Travel Blog

Cycling the Mekong Discovery Trail

It is quite easy to find our way out of Stung Treng and onto the Mekong Discovery Trail: just follow the road along the river until it turns into a dirt road. Staying on the right path to make it all the way to Kratie, 100 and some miles down the river is a whole other story. Just after a few miles on the dirt road, we pedal through a construction zone. For a short stretch,  the wet, clay dirt is dug up and loosely piled up on the road surface, ready to get plowed down again.  

Stung Treng

After a short cycle, another helping of dry rice and fried-egg breakfast--complete with eggshell--and a very refreshing hitchhike on the back of a dump-truck, we find ourselves in Stung Treng.

Unexpected stop in Chhaeb, about losing things and finding things

Jessica finally seems to feel a little bit better. It looks like she found her groove today, she pedals hard and strong. I on the other hand am quickly losing my mojo. I feel drained, my legs are hurting, even the skin on my thighs is aching. So far I have been lucky to avoid the

Cycling to Krong Preah Vihear, a sad encounter

It is still dark outside, when we first notice the chopping sound outside of our door. As the sun finally comes up, we quickly tear down our tents, fold up the bedding and head outside to cook water for coffee.

Cycling out of Siem Reap; the awesome children of Cambodia and a night in the rat-house

After about 30 miles of riding on the busy, dusty road leading out of Siem Reap, we turn on a dirt road toward Preah Vihear. Suddenly, all the traffic noise and honking dissipates and we are able to talk to each other again. Besides the occasional scooter, tractor, or cyclist, there is hardly any traffic. Instead, we encounter many smiling people waving at us from their wooden huts. Especially, the children are eager to greet us. We hear so many "hello"s and "bye-byes" from near and from far, that we have a hard time keeping up with all the waves and greetings. 

Sick in Siem Reap

All of our bellies have been rumbling, churning, or acting up at some point during our journey. So far South East Asia has not been easy on our digestive system. On and off, one or the other of us has been battling with an upset stomach or diarrhea.

Angkor Wat, part 2 – A seventh world wonder, more temples and trees

Although, we really wanted to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat, we just could not get ourselves to get up that early again. Instead, we decide to take a tuc-tuc back to the temple complex. Since Randy had a late start yesterday, due to a long night out on Pub-street the night before, and only saw Angkor Wat while we discovered all of Angkor Thom and then some, we figured it

Angkor Wat part 1; riding our bikes to Bayon and through Angkor Thom

The cool air hits our faces, as we pedal our bikes as fast as possible through the dark streets of Siem Reap. It is not even 5:00 am but we are excited to race through the unusual quiet town. Where there was hustling and bustling with hardly any room to ride our bikes yesterday, there

Cycling toward Siem Reap; new challenges

After another cold shower in the morning and desperately trying to get our toilet to flush with endless amounts of buckets of water, we finally pack up. Once downstairs, we boil up some water for coffee. The women and children working the street vendor cart in front of