Ride: 58km; total: 178km
Breakfast at the hotel. Transfer to Pongnamron and start cycling to the
border 27km. After the immigration, lunch at local restaurant. Then cycling
20km to the Pailin town located
on the foothills of the scenic Cardamom mountains. Pailin used to be Khmer
Rouge Strong-hold survived by trading gem stones. Until 1998, Khmer Rouge
has demobilized their forces into the government army, then the town had got
completely peace. The town is now home to some of the former Khmer Rouge
leaders who are now in jail awaiting for international court After cycling on
the dirt red bumpy road, we arrive in the small dusty town of Pailin. View
sunset at Phnom Yat to overlook Pailin. This temple of on Phnom Yat hill is
more for Kula Muslim minority who earn their living with gem stone business.
The Muslim minority made up 5% of the whole population in Cambodia. Return back
to the hotel for shower and welcome dinner. Overnight in Pailin. (B,L,D)
Nice
breaky, mixture of Euro and Asian with plenty of fresh steamed veggies. A
power failure just as we sat down brought the nice coffee making service (flash
machine) to a temporary halt.
A
short ride in the vans towards Cambodia
got us to the bikes after 40 minutes. We
then rode the 20km to the Thailand/Cambodia border. As the bikes had to
stay in Thailand we got new
bikes in Cambodia. It must be too much hassle with import duties
to take them across borders. Mine
was a new Giant Talon MTB so no complaints from me. Although
the Giant Talon is a fairly basic MTB, I was very happy with its
performance. They got the size right too;
we had to tell them our height via an email prior to the tour.
It
only took 5 to 10 minutes at each side of the border checking passports/visas
and we were through. Hard to believe that two adjoining countries in
Asia would drive on different sides of the
road but it is true - Cambodians drive on the right, while Thais on the left. We then had a quick 200m ride to lunch.
Lovely Cambodian food, less spicy than Thai, great fish soup and other dishes. We
had two full-time vegetarians on the tour and a few who were vegetarian
depending on how they felt. They were
all pleased with the quality and size of their dishes too.
It
was then another very hilly 38km ride to the Memoria Palace Hotel which was
located off the beaten track outside Pailin. This region was a
stronghold for the Khmer Rouge, mainly due to the precious gems found
here. Many former KR still live in the
area however many were rounded up for trial fairly recently.
After
a shower, the clothes washing ritual, and nice cooling swim we were driven to Wat Phnom
Yaht Temple
in Pailin. After climbing a huge set of
steps we were rewarded with some excellent views over Pailin and the border
ranges. Darkness quickly closed in so we
couldn’t see that well. Back to the resort for dinner of fairly plain but
nice Cambodian food, chicken, fish, pork and some broth/soup.
My Cambodian bike - a new Giant Talon MTB
Buddhist monument near the Cambodian Border
The very nice but “rustic”
Memoria Palace Motel in the middle of nowhere. A lot of the resort had
been handmade with local materials; a nice touch
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