January 29, 2024
Day 2 Bike: Mad Distance
Oudong to Pursat
Ever since I left the city, you
You got exactly what you asked for
Running out of pages in your passport
The plan for today was pretty simple: smash out as much distance as possible before the sun went down. For that to work, I needed an early start. I got up at 6:30am then managed to declutter two yearbooks. An hour later I was all packed and ready to rock.
Unfortunately the decluttering started to make me cry. It was taking photos of all the memories and then dumping the yearbooks in some random hotel in Cambodia. Then yearbook was for mid-2016, right at the tail end of the best years in China before the country started entering the darkness. That was the turning point. There were still some reasonably good years after that, but 2016 was truly the culmination. Just reading the comments and autographs showed that the students really adored me, as I did them, and they are memories to treasure for a lifetime.
It also made things pretty clear: it was no longer a matter of if I was going to leave China, it was a matter of when. I had done my very best to get as many people out as I could. Now it was time to get myself and loved ones out before it was too late.
With that, in a combation of sadness and rage, I threw the yearbooks in the trash. The photos would certainly be digitized and stored onto a cloud. After collecting myself, I checked out and set off.
While I might trash talk China a lot now, this was never the case at the beginning. I had grown to enjoy the place for the first 10 years and even learned the language very well, making all sorts of meangingful connections and experiences. It seemed unfathomable that this could all reverse with just one politician in the mid 2010s, but then Xi rode the same Trumpian wave of global nationalism as many other autoritarians, so he wasn't acting in a vaccuum.
I had to think about something else. It was an absolutely gorgeous and spectactular day. In this cool of the morning, this was the best time to ride and I slowly set out along the road through the town. Before long it linked up with the motorway. A scooter rider pulled up beside and asked where I was going, I told him Battambang. He said, "But it's so far, why not stop and join me for a coffee?" I said, "Sorry buddy there's no time for that, you know how far it is, you just said so." Truth be told I hate it when scooters come up behind me now.
Around 15km later there was a perfect breakfast stop.
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As if right on cue, I got a message from another colleague. He wrote, "Looks like you are right brother, these offshore schools aren't going to be around much longer based on this." I thought it was an edict from Winnie the Poop but it was actually from my own government. The Canadian government is putting a two-year cap on international students for reasons we don't know. It will certainly affect our business.
If there is one thing that Xi and Putin have been successful at, it is this: causing the best and the brightest of their people to flee the dictatorships and flourish in other countries. When they do this, they also greatly benefit the economies of where they end up immigrating. Unfortunately some trash goes abroad too; it's exactly the inverse of what the late Deng Xiaoping once said . "When you open the windows to let fresh air in, a few flies come in too." Now the direction had completely reversed.
With a massive surge in people and capital leaving China and Russia, it is only inevitable that the receiving countries would develop fear and resentment then try to cap it. So the time pressure is very real from both ends.
After that little stop, it was basically going to be put the hammer down. I also tried some meditation techniques where I stopped thinking of all the stuff above and just focused on my surroundings. This proved to work very well, and since the phone was more or less put away I noticed a lot more stuff than otherwise.
One such thing was the increasing number of bicycles and school children waving to me as they were going to and fro. The smiles and joy on their faces was priceless and the real Cambodia was beginning to shine here.
The road eventually changed direction where I caught a tailwind and I was just killing the distance. At this point it made sense to keep on pushing. The only problem, however, was the lack of food. I knew this was going to be a problem.
Thanks to Veronica's delicious cooking yesterday and her offering to fill up a plastic container of food for the road, this came in super handy. Unfortunately it still wasn't enough. By the time 2pm rolled around I was famished and there was nowhere to eat. The one restaurant I tried said they weren't cooking food anymore, and they pointed across the street. So I found a market and cruised through there. I got tons of stares and astonished looks, but there was nothing to eat. Just raw meat and vegetables. All the other stalls were just selling fruit, drinks, and biscuits. No solid food.
I did eventually find a super small place and tried my Khmer. "Hello, rice." And they gave me rice. Nothing else. This was clearly not working. Google Translate was not doing any good either. So I pointed at what others were eating and said, "Same same", give me some of that, just give me anything I'll eat whatever it is, I'm fucking starving.
That actually worked!
Then it was cranking out more and more distance. Eventually I realized I could make it to Pursat. The lack of food was becoming more and more of an issue, but eventually an Amazon Cafe stop and food court saved the day about 2km out of the town. Then the hotel I had been eyeing came into view and it was really luxury.
For only $35 I got a nice room, access to a pool and gym, and they helped store the bicycle in a safe place. I was one of the few guests here. The town itself was also deserted. There was a Sky Bar where I was the only guest, and enjoyed a new spicy Khmer dish (no idea what it's called unfortunately) and a couple beers.
Then it was time to update the blog and do a weights workout.
Today's ride: 150 km (93 miles)
Total: 354 km (220 miles)
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