Monthly Archives: December 2016

Bicycle Touring

Day 50: visiting and other stuff

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no cycling

This post is one day too late as I didn’t have time yesterday evening to write it.

I had plans of going to some places but I met up with a Joshua from Korea and we changed our plans. We visited a temple and the royal palace. Along the way we met many people,  during breakfast or at the royal palace. Joshua really likes to talk to everybody,  it’s really fun😂

yeah at this temple you could buy some birds for whatever reason. 2 birds for 1 $

Arrived at the area of the palace

In the evening we met Soraya and Andreas again which we met at breakfast and we spend the whole evening together with eating in the streets and having some drinks in a bar.

They started to do some dancing/gym at the place we were sitting. The later it got the more people joined and they did it for more than 3 hours.

Eventually Joshua went away to do a call and when he came back he had a little surprise for me as it was kind of my special day😀 Some german cake (he was in Germany before he came to Phnom Penh), some and some candles. 

Awesome I didn’t expect it and it was amazing. Thanks to all of them for that great day and evening😀

Bicycle Touring

Day 49: Phnom Penh

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Distance: 40,37 km Time: 2:13 Total distance: 2167 km

I woke up really early as the first motorbike started at 6 o’clock in front of my door and my earplugs went out during the night. Around 7 I got up myself,  took a quick breakfast and went on my way to Kampong Cham, the next city, which was just 30 km away.

As it was only 30 km and I started early,  I arrived early there around 9:30. So I chilled a little bit on the nice walk they have in the cities and villages along the Mekong

After some cycling through the city to see something (nothing special). I went to a place where they actually had a coffee machine and I took a real coffee for the first time since I arrived in Cambodia. As I already saw the city,  I decided to move on to Phnom Penh. I also wasn’t in the mood to cycle anymore,  so I decided to take the boat to get there. By asking in the cafe I was in,  they laughed at me and told me that there were no boats for years I had to take the bus. So I went to the bus station. Arrived there I was lucky, the last bus today left 10 minutes after I came, it was 12 o’clock. Quickly got a ticket for me and my bicycle for 10$. And waited…​ I was told it was Cambodian time,  so no one knows when it is coming😂 With a delay of just 30 minutes the bus came. After 3 attempts of getting my bicycle in, we finally got it in. I just had to take off the front wheel. My luggage was thrown on top of some bananas in the luggage room😂

After 1,5 hours of driving,  there was a break for lunch. There were two pots of spiders☺️ (yep alive). No I ate fried rice,  these weren’t served for eating,  I don’t know why they were there.

After another 1,5 hours of riding,  we arrived in Phnom Penh. The driver helped me putting my bike back together and I looked for the hostel Justin was in. I am really tired now and just grabbed some food will take a little walk to the Mekong river and probably go back to the hostel.

Tomorrow I will visit Phnom Penh,  I have to check what there is to see here. Also I want to get my visa for Vietnam and check out the possibilities on how to get down to the beach by train😀

And I added the video to yesterday’s post.

Bicycle Touring

Day 48: Along the Mekong

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Distance: 88,55 km Time: 4:18 Total distance: 2126 km

During the night power went off multiple times. The first time I was still up and the lights were switched on. As power went off I decided to go to sleep and I thought of switching the switch. Sadly it was not the one from the light but the one next to it for the ventilation. After one hour, I had just fallen asleep,  power went on and with it all the lights and the ventilation…​

In the morning I started to follow the run of the Mekong river. I had 2 cities I could go to. One closer with 80 km and a ferry. Another one was 100 km away. As I wanted to slow down for one day I choose the closer one.

At 10 o’clock I met Justin,  a german cyclist,  who was cycling in the opposite direction. We were talking for over one hour. While talking some kids started playing around us. First they tried out my honk,  then they started to give us some fruits from the trees, but we never understood whether we should eat them or not,  so we never ate them. Eventually,  with some of the present I started juggling😂 Justin made a video. (When I have WiFi I will upload it,  in the current town,  nobody seems to have a WiFi password but there are many WiFi around me).


During my lunch I had a drink with green cream flavor,  whatever that is😂 It tasted like a lot of sugar and the liquid was green😂

The road wasn’t really interesting. Constantly houses around and with it many people,  who wave. There were also many temples of different religions there. It’s interesting to see the difference of landscapes close to the river and further away.

