All posts by Ben Antony

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:

Bicycle Touring

Day 40: Siem Reap

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no cycling,  expect 10 km to test my bike after the reassemble of yesterday.

So today I slept longer and laid in my bed until 10:30. After getting up I organised me a guided group tour to Ankor Wat for tomorrow. Then I saw a flyer of a locally based circus so I bought a ticket for there to tomorrow evening. My next item on my todo list of today was getting a SIM-card to have mobile internet again. Simply,  just walk into the mobile provider store,  they make a copy of your passport you give 10$ and you are done. A SIM-card with 5$ on it,  which is enough to buy 4 GB of mobile internet.

For lunch I just had some quick noodles. Followed by a walk through Siem Reap. Just looking at the markets and pub street. There is really not that much here,  but it is beautiful☺️ And I haven’t been to the temples yet,  ad they have a 20$ entrance fee and I will be there tomorrow.








After returning to the hostel I decided to take my bicycle and look for a shop with tools to borrow the needed tools to mount my front light and mudguard again,  as I am missing the right size of tool to fix it… There was one on the other side of the street. They rent bicycles,  so I went in and asked for the tolls,  they gave me a basket with some random tools. But the right sized tool was in there,  so I could fix everything. After it,  I went for a little ride to check if everything is looking good☺️ some adjustments to the handle bar and settle and it was done.

As it was still too early to get dinner,  I decided to get a massage. After a quick search on the internet, I found a place where blind people do the massages,  it was close by,  not too expensive (7$). It really hurt a lot such a massage, but now it feels goods.

So for tomorrow there is a guided tour at the Ankor Wat temple and another one,  from the morning to the late afternoon. In the evening I then go to this circus.

The day after tomorrow I will start cycling again😍

I am again having a little headache, but I think it is because I didn’t drunk enough. It’s really hot here: 30°C…

Oh I nearly forgot: for people located in Luxembourg: Tomorrow (Monday) there will be an article in the newspaper called “Journal”. For people not located in Luxembourg or who don’t want to buy the paper: I think it will be published on the website too. I will provide a link tomorrow☺️

EDIT: Hier ist der Link zum Artikel

Bicycle Touring

Day 39: Cambodia

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Distance: 8,75km Time: 24 min Total distance: 1441 km

So fighting over night to Singapore. After an hour of delay we started. I don’t know why,  but I wasn’t able to sleep a second… At the airport in Singapore at 5 o’clock ,  I still couldn’t really sleep,  I don’t know why. But around 7:30 I went for breakfast at Burger King😂 I walked around the 3 Terminals. I found a place to sleep and was able to sleep for 1 hour. After that I went to Mc Donald’s to have a second breakfast…


After some more sitting around,  watching stuff on YouTube,  I went for lunch at 12 o’clock,  Burger King again… At 13 finally the gate opened for my flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia. On the plane I couldn’t sleep…

Siem Reap has a really nice little airport. First I had to get a visa on arrival. Really simple:

  1. go to the desk
  2. say tourist visa
  3. give 30$ + form + passport picture + passport
  4. Go around the corner
  5. the passport is processed by 7 people sitting next to each other,  like all together took 10 seconds.
  6. receive the passport back with your visa.

Then I was allowed to enter the luggage part of the hall. in the middle was just immigration office checking the visa. I got all my stuff in good quality. After 1,5 h I was finished with packing out and building up my bike. Only the front mudguard and headlight are not fixed in the correct place or at all,  as i forgot to buy the needed tolls in Kathmandu😂 Not a problem. I will find a shop and just rent the tools. While building up,  I suddenly had half of the visa-processors and half of cleaning team standing around ne looking at me,  but they didn’t say anything, because I was building up my bike inside the luggage hall. 😂 So the few km I did today were from the airport to my hostel. The roads are actually  nice,  they ha a 2 lanes extra on each side for motorbikes and bicycles, and traffic lights with countdowns and no holes in the street and less ir even no rubbish on the floor😀

One can eve  see the planes in the back😂



So tomorrow I will visit Angkor Wat,  the big temple here in Siem Reap. Do some stuff here,  I don’t know yet.

Bicycle Touring

Day 38: departure day

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no cycling

Todays goal: get everything to the airport by time.

But first I had to kill some time until my master plan began. I packed all my stuff so that I would have stuff to do in the 10 hours transit time in Singapore and all the restricted stuff in my luggage. I checked out of the hotel and got a free transit from the hostel to the airport offered. After some negotiation they even agreed to pass by Anil’s home first to get my packed bike which was sill stored there. The rest of the morning I spend again on the roof top of the hostel,  reading and doing stuff in the internet. I have never showed the roof top:



After lunch Tomaz came back to Kathmandu and we meet up. 😀

Finally at 16:30 my master plan began: Plain leaves at 9 o’clock. I calculated 2 hours earlier + 1 hour buffer + 1 hour going there + half an hour getting my packed bike,  so in total 4,5 hours from the hostel to the plain. so getting to the airport (5 km away) really took me like 1,5 h with passing by Anil’s home and all the traffic jams😂

Arrived at the airport the entrance was guarded,  so that only people with a ticket could enter it,  so no annoying people anymore who want money from you😀 After a first security check for all luggage everything was normal procedure:

  1. check-in: no extra charge for my bike😀
  2. immigration office: A sign told me to fill out a form,  which was then thrown away by immigration officer😂
  3. security check: quick one
  4. waiting in the departure hall
  5. boarding (as soon as it is open)

The international airport of Kathmandu is an old one. The departure hall has no restaurants or shops expect one. There I got some food. Fried rice heated up in a microwave oven,  plastic fork and no table:


So now my flight goes to Singapore (not Kuala Lumpur as mentioned in yesterday’s post). There I will have at least 10 hours (I am a little confused with time zones) at the airport before my flight goes to Siem Reap in Cambodia😀 Therefore I have my book and juggling balls on me😀

For security reasons I have my bicycle helmet in my hand luggage,  in case it will be a bumpy flight. Actually there was no more space with my luggage or in the bicycle box😂