Day T22: Crunching a Century

February 25, 2020

Middle of Nowhere to Sisophon

Those backroads added more distance but they sure made for a more interesting bike tour. There is a main road #359 which cuts straight across to the Cambodian border directly. I had cycled it several times already and figured there's no point to repeat it. As luck would have it, however, I ended up getting spit back on it.

That's good Thai script to recognize in the circle, it means resort.

Controlled burns? For whatever purpose I don't know.

Since I eventually got throttled onto the main road anyway, I stopped at the first gas station that came up to chill out. An American cycle tourist with an armful of Gatorade dropped by and asked if I was cycle touring. She was touring with her husband and they were further inside the area drinking coffee. Surely I must have been spotted coming in. We got chatting, and I learned they were on an extended trip from Singapore and had come up the coast. Their plan was to ride towards Cambodia and then Vietnam. It seemed like a good idea today to ride with them to the border. They (Ashley and Paul) were going to stop at the border tonight, while my plan was to push onwards to Sisophon.

This route is a tricky one. If you stop for the night at the border, then the next day is either an easy 60km ride to Sisophon or a longer 160km slog to Siem Reap. If you can push to Sisophon as my attempt, then it makes for only a 100km day the next day. At this point I just wanted to to reach the next tourist haven to do more partying and continue to question my life choices like I had done back in Pattaya.

If anything, I was the slow poke today. I struggled to keep up with Ashley as she was in remarkable shape and just killing it with a brisk pace. We all fought the headwinds hard. This was sustained for hours and I really started to feel it. I was dying of thirst, and relished any opportunity they decided to stop at a gas station.

Of course they had to pick the same gas station where my passport was stolen last trip.

Just killing it. These guys were amazing.

It made me realize why I do group fitness. It's the only way I can get the motivation to push real hard.

As it turns out, Ashley runs marathons and does them extremely well, so that would explain everything. It was a welcome chance to ride with this couple because all the extra distance I gained put me within striking distance of the border at late afternoon. This meant that crossing the border tonight and finishing off in Sisophon was within the realm of possibility.

I was definitely contemplating stopping at the border also, but for whatever reason continued onwards. We parted company at the border and would meet again in Siem Reap. I tried to share as much useful information as I could since I've done this border several times before. A key part involves changing baht to dollars at the Krung Thai bank in advance so you can get a better deal on the Cambodian visa. That was exactly what I did myself today after telling them as such.

Doing this for the third time or more now

Crossing the border was painless. The best way is to use the vehicle lanes on the Thai side, and an officer will help you park the bike while you fill out your departure card and get a stamp. Then you're off. For visa on arrival, I only paid $30 plus 100 baht. That extra 100 baht probably went into the official's beer fund but it was cheaper than last time so I didn't care. Next was to get a stamp at the following booth. Make sure you do that after getting the visa. If you don't, you'll be screwed when you later exit the country.

All that done I rolled a bit further into the town and stopped at Pizza Company. I was immediately mobbed by elementary school girls wanting to practice free English. So much for the plan to get to Sisophon early.

One of them was only 4 years old and could already do so many things her age that I was astonished. Fluent English and martial arts to name but a few. Apparently the parents force their kids to learn skills at the earliest possible age they can to get ahead. Even so, this girl was light years ahead of anyone else I had talked to.

It was surely dark by now which meant the next 3 hours were going to suck, but so be it. I had to get to Sisophon because I was stupid enough to have pre-booked accommodation. Sure enough the road was not much fun with the incessant traffic even at that time. Much busier than I remembered it, but at that point there wasn't much to be done except grind it out.

The best part was pulling into the town of Sisophon and then gradually rolling down the long downhill of the hotel driveway, right into the arms of my welcoming entourage. They knew me from a past visit. They were awesome and helped check me in then wish for sweet dreams. Food around here at this time of night would be impossible. That pizza back in Poipet had saved the night.

Botoum Hotel. Stayed here before, this place is awesome

Today's ride: 161 km (100 miles)
Total: 707 km (439 miles)

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