At quarter past three I arrived at the ferry,  I bought a ticket and waited and waited and…​ 45 minutes until the ferry came. On the ferry I had to wait for another 20 minutes for the journey to the other side of the river to start.

Arrived at the little town called Stung Trang (not Stung Treng like some days ago) I had to find out that it’s really a little town with nothing. A guest house in a back street which I wouldn’t have found without my GPS.

When checking what I should/could do tomorrow I got a little frustrated. I should have chosen to cycle further…​ From here to Phnom Penh it’s between 150 and 160 km. Too far for one day. But between here and Phnom Penh is just one city (the other city I could have gone today) which is 30 km away. Too short for one day. My current plan for tomorrow is to get to that city and check:

  • The city is interesting and I will stay there for the rest of the day.
  • I will get there and take a bus to Phnom Penh.
  • I will get there and take a boat to Phnom Penh.
  • I will gain magic power over night and cycle the 150 km to Phnom Penh.😂

I will decide tomorrow what I will do.

Another story from the road: When planning I realised that December is in the middle of my trip. In December this one song called “Last Christmas” is running up and down the radio. Once a year I listen to that song. Sadly that I don’t have a radio on me,  so I placed it on my Ipod. It already came up multiple times in my random playlist and I always had to skip it as it was not December yet. But today was the day,  I listened to it and now I can skip it again every time it comes up😂

Bicycle Touring

Day 47: No GPS

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Distance: 143,12 km Time: 7:04 Total distance: 2038 km 😀

Something I forgot to tell yesterday: I arrived at the Mekong river and will follow its path until Phnom Penh more or less. For example today I only saw the river when I started and when I arrived,  for the rest the road was between 5 to 10 km away from the river.

For the rest there is nothing much to tell today,  landscape was nice but the same as yesterday without any mountains/hills, it was hot again and long. Oh because of an error in open street maps (the maps I use on my GPS),  the GPS  constantly told me to go a big turn around, so I disabled routing on my GPS as it always told me to take a u-turn. I knew that I just had to follow the national route 7. 10 km before the destination I turned routing back on and it was working perfectly fine.

This looks like a lot of traffic but there is really no traffic here.

Arrived in Kratie in the dark I found a nice  spot to take a pictures with long open lenses as I don’t have a tripod on me.

Tomorrow I will follow the path of the river,  eventually I have to choose a dirt road and take a ferry but it should be only 80 km.

EDIT: I totally forgot to post this yesterday evening.

Bicycle Touring

Day 46: Finally mountains

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Distance: 142,74 km Time: 7:39 Total distance: 1894 km (If I continue like this,  I will be at 2000 tomorrow 😀)

A little report on the breakfast: They kind of have just rice (not fried) with pork with that soup of the pork cooking and some chilli. Served with it,  free of charge is a whole can of tea. On the picture there is fried rice,  I specifically ordered it,  because I try to differ my food. For lunch I am often forced to eat not fried rice as these places are normally not that well equipped…​

As the place wasn’t at my guesthouse I went there on my bicycle. When I left they gifted me a little bottle of water😀 (but still they were over changing me for the food)

So I went on my way,  140 km ahead of me to the next town where there are guest houses. The weather was clear. This leads to a problem: it gets really hot…​

Eventually some mountains/hills came up😀

As it was a long way and went up a little bit (100 meters 😂) and then again going down and up and down…​ It lead into long riding as I was slow and I arrived in Stung Treng when it was already dark.

After the bridge, the search for guest houses began. There were some more outside the city but I wanted to get mor into the center. So I followed my GPS to one in the center. It didn’t exist or I was unable to find it…​ I found another one but this one was to expensive (15 $). The next one could only show me the price of 6 $ but I was unable to ask my primary question “where to store my bike” because of him not speaking english and not understanding my sign language. I continued to find one for 7 $ with hot shower and english speaking guy. My bike should be placed in the inner courtyard, but I was unhappy about it,  so I asked to place it inside next to a bicycle which was already placed there. Then the man got angry and shouted at me something with private bicycle,  private family room and money. I ended up leaving my bike in the courtyard😂 (unfriendly guy)

