Andy's Vietnam-Cambodia Cycle Nov'25

Having arrived back home and recovering from a stomach bug that decided to hit me while packing to leave Cambodia, I've had time to review the last week+bit.  Although the ride was supposed to be a challenge, I'd underestimated just how much. But most of all, I'm blown away by the massive support for our chosen charity (Kidneys for Life) via me, all supporters have destroyed the target I'd set.  I, we, thank you all.               I have been asked for the JustGiving link, I'm not sure if it works as a click-on link in this blog, but just copy/paste it into your computer browser and you should land in the right place: https://www.justgiving.com/page/andyrosser-vietnamcambodia2025

Goodbye to our hotel for the last day & half and boarding the 50 minute transfer coach to the new (3 year old) Siem Reap airport.  Once away from the city of Siem Reap the road to the airport was very clear and free from the congestion we'd become accustomed to.  On arrival at the airport we felt like we were the only ones here, so quiet and free from cars & people.  The drop off road was very similar.  As were the checkin hall & desks.  Getting through passport control and security was a breeze and on stick f at the departure gates, well deserted it appeared.  Granted our flight wasn't for a couple of hours, but still … Airside apron devoid of planes, well to be fair I did carefully avoid having the single aircraft in shot.   

Sadly, this was our final day cycling so was a short ride from our overnight hotel to the temples around Angkor Wat. While I say sadly, some who have both been with me and also heard of the behind scenes stresses & struggles will question my sincerity ... ... there have been some great days, fabulous memories, great shared times with fellow riders, but there have been some massive struggles to the point of feeling like "chucking in the towel". I'll elaborate: Hugely to my surprise, temperature & humidity while riding isn't that much of a problem, yes you go through what feels like gallons of water & stuff to rehydrate and it appears very little comes out, but cycling makes your own breeze. What is a problem is stopping, wow the body temp goes through the roof as soon as the moving air stops, it's caused one to collapse and pull out of that leg, however returned repaired the next day to press on (well done 👍) and me to almost black out but for the othe...

After overnight stay in Kampong Thom, another early rise for 6am breakfast then jump onto coach transfer to our bikes which were North of the town. Set off immediately onto gravel tracks of mostly orange gravel & powder. The result of the orange tracks was by the end of day everything was coated with orange, think may of us resembled Pres. Donald Trump. We soon encountered congestion: even the "highway to nowhere" had heavy transport causing queues: Managing rice fields is very labour intensive And the fields go on for miles (these were old harvested fields) But this is a new field. Unbelievably, they lay their rice seed out to dry, not only on their own ground around the house, but also in large sheets on the public roads 😯: And here the mobile bazar adds to the traffic problems There's also a flat rice which they prepare which bring cooked can be eat "as is" without any further cooking, it's carried by soldiers etc so they can grab ...