Heading back across the equator

Today we completed what will probably be our last bike ride on this trip.

We were blessed with a dry and cloudy morning for the ride. I say blessed because the roads were unsealed and the surface is an “Aussie outback” shade of red that, by the looks of the mud pools on the road, any rain would have resulted in us turning into extremely unpleasant looking souls.

The last blog post highlighted why we were so happy to have the sun behind the clouds.

Overall, a great finish to what has been some fantastic riding during our time away. Ruth is already talking about where our next ride should be, the hills of Cornwall have long been forgotten.

We did not have to bike far out of Siem Reap to find a very different Cambodia to the impression you get from the city. Take any turn off a main road and the secondary roads range from reasonable unsealed tracks to something that looks like it is covered in bomb craters. You did not want to bike into those pot holes.

Yesterday we completed a 74km round trip by tuk tuk to one of the outlying temples. That distance is probably stretching your endurance in a tuk tuk. I think the driver had aspirations of becoming a formula one racing driver, we sped past other tuk tuks and weaved through the oncoming traffic but we decided that we have become immune to crazy driving over the last few months.

If we applied New Zealand road regulations to a country like Cambodia, the country’s roading system would not function. Ruth thought that a tuk tuk back in Kerikeri would be a great tourist idea. It would, but we would not be allowed to run them on the road in a fashion that makes a ride in a tuk tuk such an adventure. You would need seat belts, roll bars, the passengers would need to wear crash helmets, one passenger per tuk tuk, how would that be remotely enjoyable.

We had a three day pass to the Angkor Archaeological Park and were starting to get a little templed out by the last one. There are great photo opportunities to be had and when you take your time, the detail in the carvings is amazing not to mention the sheer magnitude of what was built here. But there is a limit to how many temples you can reasonably digest. You end up getting your temples mixed up, was that last one “Bayon”, “Neak Poan” or “Shirley”?

Well we set off tomorrow on our journey to Australia via a two night stopover in Singapore.

The rest of today will be spent trying to get our gear into our bags. Despite stating that she had finished her shopping, Ruth just could not help herself. “I am only browsing” was the retort to my query on why she was showing so much interest inside the shops. The problem with browsing here is; that as you walk away, the price is dropped dramatically and that is like waving a red rag in front of a bull when it comes to Ruth and shopping.