look see!

I think I could really like Siem Reap. It is a small town but big enough to have some nice shopping and good restaurants. The close proximity to Angkor Wat makes this town an up and coming tourist destination. Our lunch was at a superb restaurant called Amok, where the signature dish is amok (baked fish with coconut and lemon grass in a banana leaf). I chose a wonderful Khmer sour soup that was so tasty and I was so hungry. Unfortunately my stomach did not agree. Back at the hotel room we decided that I would begin a three day regiment of antibiotics that would hopefully kill off what ever has taken hold of me. Not being able to keep anything in me is not helping my performance on the bike. Luckily tomorrow is mostly a boat ride so I will have a chance to let the meds take hold.

Janie had fallen in love with a reclining buddha statue at our hotel boutique. She was all set to buy it and two other statues when she learned that the price she thought she heard and the real price was some $1000 difference. We set off to look around for other buddhas just to see if the price was really worth it. When it came down to it, buying reclining buddha was out but she made a good purchase of the other two statues and I think she will be very happy once they are smiling at her from their new home in New Jersey.

Tomorrow we rise very early to drive 15K to catch a ferry boat but first, a nice relaxing massage and a dinner that I hope will stay with me longer than 30 minutes!

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Angkor Thom the walled city with multiple temples and Angkor Wat, the eighth wonder of the world; at least in the eyes of the Cambodian people were now in our sights. And since more than 2 million people come to visit a year, they must not be wrong! Angkor Wat is just one temple in the Angkor Complex but it is the most famous and one of the most well preserved.

It was good to see Rich back on the bike today, although I am not so sure who was more nervous, he or I. At first he was in front of me and then he moved to behind me and that was better because I wasn’t always looking out for huge holes in the ground that would swallow him up. He wasn’t on his bike for more than three minutes when I saw him reach into his jersey pocket to take out his camera. You would think that he learned but my man, I love him so, is not always a quick study. He’s such a risk taker!

We left the hotel around nine to get into queue for tickets into the Angkor complex. It was a real challenge to insert ourselves into the morning traffic. Kind of gets your heart rate up and ready for the day! At the ticket booth for the temples, we have to have our picture taken and a pass made up. Luckily for me, Watson kept them all because I know it would have been the first thing I lost. Back on the bikes we travelled a lovely tree lined road towards the Angkor City.

Pictures, pictures everywhere I looked. Once again I find myself thinking that I cannot take enough pictures to describe the beauty of what we are seeing. Our guides are most patient with us as we stop for pictures at the gates, pictures by the lakes, pictures of everything. I want to take it all in because I fear I might never be back. Just inside the gates of Angkor I not only got to see elephants but monkeys to boot! Watson says he doesn’t like the elephants because they are worked too hard and too long. He said you can see the tears in their eyes. Well, just say that and I want to sign up for “Save the Elephant” organization! The monkeys saved the day with their silly antics with the tourists. One has to be careful because they will take stuff from your bag if you are not looking and then run off into the jungle. Several people had bananas and all the monkeys were enjoying the morning treat. Watson said this would be the only place we would see the monkeys because that is where most the tourist would stop to feed them. Those Angkor monkeys have us well trained!

Today was only a little riding and a lot of walking. First we visited the Angkor Thom complex, which is the biggest of all the Wats of Angkor but first you had to make it through the throngs of children trying to sell you something: post cards, books, t-shirts, scarves, wood figures of Angkor and the Buddha. It was rather annoying for the most part and heart breaking, too. Watson, whose name is really Wat Tha (silent “H”), says it is not good to buy from them because almost everything is very low quality and the money is going to someone else and they get a few cents for a days work. It is very hard to turn away from their little faces begging you to buy something from them.

Back to the temples. Built by Kings with slave labor, most of the Wats were for built as burial tombs. Some of them housed as many as 20,000 people. There has been a great deal of restoration work done in the early part of the 20th century by the French. Because of the French, the Angkor complex has been revived as a destination for tourist. Most of the temples had been left to let mother nature takes its course but the French were able to cut away the jungle and rebuild a lot of the Wats back to their glory. They have also been able to translate some of the Sanskrit and understand what life was like when the Angkor temples were being built. When leaving the temple our guide asked a group of three young monks if they would pose for a picture with Laura and Janie. Duly warned not to touch the monks, we had a good photo session and then a nice conversation with one of the monks. We made a small donation to them and were off to our next temple. Again Richard added that we should start a new rock group, Laura, Janie and the Three Monks!

After visiting several temples in the Angkor Thom complex, where an estimated 1,000,000 people lived in it’s hey day, we rode our bikes to the Angkor Wat temple. Needless to say there aren’t enough words in the English language to describe it. Check out todays photos for just a small sample of what there is too see. After exploring Angkor Wat we were off the visit the temple where “Laura Croft - Tomb Raider” was filmed. It was not as wildly overgrown as I had expected but still spectacular. The huge trees growing out of the temple are so wild they don’t even look real. Oh so many photo ops!

After this temple we had one more short ride to Sunset Hill where we climbed up a 180 meter hill and then up some very steep steps in the temple to watch the sunset. So, so many people, we opted to go down before the sunset and head back into Siem Reap for a well deserved dinner and a visit to the night market. On the way down, just a few sort meters from the van, I tripped and fell to my knees. I am not so sure what hurt more, my scuffed knee or my total embarrassment. Several people came to my rescue and now I was very dirty. This is becoming the Kuhlman Death March. No one is going to ride with us again! Between Rich’s accident, my turbulent stomach and now my knee, we are a real treat to be around!

We ate dinner at a nice restaurant called Angkor Palm. The owner had a restaurant for several years in Paris and then decided to come back home to Siem Reap to open up a restaurant in the heart of the tourist district. It was wonderful food, as much as I could eat. This bug in my stomach is beginning to really irritate me. The night market was super crowded and filled with as much cheap souvenirs as you could imagine. If I was feeling better I could have enjoyed the experience more.

Back to the hotel in a fun little tuk-tuk. Tomorrow we visit two more temple sights via bicycle. Sleep for me now!

