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.

Link to today’s photos

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