Well, that sure was an interesting adventure!! I am very pleased to say that I rode the entire way... no bus time for me... well no bus time when we should have been riding! Good job Wendy!
There was certainly plenty of bus time during the journey. Way more that I was expecting, but it may be that a small amount of time invested on my part before our departure may have made it very obvious that given the distances we were travelling when compared with our cycling distances made a significant amount of time on the bus inevitable!
So who would have imagined that I would have connectivity issues whilst travelling through two third world countries. I was so optimistic that I could post some quirky observations each day to share our adventure with you all... alas that was not possible... which is why I had my PA Paul post the inspired adventures blog for you all. Obviously that is the 'official' version of our trip. I plan to share with you the slightly less official version!
So this post is dedicated to Hugh. I promised him I would blog which as we all know proved problematic.Sorry Hugh!
So I think this post should be highly educational! Or at least a little bit educational...
As you know I like a list, so let's start out with that!
- If you set goals and work hard then you can kick patootie! At the start of this adventure, I had not ridden a bike for 100 years and let's be honest, I was not very good... in fact to be more honest, I was appallingly bad! I trained hard and found the ride easy. Who would have thought that was possible! Who would have thought that I would find being a sheep (more about that later) harder than the actual cycle!
- If you are the person who waits until everyone else is ready before getting organized then people will not like you! There is one in every group... wait until the end of the break and then decide they need a rest room break, or sunscreen, or whatever. Don't be this person! It is annoying!
- Taking 'selfies' while riding can end badly.
- Travelling in a group is like being a sheep... we were just following instructions. When to wake up, when to cycle, what to eat... so when we actually needed to make an important decision like what beverage to have with our evening meal it was too complicated! Don't be a sheep! Be a person who makes things happen!
- There are two types of vans in Vietnam and Cambodia. Non air-conditioned vehicles have there windows and doors closed. Air-conditioned vehicles have a broomstick (or similar) holding open the hatch!
- You can save money be putting your motorbike in the back of your air-conditioned van. You can save even more money by adding some of your friends' motorbikes and having everyone sit on the roof of the van.
- When cycling in Vietnam and Cambodia, keep your mouth closed! This is especially important when cycling behind road-working machines... and even more important when they are spraying the dusty roads with water. But the most important time to remember this rule is where there are king sized water buffalo pats on the roads! They make the most amazing splat when driven over by a van (regardless of whether it is air-conditioned or not!!).
- Even monks push in! Don't push in! It is annoying!
- Now a note on workforce efficiency.. it took us over an hour to get through Cambodian immigration. There was one guy working on arrivals. He was very thorough and spent time checking every single stamp in everyone's passport. Mine has quite a lot, so this took some time. Now while we could ask why this was necessary, I think perhaps the bigger question is why the departures guy thought it was more important for him to have a nap (at 8am) rather than helping out his colleague!
- Completely not educational, but made me laugh... We had to put 'bribe' money into our passports to get our Cambodian Visa's (and for our entry health check... which was having this thing fired at our forehead to check our temperature... amazing that we all got exactly the same value... but I digress!). The Visa guy kept calling out "Money, money!" so we thought someone had forgotten they bribe money... turns out "Marnie" in Cambodian is actually "Money" who was one of the girls on the trip! He was just trying to return her passport!
- There is absolutely nothing which cannot be carried on a motorbike - family, kids, pigs, ducks, rice harvest..
- There are Sparrow Spit farms in Cambodia. They build special houses and the sparrows fly in and the spit is collected. Good grief! Who would have thought there would be a market for Sparrow Spit... but apparently it makes men very strong! So work hard, or you might become a Sparrow Spit farmer!!
- Too much rice makes Poppy's Mum grumpy
- Not enough coffee makes Hugh's Mum grumpy... actually a number of things make Hugh's Mum grumpy, but let's just focus on coffee for now!
- Getting up at 4am makes everyone grumpy!!
OK, so that was pretty good. I am sure there is a modicum of educational value in each item!
So over the next few days I will work through my diary and share with you more of the less official version of our trip. Some of the areas I am planning to cover include:
- Cambodia and Vietnam Q&A
- What is in that plastic bag?
- Things that tried to kill me today
- Are you really going to eat that!?
- Exciting ways to pass time on a bus when experiencing severe motion sickness
- And many, many, many other interesting observations!
Until next time!
W xx
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