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As I mentioned, we were supposed to take a ferry boat trip from Battenbong to Siem Reap but the river is very low and what would have been a 6 hour trip turned into a 10 hour trip. We all agreed that driving would be better, not to mention faster. So off we went in the Cambodian tour bus towards Siem Reap. Unfortunately we missed going onto the Tonle Sap Lake but I think leaving Siem Reap we get to go on another boat trip.

I wish everyone could experience early morning traffic in Cambodia. It really is something to watch and even more exciting to be part of! As Jim says, “It has a flow and only the foreigners mess it up.” Only in the biggest of cities are there any stop signs (that mean anything) or traffic lights. Cars, trucks, bicycles (hundreds of bicycles) all moving in this well oiled rhythm. Hardly a honk to be heard. Once we got out of town, our driver was like Mario Andretti passing people left and right. I finally had to stop watching because all the near misses was making me very nervous.

The unfortunate thing about driving in the car is not being able to experience the villages or countryside at a slow pace but Siem Reap was some 180 kilometers away and I know I wasn’t up to the challenge. I am continually amazed at the amount of people the Cambodians can fit on anything that moves faster than walking. And the goods (other than human) they carry on their machines is amazing. We saw people transporting whole pigs (dead), chickens (also dead), all kinds of food and cooking utensils, and loads of wood that could heat my house for a full winter season. I think that the Cambodians should start their own bicycle team because there are some darn good, strong riders here.


I could tell when we were getting closer to Siem Reap because the traffic started getting pretty intense. SIem Reap was my whole reason for wanting to come on this trip and now we were finally getting there. We stopped in town to eat lunch on Pub Street, which is lined with restaurants catering mostly to the growing tourism industry.

We settled into our hotel and I immediately signed up for a nice massage. Tomorrow we get up to go to Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat, the highlight of the trip for me!

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Oh, my, Cambodia is dusty to say the least. We are without a doubt smack dab in the middle of dry season and it really shows in this region of Cambodia. At first I was very nervous about being here. There is such a marked difference between Thailand and Cambodia that at first I felt a bit unsafe. Our guide, who I have nicknamed Watson because I cannot pronounce his Cambodian name, didn’t make it any better by telling us about all the corruption in the Cambodian government. But hey, sounds just like Illinois!

All kidding aside, today we got a true taste of the hardships of the Cambodian people. After making several adjustments to our bikes, which suck by the way, we were off. The road into Pailin town is under construction, if that is what you want to call it. First of all it is a hard packed dirt road full of pot holes and then the people are hand, and I mean hand, digging and re-building parts of the road. Men, women, children, young and old wrapped in clothes from head to foot to protect them from the continual onslaught of dust created by passing trucks, cars and motorcycles. We stopped to take pictures of a sewer canal being built. There was an even larger project of a bridge being built but there was too much traffic to stop for pictures. People everywhere moving dirt, sorting rocks, carrying cement in buckets. There is an abundance of cheap labor here.

It is very hard to describe in words what these construction sites look like but Rich was able to get some good pictures from the tour bus behind us, so be sure to check them out. We too have to wear scarves over our faces because the dust can get stifling and taste awful. But amazingly enough, traffic does flow and life carries on at a snails pace. That’s one thing that I did notice about both Thailand and so far Cambodia, people move slowly. And I can’t blame them because it is so, SO HOT!

This area of Thailand was once very rich in gems but due to the Khmer Rouge and an agreement made with Thailand, 95% of the gems were taken out of Pailin and left the residents with nothing. The secondary charming fact of Pailin is that is the most heavily land mined area of Cambodia. Watson tells us that over 180,000 mines are discovered and dismantled every year. Cambodia was number one in the world for being the most land mined but due to efforts from the USA, Britain and the United Nations, the number of land mines has dropped from over 10 million to 3-4 million. Even so, Watson advises us to stay on the beaten path. Ya don’t need to tell me twice!

Once out of Pailin, the traffic began to subside but the dusty roads did not. Today’s ride for the most part was on this pot holed, dirt road and about 5% paved. We travelled through small village after village and everywhere we rode, the children ran to the front of their yards to yell, “Hello”. There was this continual bantering back and forth of hello from us to them. As soon as we answered their call another arose. Sometimes you didn’t see the face, only the call. I told Watson that I thought the Cambodian kids were so cute. He said he thought American kids were cuter. I think kids in general are cute no matter from where they hail.

Riding with Watson is much different from riding with Woody. Woody talked with us and pointed out things. Watson just rides and we ask questions. He is a good rider and wears just sweats and a straw hat underneath his helmet. It is pretty funny but it keeps the sun out of his eyes. He doesn’t seem to be bothered by the dust bit he does sweat like us so I know it is hot!

We cannot resist stopping at a school once again for some pictures with the kids. This time there were tons more and all of them wanted to get into the pictures. It was so fun. They would say, “Hello” or an occasional, “How are you?”. A couple of the older kids (10-12) even asked us what our names were. I doubt they understood much of what we said but they howled when we said, “Aw kohn” (thank you) or “Sue s’dei” (Hello). Watson told us that 40% of the Cambodian population is under 16 years of age and 40% of all children will not go to school for more than 3-4 years because they need to work. Watson did graduate from “high school” and then went to Tour Training School and began working for the tourist trade, which is slowly beginning to take hold in Cambodia.

Somewhere around 50K we stopped for lunch, which was good because I was getting sick again. I have managed to pick some bug up that has been wreaking havoc with my stomach. I think between the heat, the dust and the bumpy roads, my stomach is crying for some relief. The food here is pretty bland compared to Thailand but the damage has been done and I have to be very careful what I eat. Luckily we get served rice with every meal and that helps settle my stomach. Today at lunch I took some medicine to try to ward off diarrhea. I am hoping that helps because bathrooms are non existant and going out in a field is not an option, especially if I might get my butt blown up from a land mine!

The mode of transportation is mainly motorcycle here and the trick is to see how many people you can get on the bike, plus all your stuff. The record I saw was three adults and two smaller children. One child is usually right behind the handle bars then the adults and another child squeezed in between the adults. If you cannot afford the motorbike than you ride a bicycle that is at least 30 years old, might have breaks and sometimes air in the tires. Mostly the very old or very young were on bikes.

