"Easy Riders" is a group of expats that takes weekend bicycle rides in and around Phnom Penh. I often think of joining them, but the 7am start time is highly unappealing on a weekend. However, at the end of the month, Jeremy and I are participating in the Angkor Wat 100 kilometer bike ride. So we decided we better get in a practice ride.
The day began with a ferry ride to the neighboring island where we would start biking. The ferry is always a bit chaotic with passengers, motos, and cars all boarding together. As we were disembarking, a car got stuck trying to make it up the steep, muddy off-ramp, and everyone else had to wait until it finally made it off on the third try.
Once off the ferry, we hopped on our bikes. Phnom Penh has been soaked by the remnants of Typhoon Haiyan with big thunderstorms the last few days. This turned several of our paths into slippery, muddy messes. As we came around one bend, we saw that our path was completed covered with several feet of water. Some of the villagers offered us a boat ride across and were ecstatic by the $2 we gave them in return.
Despite the multiple boat rides, we logged 55 kilometers on our bikes. We also splashed a good amount of rural Cambodian mud on ourselves and our bikes - as shown by my dirty legs in the photo below. But this ride gave me confidence that we'll actually make it to the finish line of the upcoming 100 km ride...stayed tuned for a blog post about that!
No comments:
Post a Comment