Mekong Cycle Adventure

Stung Treng, adventure capital of Cambodia! Well, at least to us and our good friend Mr. Thiera at Xplore Asia, who gave us the fantastic suggestion of a 3 days / 2 nights biking trip that would span about 150km, ending in the scenic city of Kratie. Even better, we would be unguided for the journey, other than a basic map, some instructions and a local guide on one of the islands to make sure we didn’t lose our way during that confusing stretch of bush. The two nights would be in village homestays that were on a drop in basis so we could make the choice of accommodation. Perfect arrangements for us!

We arrived back in Stung Treng from Ban Lung to begin our journey just after lunch. It was a bit of a late start but the first day was meant to be a fairly easy 40-ish kilometres and the weather looked fine, if a bit hot. We hit the road with nervous excitement and our grins turned into even bigger smiles when light clouds rolled in to shade us from the hot sun. With the wind starting to pick up and the clouds fading ever darker, we knew we were in for a bit of rainy season refreshment. However, we were totally unprepared for the major deluge that struck. Imagine turning on a garden hose and sticking it directly in your face...for about 45 minutes…

Luckily we found an abandoned building with substantial overhangs to take some cover and wait it out. In a hilarious twist, what had been a minor ditch we biked over to reach our shelter became, very surprisingly to Patricia, a deep un-crossable moat. Ben laughed as she splashed over sideways when trying to get back to the road and then looked a bit sheepish after giving it a run only to topple over as well. All of this within the first hour. Great start!

Within an hour of resuming our riding, our smiling muscles were sore with the response to every singly village child that we met along the way yelling a big “Hello!”, and so very excited when we would yell “Hello” back. This became a theme for the entire journey, with every kilometre of riding punctuated by what seemed like unending cries of greeting from the super friendly villagers.

Fortunately the rain eventually relented and we made it without other mishaps to the ferry crossing, which we found on our own despite our best efforts to ask local villagers along the way.  It was a short and cheap ride over to the island where we cycled another handful of kilometres along a single lane dirt track past rice fields that set our surroundings off in a beautiful array of yellows and greens. We ran into a young local cyclist along the way who smiled and said “homestay?” at us inquiringly. Why not? So we followed him through the village to a fine looking wooden structured labelled Homestay #1.

After meeting with the very friendly daughter of the family, who spoke very good English and was studying to be a school teacher, we looked searchingly for a shower. Having biked through sun and rain we had a necessary session of cleaning off our bikes and other gear, and the ladies were kind enough to lend Patricia a typical batique sarong used by the local women for bathing in the outdoor showers.  Afterwards we were left with an incredibly refreshed feeling and the setting could not have been more perfect.

That night we were treated to a great feast of fish, rice, omelette and greens on our own little bamboo mat in the family’s kitchen.  Despite the churned mud present everywhere in the rainy season, the family kept an impeccable home, clean and tidy, and it was a pleasure to spend the night in their pleasant company.

Afterwards we all lay back to chat over tea and to see if we could find a boatman to take us from the village to our next island destination where we could expect a very difficult overland ride. Our inquiry turned into a pretty serious negotiation session with an uncle to the family, involving a phone call back to Mr. Thiera in Stung Treng after we insisted we would not pay his first price. This man was a cool cucumber, no doubt enjoying the out of ordinary excitement, and clearly relishing the tension between the two parties. In the end we agreed on a rate we could all live with and spent a bit more time chatting before tucking in to our comfy bed under fancifully trimmed mosquito net.

In the morning during breakfast we managed to communicate that we were hoping to have a lunch packed for our long ride that day. Grandma understood first and quickly swung into action, resourcefully using mother nature’s jungle Tupperware – the amazing banana leaf. We smiled at the unlikely scene as she packed a great spread including sauce for our fish and rice to go. 

And we were off, bikes in the front of the long and narrow fishing boat. With the morning rain having hit hard earlier and now passed, we were excited to reach the start of the day’s ride and meet our local island guide. Upon reaching the shore, we found ourselves about an hour early at the appointed meeting spot, which was right in front of a family home, a typical wooden house on stilts. As usual in Cambodia, the people were friendly beyond belief, offering us their hammocks in the shade underneath their dwelling. Not being ones to easily laze around, we helped with the common village chore of peeling tough corn kernels from their cobs. We also gave the children some new pens we had brought with us for that purpose, and they were touchingly thankful.

Just then our guide arrived and we swung into action, saying goodbye to our new friends and crossing behind their farm through a gate that led into the bush. Thiera had warned us that Day 2 would be the hardest, but we weren't quite prepared for the level of endurance required to complete 40 km through loose sand and long stretches of water. The rainy season had had its way with the path and it was only with a lot of determination and some good mountain bikes that we would make our way along the length of the island. Perhaps we could have guessed that the going would be tough when our guide opted to go by motorbike!

We slogged along, passing through a mix of forest and grassland, eventually learning to enjoy the challenge of splashing through puddles, trying to keep our balance all the way to the end to avoid dunking our heavy shoes. About midway along we pulled off to find some basic shelter below a tree during a brief heavy rain and decided a picnic lunch was just the ticket to boost our motivation and to take a well deserved break. Super delicious and an incredible pick me up – thanks Grandma!

After another very long and difficult stretch, we made it out of the bush and onto a much better road for the last stretch to our next village homestay. That made it a total of over four hours of really tough slogging and Patricia in particular was quite beat. One anecdote perfectly summed up her feeling and had the fearless cyclists laughing for lack of any other suitable emotion. Ben had just crossed a rather daunting mud and water section, luckily finding perhaps the only way through and was vigorously signalling and shouting for Patricia to follow his trail. Patricia rounded the corner, legs pumping off rhythm, head rising with apparent effort, slowly taking in the magnitude of the obstacle and the instructions being issued from the other side. The mind might have been willing, but the body would not respond and with a forlorn look she continued on her present course, not able to either change direction or to slow down, ploughing directly into the deepest part of the water and taking a slow sideways splash. She got up soaked and after a quizzical look, threw her hands up in the air and erupted in laughter causing Ben to follow suit.

We arrived at the village and our very apparent foreign presence brought us into contact with the local ecotourism leader. He showed us to a house for the night and explained that meals would be served at his home down the road. If we were eager for a shower after the first day, the longing on day two was almost painful. The bikes themselves needed a full on bath to give them some hope of changing gears the following day. As usual, the lady of the house was quite helpful in assisting us with laundering all of our dirty gear and getting shower supplies, while Ben worked the mud out of the bikes with bamboo sticks.

While the sleeping accommodation was fairly simple, unlike our first stay whose family clearly took pride in welcoming guests and keeping a nice house, the meals down the road were really incredible. The ladies who prepared them were eager to chat in order to practice their English, were very thoughtful and intelligent and were definitely making an effort to further their eduation. It was really nice to see and a fun place to hang out. Incredibly tired from a very long day, we walked back home, taking in another spectacular sunset on the Mekong and gladly joined the family for a lay down on the floor in front of some Thai soap opera (there are no couches in the typical Cambodian home, just pillows thrown around the wooden floors or a raised wooden platform). It was a perfectly mindless activity and eased our transition to a much needed sleep.

After a great breakfast and chat with the friendly food ladies, we packed up our gear and took a nice leisurely ride through the village. It was incredibly calm, friendly and picturesque rolling over wooden bridges, past quaint wooden homes. We could hear the familiar refrain of “Hello!” eminating from the children as we rode along and occasionally we would stop to hand out more pens and say our own Hellos. We never tired of hearing this friendly call, except for our facial muscles that were upturned in a continuous smile as we tried to respond to everyone who greeted us. Exhausting being that friendly! But who could resist these adorable and curious creatures…

Reaching the southernmost part of the island, we boarded yet another boat to take us back to the mainland side of the Mekong for the final stretch to Kratie. Our legs were fairly burned out from our mud battle the previous day and so it was fortunate for us that most of this stretch was on easy paved road. We made a stop at a nearby Wat and made a donation at the Turtle conservation group and also grabbed some delicious Rabutan fruits for a break later on. The best entertainment of this ride was getting to see just how far Cambodians could push the carrying capacity of their motorbikes. When we saw each new creative packing job, we tried to pull over to capture the magic.

We finally arrived in Kratie, a notably funny city due to the fact that locals pronounce the name “Crotches”, and found no end to the possible puns involving two cyclists arriving in said town after a long, numbing journey. Thiera had hooked us up with a great hostel, aptly called The Balcony and there we stayed, resting, enjoying the amazing view and great food for two delightful activity-free days. We did wander the town long enough to explore the market and get Ben’s shorts repaired.

Cycling cross-country was a really incredible and intense adventure that gave us an amazing opportunity to get to know the people and the land of Cambodia in a personal way.  And the more we got to know of this country and its inhabitants, the more we fell in love with them.