Public transportation seemed to be flat bed trucks or tractors pulling trailers filled with people and goods. I saw one where there were so many people on it that I was sure it was going to dump over. I shook my head as Jim yelled that it was perfectly safe and that he was sure that the truck was equipped with driver front and side airbags. I said, sure it was, they are called children! But if you have to get from one place to another and you don’t have the means, this was the way to go. I hope I can get a good picture sometime.

I rode about another 20K or so and then my body said no more. The heat, the dust, the something in my stomach just would not let me ride. I tried very hard to ignore myself but when I wouldn’t even answer the children waving and saying, “Hello”, I knew I was in the bag. We had 20K more to ride and at my pace it would have taken us 4 more hours to get to Battambang, our final destination for the day. And the sad part is, is that I wanted to ride. Rich had also begun to feel the need to be on the bike. He is much better with the heat and I know he would have enjoyed the ride today. I think he is going to try to ride tomorrow. He can move his arm much better now but I told him to be careful. The hospitals here in Cambodia are terrible.

Janie said I did not miss anything (except an injured ego). There was about 15K of terrible pot holed road, which I knew because we were in the bus going slower than they were! It was so dusty and dirty. I know I keep talking about the dirt but it nothing I have ever experienced. Everything was this clay, orangy-red color: the trees, the plants, the houses, the people! Our bodies were caked in this dirt. I think Janie had on a white shirt!?

Getting into Battenbang was what I missed most about riding today. Janie said it sucked but I think it was because she had just endured the last 15K of dirt road. The traffic was wild. Cars, motorcycles, buses, people everywhere and no traffic lights or stop signs. If you were at all timid about driving, this was not the place for you. Watson says there is a speed limit but I am not sure there was anyway to control it. Trying to follow Janie, Jim and Watson was impossible. Jim stopped for a picture and we just left him knowing he would catch us because he could maneuver in and out of the traffic better than our bus.

We finally reached the hotel and I am not so sure they were excited to see us all covered in dirt walking into their beautiful lobby. But like the Thailand people, the Cambodians are most gracious and eager to please. We had to sign in with our passports at the front desk and I noticed a sign for massages. Oh, yes, this was going to be in my future! After a nice hot shower, the first since leaving Bangkok, I treated myself to a lovely one hour Khmer massage (Thai massage) for a whopping $10US, plus a $2 tip.

Dinner tonight was at a local BBQ buffet. Buffets are good but I could never eat enough to justify the cost but here I would give it a try. Still needing to keep close tabs on my stomach, I kept to rather bland fried rice and some fresh veggies. Rich, Janie and Jim were able to be more adventuresome. The deal was to pick all the veggies and meats you wanted and then bring it back to the table to cook. There was a pot that domed in the middle to create the cooking area and it was surrounded by water that would take up the juices of the meats and then you would put your veggies in there to cook for a soup. I know Rich really liked it. Jim got a little impatient with the whole cook your own meal and went to the guy with the major BBQ grill to get some meat ready to eat!

Janie, Jim and Watson are the real heros of the day. they endured it all. When Janie got off her bike she said, “After doing this, I can do anything”. She is a real trooper. Looks like tomorrow’s boat ride is off so we are going to take our tour bus all the way to Siem Reap. I am looking forward to a day off the bike to hopefully recover from my stomach bug. I know Rich is raring to get back on the bike so hopefully he will be able to soon. We are supposed to get a new bike for Jim in Siem Reap since he riding the same one Rich will be riding eventually. Like I said, these bikes are terrible but I have a much better seat and that makes all the difference in the world for me, especially on these bumpy dirt roads.

We are all safe, we are all happy, we are all tired. Talk to you more tomorrow!

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Here we go! Today’s the day! None of us have ever been to Cambodia so this will be a new adventure for everyone. It is a rather short day of riding, only 42K to the border. Woody says it is going to be hilly and is checking to make sure I am okay. I explain to him that it isn’t the riding but the combo of heat and exotic foods. He shakes his head in agreement and says many of his customers have had the same problem. Of course I did not tell him that hated the mountain bike and wanted to throw it into the Gulf of Thailand! Today I was going to conquer the mountain bike and ride like a pro to the Cambodian border.

We started out on a very busy road with little or no shoulder. Sort of like going down I-88 but legally. And all in all, I felt quite safe...really! Motorcycles whizzing past, cars, trucks and buses, they all gave way. No honking or near misses. Just noisy! About 12K down the road we turned off into town and away from the maddening noise. Back to those quiet village streets that I love so much. And then the climbing began.

Woody said it was going to be lots of rollers and he did not exaggerate. I finally figured out that I was trying too hard on the bike. I needed to relax and let the bike roll along. I was never going to go as fast and smooth as my road bike so I was going to have to accept that fact. On the climbs, I sat back in my saddle (I still hate it) and let my legs do all the work and relax my arms. I wasn’t fast but I was much more comfortable. Hey, this is a tour and not a race.

The scenery has changed once again. We can see the Cardamon Mountains all around and the plantations are plentiful. It also seems that it has gotten a bit cleaner, too. The houses aren’t so run down with garbage all around. I guess they do not have a good garbage pick up system here because there is so much everywhere. It is kind of sad. Since the water is not good, there are plastic bottles strewn about. But out here in this mountainous countryside, the air is fresher and the waste is less.

We stop for a bit of refreshment at a roadside stand. There are several older people there and we exchange greetings of hello in Thai. It brings big smiles to their faces when we bow and say, “Sawadikha”. There is also a kindergarten school behind us and of course we had to go take pictures. They were not as fascinated with us as the others but they were just as cute.

As we got closer to the Thailand/Cambodia border, we went through several checkpoints that Woody said were set up to catch illegals. I guess we didn’t look like illegals since we just rode on through the gates. Of course I did not yell out my normal “Sawadikha” but just kept looking forward. Men with big guns are not to be messed with! Janie and I stopped at what we thought was a border sign but turned out to be the border of a town. It said border so we just assumed. Oh, well, I am sure there will be more pictures later. Turns out the border was just a few more kilometers down the road and before long we were taking pictures at the border gates.

The process took longer than I thought it would. First we had to wait for the other tour company to show up and then we could begin the passport checks. It was hard to say good-bye to Woody and Mr. Sukho. We only knew them for a few days but they were very good to us. Always ready to help and Mr. Sukho had this infectious smile and laugh. I never knew what he was saying but he was always laughing. Probably at me!

I think getting our visas for Cambodia and Vietnam in the USA was the right decision. We could have bought them here but the paper work would have been long and tedious. They do everything here on paper and carbon. Now I know where all the carbon paper went! Once through the Thai immigration, we said out final good-byes to our beloved Woody and Mr. Sukho and followed our new guide to a very plush mini bus. We loaded in and drove 1/4 mile to the official Cambodian border to fill out more papers and get the official welcome to our new country.

I thought Thailand was poor? Cambodia is absolutely dirt poor. The border reminds me of Tijuana. It is very dry and dirty. The roads are nonexistent. We opted to drive into Pailin which is only 20K away. We witness first hand the poverty level of Cambodia as our guide tells us that more than 30% of the Cambodian population makes less than one USD per day. Very sad. There is a large casino in Cambodia at the border where local poor people and Thais come to gamble. It seems the problem is the same as at home.

At the hotel Rich was able to ride his new bike to get the fit set up properly. He plans to ride one more day in the van and then venture out on his bike the following day.

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Okay, all I have to say is that one should never book a bike tour and then not train properly for it. I am starting to kick myself in the behind for not spending more time in the basement on the CompuTrainer. The other thing, never and I mean never not bring your own seat along; especially us ladies. And the third thing, mountain bikes on paved roads suck! There really is no reason for us to be on hard tails with big ol’ knobby tires and front shocks that do not lock out. I feel like I have been pushing tons of steel down the road and it is damn hard! And I mean hard! Do you get the feeling like today was not pleasant for me?! You are right. Oh, how I am wishing for my nice BMC road bike right now! But I better get a handle on myself since this is only day three of a 16 day ride!

Enough bitching for now. I am sure I will have more later! Today we left the coastline of Thailand and headed inland. What I love about this ride are the small quiet roads that take us through little villages lined with primitive buildings and everyone is selling something. When we stop for a break it is always at a small food stand and the people there are so gracious. I get practice saying, “Hello” and “Thank you” in Thai. Sometimes they laugh but mostly they answer back with a very nice, respectful bow in return. Even though our guides have food for us we always make sure we buy something from the stand.

We passed through into Chantaburi province which is well known for its fruit. Woody points out the different trees as we pass by and most of them look the same to me! We did finally get to see a huge Jack fruit hanging from a tree and some cashews. We should all pay great respect to the cashew tree. Did you know that only one nut comes from each flower on the tree? Absolutely amazing!

At some point during the first 50K of the ride, we stopped for a short temple break which was situated next to a school. There was a class of about 20 first graders out playing and we stopped by to say hello and take some pictures. Oh, my God, the kids went nuts and they went nuts for Jim. He would take their picture, show it to them and they would all scream with laughter. Then of course everyone wanted in and we all got our pictures taken with the school kids. I think they were the highlight of the day.

The sun was beating down pretty hard once again and I did not want to further my sunburn along so I opted to put on a long sleeve shirt. I was amazed at how cool it kept me and how happy my dermatologist will be. Of course pouring water on me also helped. I cannot tell you how hot is it here. This is heat I have never experienced before. It makes Chicago at the height of summer feel like fall. The only way to keep cool is to keep riding. And you better have some good chamois cream because the chaffing could become deadly. I got a little chaffing on the first day and I am making sure nothing flares up. I am also having a hard time adjusting to this bike so between the heat, the heavy riding bike and the chaffing, I have been a bit cranky at times. But I am more conscious of my water and food intake now. One cannot get behind the eight ball here!

We stopped for lunch at a friend of Woody’s guest house. It was absolutely heaven. There was a light breeze coming off the canal and welcoming table full of delicious food. I am having to be a little careful of the food and the spices. It all tastes delicious but my poor western tummy doesn’t always agree. I am not sick but some of the spices can be a bit deadly, if ya know what I mean! :) Woody also thought it might be a good idea to hang at the guesthouse and let the sun go down a bit. We all took a nap, expect Jim, who took advantage of an open internet line.

I am not sure if taking a nap was a good idea, especially since we had at 45K yet to go in the ride. It was still hot out, now just a little later in the day. We were in a rather big city with many stops and starts among cars and motorcycles that had little or no exhaust controls. I was glad to have a scarf that I could wrap around my mouth and nose. Unfortunately for me, between the heat, eating lunch and just having a very hard time adjusting to the bike, I ended up jumping in the van around 75K and calling it a day. I am going to have to come to terms with the mountain bike if I am going to be able to finish this ride.

I rode in the van with Rich as Janie and Jim made their way to the stopping point in the ride. We loaded the bikes up and drove the final 15K or so on a very busy road to our hotel. The landscape of Thailand has changed and the mountains are closer than ever. I am wondering how much we will have to climb to get to the border. Climbing is good because there are always downhills, too. But I will have to wait until morning to really find out. In the meantime, Woody and Mr. Sukho took us to a local restaurant and we had our last Thai dinner of the trip. It will be hard to say good-bye to our guides as they have treated us so well.

We are all anxiously looking forward to crossing over into Cambodia tomorrow. Rich will still ride in the van but is hoping to be back on the bike in two days. I will be very happy when he can ride with us once again.

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I am not sure what to say about today. It started out very quietly and ended with one trip to the hospital (Rich), one bout of overheating and no eating (Laura) and breaking out of a bathroom (Jim). So maybe I will just start from the beginning!

Up early is the going to be the motto of this trip. Because the sun is so hot, we all decided we wanted to get as many kilometers under our belt before the real heat of the day began. We left the quiet resort town of Mae Ram Phueng Beach and headed off towards the Chaolao beach. Woody is a good leader and the pace was nice and easy. Several kilometers down the road we stopped at an area where some locals were fishing. It was interesting to see them freeing the crabs from their nets. I have great admiration for these people and the hard work they do. They use crochet type tools to free the crabs from their mesh nets and then put rubber bands around the claws. No gloves and they squat all day long. If the crab is too small, they will throw it back into the water. If the carb is dead, they will throw it away.

