6/4/25
We woke at 5:15am. An extra early start. The night never got much cool and the air conditioning didn’t function as anything other than an ever so slightly colder fan. We found a kettle, made a cup of coffee with a touch of soya milk and hit the road by 6am. Just as it was light enough to ride.
Our entire journey today would be on National Highway 6. It was already busy. There was slight coolness in the air, but there were fires all the way along the road. Burning piles of rubbish, including plastic, and foliage. The fields weren’t what was burning. IQAir confirmed that the air quality had actually improved in recent days.
The road was a single carriageway with a hard shoulder. It was a barrage of traffic. Every imaginable kind. The road didn’t feel too dangerous. We just had to keep our wits about us. It seemed slightly better than the dual carriageway to us, but traffic did like to overtake a lot. That could be a bit sketchy. Occasionally a town lined the road. For most of it we were surrounded by pancake flat plains.
We motored along. By 8:15am we’d gone halfway and pulled over at the start of a dirt track with an archway that typically suggested there was a temple. We couldn’t see it though. We ate a banana each. Then shared an electrolyte sachet between two of our smaller water bottles. We were keen to make the stop brief. We didn’t want to lose our good progress.
The road continued to be endlessly straight and reasonably boring. People smiled and children waved. When we reached the next town there was unusual type of celebration happening at the traffic lights. It seemed that the run up to the Cambodian New Year, Sangkranta, was in full swing. We bought some water. A ‘1500ml’ bottle went suspiciously far when refilling. We’d also noticed the ‘500ml’ bottles weren’t quite big enough the night before. Dubious standards afoot.
The road continued with much the same disorganised chaos. It wasn’t like Thailand. People often don’t look before joining the road, relying on horns, that we obviously don’t have, to alert them. We were starting to feel weary. Fortunately, a couple of boys easily rode up next to us on mountain bikes. It was a reminder of just how slowly we ride with the weight we’re carrying. One of them engaged Jonathan in conversation. He spoke minimal English but it was possible to find out he was 15, in secondary school, heading to Angkor Wat and also visiting a bike shop.
They remained alongside for about 5km. We rode two abreast a lot of the time and the traffic just accepted it. There were some pinch points though. As we reached Siem Reap, and the hard shoulder ‘became’ a bicycle lane, they bid us farewell. We were now on a wide road, flanked by numerous grand hotels. This was to be a theme heading into the city. Westerners started appearing and we turned into just another tourist in a very popular place.
Baby Elephant hotel was down a rough track. It worried us for a second, but it shouldn’t have done, it was a lovely hotel. We were very early and they were very accommodating. They gave us a delicious welcome drink and a cold flannel. Then we were checked in and inside our room a few hours earlier than we should have been allowed.
We didn’t stay long. We went straight out with the black Surly to the bike shop. The rear wheel wasn’t perfectly true anymore and we wanted to get a more experienced opinion. Wat-Bo bicycle shop had come highly recommended. Johnny reckoned it was only “10% out” and he didn’t want to touch it. He also checked the chain, which was now done for. So therefore the cassette was too. This applied to the green Surly too. Brake pads and lube were also on the cards. Stupidly we hadn’t brought our dollars with us.
After promising Johnny to return the next day, we went to one of the many vegetarian restaurants in Siem Reap, Banlle. It had a good vegan menu too. Frankie ordered a traditional Khmer curry and Jonathan got summer rolls. A light lunch, if you will. The restaurant was air conditioned with fans. It felt a little odd indulging in such luxury. The people here clearly don’t have as much wealth. Or most don’t. The meal was only $7.
Thankful not to be cycling, we walked back to the hotel. There were lots of foreigners about now. In fact they seemed to be the only ones walking or cycling anywhere. We even saw a couple of people running. Arguably crazier than us. We lay in the hotel room a while. The air conditioning was slightly better though it took a long time to cool down our palatial suite.
When it was time to eat we simply went downstairs. The beauty of staying at Baby Elephant was that it served an almost entirely vegetarian menu and most things were vegan or could be made vegan. It was a complete flip. There were a few token meat dishes. We ordered burgers. It felt a bit naughty to not be eating Cambodian food but it was a treat for us. One had a patty made from Omnimeat, a new brand out of Japan. The other had a marinated tofu steak. We ate them with a side of spicy fries. They weren’t freshly made. Oops. Sadly we’d chosen the wrong time to eat. Mosquito time.
Back upstairs we tried to watch Tomb Raider. Unfortunately we downloaded the wrong one, 2008 instead of 2001. The latter, Angelina Jolie version, has scenes filmed at a temple we’d hopefully be going to see. Our version did not. We ate a few bits of fruit and things but we were pretty exhausted and couldn’t keep our eyes open. We’d been cycling 8 days on the trot and now we were crashing. It was probably all the earlier starts.
Surly They Won't Make It 