Other news from today: My package arrived at home today 😀 After only 13 days. I thought it was lost because the tracking number they gave me wasn’t working…​ And it wasn’t opened once😀

For tomorrow I have to do another 130 km… That’s the downside of travelling with the bicycle,  sometimes you have to travel this much as there is no closer place to stay. No I don’t want to stay somewhere outside because of the mosquitos and wild animals and dogs. After all I don’t have my tent on me anymore. And because I need the whole day for long distances I can’t really visit little cities like the one I am currently in (Stung Treng)  which are nice for 2 to 3 hours but not for a whole day which I would have to stay when visiting because it would be too late to start cycling for the next city.

Bicycle Touring

Day 45: First flat tire

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Distance:89,03 km Time: 3:55 Total distance: 1752 km

Today I felt really good. After breakfast I chatted a little bit with Phillip, then we separated, as he needs to rest his leg as it’s hurting. Me I got on my way and was surprised how quick I could go😀 I think it was going down a little bit. But even when it went up,  I was still quick.

And then it happened after 20 km: I realised that my front tire was more wide at the bottom when cycling. I stopped immediately to check and yeah,  there was air missing…​ Took the wheel of, got the tire out and checked: I couldn’t find anything after 5 minutes of looking (I didn’t want to use up my water as I didn’t knew when I would get new water),  so I placed it back and pumped it up again. I thought that the air just went out. After pumping I checked,  the air seemed to stay inside,  so I placed it back,  turned the bike around and…​ less air. Got the tire out again,  replaced it with a new one,  pumped it up and the air stayed😀 The first 10 km I stopped multiple times to check the air pressure: everything all right. Then I could enjoy my ride again. 😀

I arrived really early (15:30) at my destination Preah Vihear. So I decided to take a walk through the town.

My favourite picture of today:

I had to take a picture of this: they have bins for trash, but not any kind of bins, but bins to separate the trash😀 (But I think that was just made for when the UNESCO world heritage conference was here in 2013, at least I saw an old commercial of it)

I had a coconut again as I was told it has lots of good stuff in it for the electrolysis (I hope I wrote it correctly) inside my body.

Most Cambodians just say hi and wave while smiling. Today one asked also “what is your name” while passing by on a motorbike, so I couldn’t even answer??? But one stopped and spoke a little bit of english,  sadly he didn’t understand me that well and he just explained me to visit the temple I was at yesterday…​ But I took a picture of him☺️

I still don’t know why,  but they really have a lot of cheap wood here,  because every restaurant and hotel/guesthouse is equipped with nice wooded furniture.

Tomorrow I will probably have to cycle again over 100 km as I can’t find anything on the map,  but the maps aren’t always up to date as here in Cambodia lots has changed in the last 5 years.

Bicycle Touring

Day 44: Prasat Preah Vihear

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no cycling

This morning I met up with Philip to have breakfast and go to Prasat Preah Vihear together.

Prasat Preah Vihear is another UNESCO world heritage site of Cambodia,  like Angkor Wat. It is located next to the border of Thailand and we needed about 29 km to get there. As we were told it would be very steep there,  that eventually we would need special motorbikes to get up there,  we decided not to take our bicycles but to get a lift from a motorbike.
As soon as we went out after breakfast to get into the village center to find someone to take us there with a motorbike,  2 guys on motorbikes were already coming our way. They immediately phoned a guy who spoke kind of english and Phillip negotiated a price to give us a lift to Prasat Preah Vihear and back, 11,5 $ each. The ride to the ticket booth of the area took us 40 minutes on the back of these uncomfortable motorbikes. My ass hunted more than after 6 hours of cycling😂

Arrived at the ticket booth, we had to buy a ticket for 10$.Then we wanted to get back to our riders but the women in the booth told us,  that they wouldn’t take us there as their motorbikes weren’t strong enough. We had to get another rider with another motorbike for an extra 5$ each. The motorbikes weren’t that strong but they should have a different chain and “special” cooling system (a container with water fixed between the legs of the driver which will drop water on the engine).

With our second rider the climbing began and then I saw,  why we needed special bikes, I wouldn’t have been able to cycle up that way,  too steep.