Without the use of a computer, I am not able to tell how far we have gone but about an hour down the road, we rode to a small town and negotiated a ride across the canal. It was rather comical to see all our bikes on this small wooden boat. I am sure there were life vests somewhere! The area we were in was heavy duty fishing and we got to experience the inner workings of the large fishing boats first hand. I think the people on the boats and docks were just as fascinated with us as were with them.

Leaving the docks, we road through the little town built on stilts. Even the “roads” were built on stilts above the water. Very primitive by my standards but everyone looked rather healthy. It was fun saying good morning to everyone and taking pictures. The old people are fascinated by our digital pictures and the kids love to run up to us to say hello.

The one thing I am loving about Woody is his knowledge of what is around us. He is always pointing out interesting landmarks and identifying all the foliage as we go along. And there is a lot of foliage! Foliage on steroids! Those house plants that you have in your house? Trees here in Thailand! And the fruit is so succulent. Of course everything is fresh and can grow to a full season before being harvested. We pass through many fruit plantations on this ride.

Our first disaster of the day struck us about three hours into the ride. I have played this scenario over and over in my mind wishing I could take back the 30 seconds that turned this trip into a 3 person ride. Rich had been wanting to take a picture of a Thai cow since we landed in Thailand. We came around a corner and there was one on the side of the road. As he reached back to get his camera out of his jersey pocket, he hit a speed bump in the road and went down. I was right behind him and as it was happening I remember thinking, “Rich, don’t do that” but it was all over in a matter of seconds.

At first he said he broke his collar bone but then he was able to move his arm. Then he figured he either separated or dislocated it. Either way, Woody and Mr. Suko were deciding which hospital to take him to. I of course was both upset and mad. Mad because Rich never looks where he is going and upset because he might be spending the rest of the trip in the van (or worse) and this was the first day! Off he went and on we rode in silence for several kilometers. Luckily, Mr. Suko was giving us updates all the time and luckily the hospitals are very good here in Thailand.

Without our support van we were on our own to get water and snacks. Janie and Jim were willing to front me some cash since without Rich, I had none. (Won’t let that happen again!) It was getting hot and some of the roads were rather busy. The sun was coming out strong, my mind was wondering what was going on with Rich and this damn bike was heavier than anything I had ever ridden in my life! I was getting slower and slower and hotter and hotter. I was sucking down water like a fish but the sun had already done its damage on me. Somewhere around 60K I was done in and thought I wouldn’t make it to the lunch stop. Everyone was very nice about my breakdown and Woody said it was only about 5K more to the stop. Those were the longest kilometers I have felt in a long time. I was never so happy to be off the bike.

We had a welcome surprise at lunch when Rich and Mr. Suko met us there. According to the doctors, Rich did not break anything, thank God! They took x-rays, assessed the damage, gave him some pain meds and $117 later he was on his way. Just like home! Rich did believe he separated his shoulder and got a sling later that evening. Right now he is just going to take it easy a few days and see how he feels. I have to admit it has put a little damper on the trip for me. I will miss having my best bud and riding partner for the next few days. But Rich is upbeat and wants us all to continue to ride.

One thing Woody doesn’t do is rush us through lunch and for me that was okay. I needed to recover from the ride. I had waited too long to eat. Janie had given me some shot blocks and that helped a bit. I had a good breakfast but that was at 7:00 a.m. and it wasn’t until 2:30 p.m. when we finally sat down to eat to eat lunch. Way too long a time for me! Lunch was good, no doubt about it! We had several seafood dishes and a soup. Rice of course is compulsory as is some kind of fruit for dessert. Poor Rich and Janie, no diet Coke. I asked Woody why no diet Coke and he proudly patted his stomach and said Thai people don’t need diet! And he is right! I think I have only seen a handful of “over weight” people and I am not even sure of they were Thai.

It was only 7-8K to the hotel so I decided to hop back on the 2-ton mountain bike and ride her on home. What a beautiful ride along the coast but that came with two rather hefty climbs and a nice downhill into the resort parking lot. Sunburned rather badly, tired and sore, I hobbled to our room. I am not so sure who looked worse for the wear, Rich or myself. What a couple we make!

First things first, I had to get out of my shorts and I am lying in my birthday suit on the bed when there is pounding on our door. Rich came out of the bathroom, I wrapped up in a towel, opened the door and there stands Jim, his hand wrapped in a towel and blood all over. Oh, my God, what now? This day was turning into a major train wreak! There are these spring locks on the doors to the bathroom from the outside (don’t ask me why) and when Jim went into the bathroom to take a shower the door locked behind him. These doors are pretty flimsy but the bolt at the top was holding strong. With no way to call anyone and not wanting to spend the night in the bathroom, Jim broke the glass in the door in order to reach the lock and set himself free. Broken glass, cuts on arms, he was a mess. Again, luckily it looked worse than what it was.

All disasters aside, it was a beautiful ride. We are really getting to see how the Thai people live and work. It is not a way of life for me but I have a deepening respect for what they do. Woody took us to a wonderful restaurant for dinner and it just washed away all the troubles of the day. Unfortunately Rich is still not riding but maybe in few days. I am pretty beat up and know that what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger?!

Tomorrow is another day.

Richard here. I guess I will always be the adventurous kid who doesn’t always pay the closest attention to his surroundings, it’s all about the photo shot or the view. I have always been the risk taker who needed to climb to the top of the tree, look over the edge of the cliff etc. I love to explore and learn and will keep on being me. The trip to the hospital was a good experience and shows that the right national health system can work. The doctor saw me in the emergency room, ordered ONE x-ray (not our 17 angles from four sides at home), and then read the x-ray to see if more were needed. He then did a second more complete physical examination of my sore areas and range of motion and with a big smile told me it was nothing major. Just a pretty good contusion. I am pretty sore in the upper chest area and while I can easily lift my arm over my head and extend it there is some pain with it. Hopefully in a couple of days I will be riding.

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Today was the day I had been looking forward to for some time. Today we began the ride but first we had to get out of Bangkok and drive to the coast on the Gulf of Thailand. I am not sure why Buffalo Tours decided on picking us up in the height of the Bangkok rush hour but they did and we ended up sitting in lots of traffic. The ride to the coast would take us three hours and luckily we were in a nice cushy, air conditioned van.

Our guide’s name is Woody and he is a wealth of information about Thailand. He is from the northern region of Thailand called Chang Mai and speaks all the dialects of Thai (about 6), a bit of Laos and English. He says in school, English is compulsory along with other languages such as French, German and sometimes Russian and Chinese. Woody is also a part of the Thailand Cycling Club, where he used to race but now just leads tours throughout Thailand. It was interesting to know that the reason we are switching bikes and tour guides at each border is because only country specific tour guides are allowed to conduct tours in their respective countries. So Woody is Thai and he cannot conduct a tour in Cambodia, Laos or Vietnam. If he was caught, he would spend minimum one month in jail and fined 100,000 baht ($3,000 USD). Doesn’t sound like too much money but the jail time along would be a deterrent!

After a short nap in the car, I awoke to find us nearing our coast hotel. Yeah! Almost there...not! We drove through some areas that Woody says are very popular with the Bangkok crowds, mainly because there are no farangs (foreigners) but also because it is cheap and only 3 hours from the maddening town. Farther down the road we stopped for some lunch at a roadside noodle shop. I figured that since Woody said it was okay to eat there, we were going to be fine. And thank God Woody was with us because no one spoke English. That aside, the food was delicious. We had a pork noodle soup with vegetables, a nice cold Pepsi (no diet because the Thais don’t need diet anything!) and a traditional Thai coffee for dessert. Thai coffee is strong espresso style coffee with condensed milk. A bit sweet for my tooth but when in Thailand.... The breeze off the ocean made for a rather enjoyable lunch stop all around.

Our hotel for the night was situated across the street from the beach. At first it didn’t look like much but out the back of the lobby were some nice little buildings that housed either one or two units. I am not sure of the hotel rating but the Shangri La it is not. Don’t get me wrong, I am not disappointed because after all we are in a small coastal town and not the “in” area where all the rich and famous flock to, which is a-okay with me. After four days in Bangkok, I am ready to embrace the peace and quiet.

The plan of attack, according to the Woody man, was to unpack a bit and then do a 32K shake out ride on our bikes. Our bikes! Yeah! Finally! We opted to go with the bikes provided by the tour to cut down on the baggage and less wear and tear on our nerves (or Rich’s because he does all the mechanics). Buffalo Tours provided for us mountain bikes with big ol’ fat tires. Definitely not the sleek road style bike I am accustomed to but I will make this work. We brought our own pedals so we could have clips and cleats. I am not sure if helmets are mandatory but we brought old ones of hours which we will leave behind at the end of the tour so Laura can have more room for souvineers. I am also hoping to leave behind some body fat that I have accumulated over the winter!

In Thailand they drive like England, on the wrong side of the road! I will have to keep my wits about me but since we are following Woody, I will have to hope he knows what he is doing! We also do not have computers on the bike so for someone like me that is obsessed with know my speed and how far we have gone, this will be a real challenge. I am sure Woody will tire quickly of me asking, “Are we there yet?”

We rode rather conservatively since we didn’t want to show off too much. Actually, pushing this mountain bike down the road with big fat knobbies will be rather humbling for me. (Richard here, for the bike geeks, Merida Matts aluminum hard tails with low end 8 speed Shimano/Suntour components and no lockout on the fork. Reasonably new so they ride OK but weigh 30+ #’s. (Definitely not my Record equipped BMC Pro Machine!) These bikes ride like tanks and the fat tires are a lot to move down these roads. Oh, well, it is what it is and there’s no turning back now.

I got a taste of what we will be experiencing heat wise. It is okay when I am moving but stop and the flood gates of sweat open. Woody of course is cool as a cucumber. Our driver, Mr. Suko, rides slowing behind us and is ever ready with fresh fruit and water. I did reasonably well with the 32K but I got a little chaffing and am hoping it doesn’t turn into anything.

I got my first Thai massage after the ride and it was a delight. Thai massage incorporates stretching in to the process and it was nice to get the knots out. And to top it all off, only 250B or $7.50USD...for an hour of luxury and I mean pure luxury!

The topper to the day was the dinner on the ocean front. Woody ordered for us and I was a bit skeptical and dully wrong! We are in a coastal region and it is known for its abundance of seafood. Some good eatin’, drinkin’ and laughin’ all night long. Tomorrow we begin the ride. For now, I am going to sleep and sleep well.

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At one time Bangkok was known as the Venice of the Far East because of its many canals that spanned the city. Today many have been paved over as streets and there are only a few to show what must have been like in the past. We started the day by doing a canal tour via long tail boat. Those of you who are James Bond fans will remember the Roger Moore movie that was filmed in Bangkok with a great long tail boat chase scene. Our pace was a little more sedate but very interesting. We headed up the river from our hotel a few km’s to the entrance to a canal where we promptly had to wait with several other boats for a lock to drop us down to the canal. Bangkok just like Venice is slowly sinking into the sea. The canal trip started going through an area with poor residences on stilts above the canal. Here the people bath, cook, fish and perform assorted other functions in the same water we were traveling through. Along with the low rent district housing we came across many very opulent homes and several Wats. We also had a stop at a floating market which was a little old lady in a small boat loaded with tourist souvenirs and beer. Janie and Richard didn’t care that it was 10:00 AM and had a beer. Each driver seems to have a specific little old lady they work with and obviously gets a kickback on the sales.

The canal ride ended with another lock passage back into the river where the driver dropped us off at the Temple of Dawn (Wat Arun), a magnificent stone and mosaic structure with imposingly steep steps to climb to the top. I was here a number of years ago and climbed to the top and stretched my hamstrings so badly I could barely walk the next day. I opted to do some good old pre ride stretches and only climbed up half way. The end results were much better. After this tour we took a short ferry ride across the river to the dock where we would catch our fast tourist ferry back to our hotel.

The day was not yet over as we jumped on the Sky Train to the Jim Thompson House (No not the ex governor of Illinois). This Jim Thompson, a New York architect, revived a cottage silk industry in Thailand after WWII and disappeared on Holiday in the mountain highlands of Malaysia. This beautiful house was constructed by moving six traditional Thai houses to the site and connecting them. As beautiful as the house was, the Oriental art collection it housed was even more stunning. Amazingly all the art was out where we could view it close up. No sealed cases, glass protectors etc were in front of these priceless art objects.

After a short nap our last stop for the day was dinner at Cabbages and Condoms a famous Bangkok restaurant. The owner has created a fund promoting safe sex to help quell the aids epidemic in Thailand and the rampant population growth it is experiencing. All profits from the gift shop go toward the owners foundation. Aside from being a cause related restaurant this was probably the best meal we had in Bangkok.

Tomorrow we start riding and we can’t wait.

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Today we brought new meaning to the phrase, “Sweating like a pig!" Don’t let the season “winter” fool you here in Bangkok. It might be winter but someone forgot to clue in the sun! I am so glad I get up in the morning and take a shower. Three minutes outside, no really just outside the front doors of the hotel and I am already sweating. It’s really okay because everyone else is, too; except the locals of course. You never see them perspiring. Cool as cucumbers. Absolutely amazing! New equation: Tourist=sweating pig!

Today was absolute tourist day. On the itinerary was all the wats one could stomach and a bit of Mauy Thai kickboxing to boot. Besides the train, the river boats are a great way to get around Bangkok. There are several ways you can go: the local ferry, which stops at every conceivable pier; the Tourist taxi, more expensive but only stops at the tourist piers; and then the water version of a tuk-tuk called the long boat. Yes, more haggling and they will eventually take you where you want to go. Today we opted for the Tourist boat and headed for the Grand Royal Palace complex.

The Grand Royal Palace: Oh, my God! Grand is just not the right word. I need my friend Kay Kehoe or Karen Owen to help me with the right adjective to really accurately describe this amazing, spectacular, breathtaking maze of temples (Wat) and small chapels (Viharn). If you wondered where all the gold in the world was housed, I believe it to be here. The mosaics and frescos on the the buildings rivaled those in most European Cathedrals. No shorts were allowed, men had to have long pants and women a dress or long pants. All had to have at least short sleeved tops. No tanks or halters to distract the monks from their daily prayers! Many places we had to take off our shoes out of respect. After walking around the complex in the heat, it was nice to take off our shoes and walk barefoot on the tile floors of the wats.

The statues of the warrior guards and foo dogs were enchanting. I fell in love with the many statues and wanted to bring several home with me but could not create enough of a distraction to allow Rich a run for it with a little foo dog of my choice. Not to mention since most of them were carved out of stone, they all probably weight a ton or more. So pictures will have to suffice. Jim keeps calling me a tourist because I am taking pictures of everything. But he has to remember, this is my first time and I am a tourist!

The Grand Royal Palace is surrounded by a wall of stunning murals that tell the story of Thailand. Different than the frescos of Europe, these murals were on a black background and painted with vivid colors of the rainbow and highlighted in gold...real gold. Once the royal residence of King Rama I (late 1700’s), now it is used for ceremonial functions and a goldmine for tourists’ Baht (money). The entrance fee was 200TB or roughly $6USD and there were hundreds of people there; tourists and Thai alike. Many Thai go there to pray and pay their respects to several statues. The most famous at this complex being the Royal Monastery of the Emerald Buddah, one of the most venerated sites in Thailand. Think the Mona Lisa and how big it is in reality. So is the Emerald Buddah. I thought I was going to have to get out my binoculars to see the statue and I almost created an international incident trying not to step in front of the hundreds praying on the floor. Very stressful for a buddist shrine of peace.

It was hard to leave the Grand Palace behind but there were more wats to visit and I was getting hungry. The sun had just about wiped me out and my blood sugar level was hitting the bitchy meter. I pulled out my nifty Bangkok tourist book to look for a restaurant but we couldn’t find the name of a street to save our lives. Right in front of us was a restaurant called the “Royal Navy” and off we went. From the outside it was nondescript and inside was no different but the food was to die for...okay, no dying but my taste buds were on over load. Happy me, bitchy no more!

The last wat of the day was Wat Pho and it took all day to get Rich to stop say, “What fo we goin’ there?” and all the jokes surrounding improper use of the Thai language. Let’s not even get started on him butchering the King’s name, HRH King Rama IX, by calling him Ramalamadingdong for the 60/70 rock song. Janie, Jim and I all agreed that we were not interested in seeing the inside of a Thai jail or any country’s jail for that matter! But back to the reason for going to the wat...the reclining buddah. Reclining at 150 feet long and covered in gold, this buddah was the mother of all buddahs! But this buddah was closed for the day because the queen was going to visit at 6 pm and so they were tiding up before her arrival. Too bad because from the windows this guy was humongous!

I was pretty beat from the long hours in the sun and the miles of walking we had done, so I opted to go back to the hotel and everyone agreed that their dogs were barkin’, too! We hopped the tourist ferry back to the hotels and made plans to meet up for a little thai boxing. I wasn’t that keen on going to watch people hit each other while the gallery placed bets on the outcome of the fight but Rich reminded me that I needed to do what other people in our tour wanted, too. You know, share and compromise?! Sometimes rather foreign words to me but hey, Jim really wanted to do this. It was kind of interesting and not as violent as I thought. There was this Thai band playing that really caught my attention. Mostly percussion and one guys was playing a shawm/chanter type instrument. They would improvise during the round and the music would get more feverish as the fight escalated.

I sure was glad when we all decided we had enough fighting for one night. Back on the train, home and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. Tomorrow’s another day!

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Well, here we are in the heart of Bangkok and what a city! But first, we must discuss the heat. When we got off the airplane a few days ago, I asked our driver if it was hot outside and he said, “Not much”. Not much?! The doors to the airport opened and I was enveloped in a wave of hot air that took my Chicago breath away. And this is not much? I knew immediately that we were going to have to slowly acclimate ourselves to this new climate. And did I mention the humidity? But I should complain, eh? I have been blessed to travel half way around the world to experience a new culture, taste some interesting foods and travel on my beloved bike and already I am complaining?! Alas, I splash cold water on my face and we are off and running.

Our traveling buddies, Jim Simone and Janie Bender have all made it safe and sound to Bangkok. We are all looking forward to some real adventures and I am sure southeast Asia will not let us down. My first impressions of Bangkok are crowded and hot. The grid lock of traffic makes the Eisenhower Expressway look like a rural road, except with motorcycles zig-zagging through the cars. The sky train and the Bangkok version of a subway is the real way to get around and very easy to navigate. Even I could figure it out. And cheap, too! It is also amazing how clean the stations and the train cars are here. There are workers sweeping the terminals and wiping off the hand rails all the time. There was no trash in sight anywhere. Just like Chicago! Now get off the said train, drop down to the street and it is whole different story. Sometimes sad but mostly very interesting.

Walking around Bangkok is a great way to experience the pulse of the city. After taking the sky train to Jim’s hotel, we got off and walked around trying to find this restaurant Jim ate at 12 years ago. (I couldn’t believe we actually found it, too!) The streets are lined with vendors selling just about everything and I mean everything. At night that everything gets a little seedier...if you know what I mean! The street food vendors, of which I have not yet tried, are selling the most interesting fare. I read that it is very safe, although looking at the cooking utensils, I am not so sure. Maybe the heat of the flame and the humidity kill off any bacteria? I suppose at some point I might try. Rich told me my life insurance policy is paid up! We’ll see...

There are smells here that I have never experienced before either. Of course, I live in DuPage County, how would I? Between the mixture of food vendors, the exhaust of cars and body odors, I can see why so many people walk around with surgical face masks! The pollution is pretty high here and you can really see it during the hight of midday. The sky is hazy and looks like it is going to rain but never does. The building of the sky train has really cut down on the amount of traffic and car emissions but the reality is there are 8 million people living in Bangkok and another 4 million that are here illegally. Some things never change no matter where you live.

After lunch. Jim decided I needed a lesson in bargaining and a tuk-tuk ride. A tuk-tuk is a three wheeled, open-air motorcycle with a canopy thing. The haggling back and forth is amazing and Jim seems to be a pro at it. But the thing with the tuk-tuk drivers is they want to take you to all these shops, where they get a kick back for bringing tourists their way. You don’t have to buy anything but if you go in, then the driver leaves and you are stuck where ever they left you off and you have then bargain your way for a ride to your original destination. You might have wanted to go only a few blocks but the tuk-tuk takes you all over trying to up the commission from the stores. Sounds like a cab ride in Chicago? Needless to say, I have not been on a tuk-tuk ride but the bantering back and forth between Jim and the driver was rather comical.

Rich left his ethernet cable at home so guess what, there’s an Apple store in Bangkok. We hoped on the subway and made our way to shopping mall north of central Bangkok. Of course, it wasn’t called an Apple store and trying to find someone who could understand that Apple was not a fruit, rather a computer led us in all directions. Finally we found the store, “iShare” and we were back in internet business. And thank God because it was 4 pm and I was fading fast. My body was still trying to catch up with the 26+ hours of travel to get here. A nap was in order for this aged soul if I was going to make it to dinner time.

Tonight we ate at the Mango Tree and I was in heaven. Finally, some real Thai food in a beautiful restaurant situated in an alleyway. At first I thought, okay, Jim has taken us to another dive but once inside, it was beautiful. There were choices of indoor or outdoor eating but since I am still trying to acclimate to the heat, I opted for the group to sit inside. The food was delicious, just like home. No, really! Rich and I eat at a little place in Wheaton called “Mai Thai” and it is good authentic Thai. Just to prove it, I had my favorite dish, Larb Kai and it was just like home. Everyone had something different and most of it rather spicy. My friends at Mai Thai taught me some words so I could ask for not so spicy and it really helped. I don’t have the steel stomach like Rich, so I need a “mai phed”.

It was 11:30 when we finally stepped back into our hotel room at the Shangri La. My tummy is filled and my eyelids are drooping. Tomorrow we will take out first boat tour and begin seeing the historical sights of Bangkok but for now my bed beckons and I will be asleep before my head hits the pillow.

Rich says I write too much but there is so much to tell. I don’t think I can take enough pictures and I hope my stories of the road will your imagination and mine. Thank you for following us on this adventure in southeast Asia.

A quick aside from Richard. I have been traveling to the Orient for business since the mid 70’s and look on most of this with a more jaundiced eye than Laura.

Link to todays photos

Finally the start of the trip has begun. We had three uneventful, but long flights and arrived in Bangkok about 11:30 AM local time. We are 13 hours ahead of Central Time in the US. It’s been about 15 years since I, Richard, have been here and after talking about the horrors of the traffic from the airport to the hotel, it was actually a very pleasant trip on the new motor-way.

It seems we are going to have quite a few more people following us on this trip as Mike Valenti, of theVeloist.com cycling community web site, has a posting of our blog on his site and Ed Pavelka, of the RoadBikeRider.com newsletter, put a note about our blog in the most recent issue. If you get a chance, visit both of these sites as they are well worth the time but not until you have digested every word we have written here!

There are only four of us traveling on this small tour: Laura and Richard from the flatlands west of Chicago, IL; Dr. Jim, from Kankakee, IL; and Janie, from New Brunswick, NJ. We all met and know each other from an LA to Boston cross country ride we were part of in 2008. We bonded as a group on that ride along with our fifth rider Darry, from Park City, UT, went off and started a new business venture and an intensive MBA program at the same time and couldn’t make this trip. He and his “That’s awfully mean spirited” retorts will be greatly missed on this ride.

From here on most of the writing will improve as Laura will do most of the blogging and I will be working the photos and videos, along with a few asides for the ride descriptions. The next few postings will mostly include sightseeing in and around Bangkok until the ride starts on Monday.

We are heading to Asia for a ride from Bangkok to Ho Chi Min City traveling through Thailand, Cambodia and Viet Nam. This new grand adventure is different from our usual road bike pavement type of trips. We will be on mountain bikes and changing bikes in each country we travel through. This is because of the customs and border restrictions entering Cambodia and Viet Nam. Paved vs. dirt roads will vary greatly from country to country. Thailand will be 75/25, Cambodia 25/75 and Viet Nam 65/35.

On Tuesday January 26th we leave O’hare at 6:45 PM for Los Angeles where after a short layover we board our almost 15 hour flight to Taipei where we change planes for a short 3-1/2 hour hop to Bangkok. It’s United to LAX and then EVA Air (Part of the large Taiwanese Evergreen Transportation group). Their business class seating is less than 1/2 the cost of most US flag carriers and the seating/service is closer to First than Business. This is my first time on EVA and I will let you know my feelings after the first flights.