Day 5 (08/12)
We've left Seb to sleep in. Anja and I
have taken the bikes to the other side of the river. We're up early.
The mornings here are gloriously cool, a time to get things done
before the incapacitating heat of the afternoon. With a clamour of
Khmer motorcycles we cross on the ferry and don't ride too far before
we pull into a market.
If you travel by the main road out of
town, Phnom Penh sprawls for many kilometres, with no real feeling
the city ever ends. Yet, a five minute ferry ride across the river
will plunge you immediately into rural surrounds, complete with horse
and cart, dirt roads, wooden huts on stilts, and a market pleasantly
devoid of tourists (except us, of course).
Breakfast for the two of us, made on a
small camping stove in front of our eyes, and two ice coffees – of
course – costs little more than a dollar in total. Anja buys me
some sticky rice with banana and coconut (divine), which comes
wrapped in coconut leaves.
The day still hasn't heated up and we
ride along a back road, avoiding potholes, but enjoying the rural
scenery and the kids yelling out 'hellooooooo' with excited waving of
hands.
They produce silk and silk products in
this area and we pull into one of the 'silk villages' in which a whole
family works, from the nurture of the worms to the looming of the
silk. A lovely lady shows us her silk worms, Anja tries her hand at
the loom, and we spend the best of an hour looking through their
gorgeous scarves, for which they have a great eye for colour
coordination. I limited myself to buying just one, plus a traditional
Khmer krama which I hope will fulfill several duties over my trip - protecting me from the sun, and as a sweat rag.
While we rifle through the scarves, we
eat green mango with chili salt. Not a bad combination.
It's getting hot now, and we ride back,
this time another way, with a different ferry. I try the sugar cane
drink they make on every corner here. Too sweet for me, really. We
ride through an ethnically Muslim area (around 5% of the Cambodian
population is Muslim). It's getting really hot now, and the dust is
sticking to us, and the cars rush past.
We seek a short respite in an old Chinese
temple, and I realise for the first time just how busy and hectic
this place is. You need to experience peace to realise you quickly
get used to chaos.
In the evening, when things cool down,
Seb takes me to his favourite Chinese noodle joint. It's quaintly
dodgy, with plastic chairs. Just the way I like it. They make the
noodles by hand right here out the front of the restaurant. I leave
the ordering to Seb – we get fried noodles, dumplings (of which I
will daydream about for days to come), fried beans (once again,
daydreams), and barbecue skewers, washed down with a Tsingtao
long-neck. What makes it so much better are the condiments: a dipping sauce
made from chilli-heavy chilli oil, rice wine vinegar, and soy sauce.
I don't fear any unnecessary hyperbole when I say; best Chinese I have
ever had.
We visit Anja and Seb's
friend/neighbour, an English girl, who's having a dinner party. Two
of the guests are long-distance cyclists. One, an Irish man, has
ridden from Turkey, through central Asia, into China, and has made
it this far with an idea to ride onto Australia. The other, a German,
has ridden from his home country, down through Turkey, Iran and Iraq
(both places I now want to visit, the way he talks about Iran and
Kurdistan leaves a great impression), Pakistan, all along the coast
of India, Tibet, then flew to Thailand, up into Laos and down into
Cambodia. It seems he has no real intention of stopping just yet, and
speaks with no exaggeration of plans to ride Australia, the Americas,
and Africa - “as long as I keep enjoying it, I won't stop”. The
presentation he gives us, with pictures and videos, I dare say
inspired us all a little to see more of the world.
www.onemanonebikeoneworld.com
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| At the market. |
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| Buying sticky rice. |
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| Silk worms. |
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| Silk scarves. |
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| Mango with chili salt. |
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| Chinese temple. |
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