Arrived at the top,  our tickets got checked by military. As there were some conflicts in the past with military of Thailand, there is still a little presence of Cambodian military there. After examining my passport really carefully because he didn’t know Luxembourg. Eventually I was allowed to pass the checkpoint. After that just the temple,  some asian tourists, 2 french tourists and us,  see for yourself.




















Here you can see Thailand, with its military post and the tourists there:


On the search for our riders to get us back down,  we got a coconut to drink😀

We found our drivers which got us to our other driver which got us back to Sra Aem:

Arrived back in Sra Aem,  we had lunch and went back to the guesthouse as there is nothing more to see here. I spend the rest of the day lying in my bed,  watching some movies on YouTube. I had some headaches.

Tomorrow I will cycle again. 80 km through the jungle, there is no closer place.

For people wondering what Phillip looks like:

Bicycle Touring

Day 43: endless straight roads

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Distance: 80,55 km Time: 4:10 Total distance: 1663 km

I got up late because I was still tired. After packing and getting breakfast I was on the road at 9:30… I just followed the road to the east.


All the time next to the road they dry some fruits here and I still don’t know what it is.And no I can’t ask the people,  they really can’t speak english. So if you know it,  you can tell me.



For lunchtime it started raining and there was a restaurant, so I decided to eat there.

Cycling again,  it just rained for another 10 to 20 minutes,  after that I packed my rain jacket back in.



Sra Aem was my destination of today and I arrived there. Today’s roads were just straight all the time and slightly going up and down,  so a little bit boring,  but the landscape was nice and people are always waving and smiling friendly😀

In my guesthouse I met Phillip a cycling from Texas😀 I spend the whole evening with him.

Another example of them speaking no english here: A phone was given to us,  where we ordered some food. We thought they would deliver it to our guesthouse and the restaurant would be closed. But they actually cooked it here and the restaurant was open,  it was just the english. 
Tomorrow Phillip and I will try to get to a village with a nice temple next to the border to Thailand without our bicycles. I don’t know if I will cycle tomorrow, depending on how much time we will spend in that temple and how far away the next accommodation is.

Bicycle Touring

Day 42: More than expected

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Distance: 141,59 km Time: 7:08 Total distance: 1582 km

So today cycling again😀 I checked the road I wanted to do. First destination Anlong Veng. Started the route calculation: 128 km! hmm too much,  I am feeling not that great because I have a little cold because of the air conditioning in the dorm I was in… So search for a town more close: Sare Nouy with a distance of 65 km. More reasonable,  so I started into that direction. The roads were mainly straight in the beginning,  so really boring.

The weather report said it would rain today,  in the end it was just some light rain, which was actually nice,  because it cooled of everything,  so that it was a nice temperature to ride😀

Along tha way I always saw these stones to mark the end of the area of the national heritage Angkor.

Arrived at the destination ,  I had to realize that it was a little village with no guest house,  so I had to continue.  The next bigger village/town was Anlong Veng…  Okay,  so back in the saddle and peddling again.

All the time I see these transport things around here. One passed me with 23 km/h,  so I tried to stay behind him to use his wind shadow

Because it got late, the sun,  which I couldn’t see because of the clouds, went down and it got darker. So dark,  that in the end I was happy that my lights on the bike were working😀

Now I am in Anlong Veng. Tomorrow I will go east. I have to check how far. 

Bicycle Touring

Day 41: Angkor Wat 

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no cycling

Today on the plan was a guided tour through some of the temples next to Siem Reap. Which took the whole day,  from 8 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon.

I got picked up in the morning by a van and spend the whole day with the guide and the group. Now a lot of pictures (sadly I couldn’t keep the chronological order in)

The evidence that I was there:

Because it was cloudy,  we decided to skip the 20 minutes sunset walk,  as there wouldn’t have been a sunset😂

For the evening I had a ticket for a local circus. The artists are originally street kids which went to this circus school and are now performing here in Siem Reap. The circus is called Phare Circus.  It is really great,  If you ever come to Cambodia and to Siem Reap,  I can only advise to go there.

For tomorrow there is finally some cycling on the programme. Hopefully it will not be too hot…

I promised the link to the article in the newspaper. It’s in german language. In the newspaper I even got to the front page😀 on top in the middle: