Thursday 21 August 2014

Day 7. Preyveng to Phnom Penh 127k

Coz I'm still 'hood
Hollywood couldn't change me
Nicky Minaj.

Before I jump into the final day there's a story out there ( unrelated to this trip)  that interested me. There's a singer called Sixto Rodriguez. He's Hispanic. He puts out two albums in 1968 and 1971. Between them they sell 15 copies in the US. Record label drops him and he goes back to working as a labourer. 
Meanwhile he sells 500,000 records in South Africa and is bigger than Elvis and Bob Dylan there. Doesn't see a dime in royalties and is oblivious to the fact that he's famous. Gets rediscovered in 1999 if u don't mind. 30 years later!!! Plays at the Glastonbury festival LAST YEAR!! He's over 70. It's just a large scarcely believable story and made into a doco... Searching for Sugar man. Incredible.
The music still holds up pretty well which us also pretty extraordinary.

Last day - here's a snack being offered on the ferry - it's crickets!


The group mooching about


Another picture of us - helmets on.


Us at the finish


The Hospital at the finish


Our Guides Rith and Tree


Packing up to come home


Post ride analysis to follow..




Monday 18 August 2014

Day 6 - Kampong Cham to Preyveng 108k

Sup'

We visited a school in Preyveng today. 
If u expand the picture below you'll see on the roof what year the school was built - again via funds raised by Tabitha. Heres a clue - it was 2010. 


Here's the school itself next door

We learnt to count to 10 in Cambodian and the kids to 10 in Australian accented English. Kids optimism and curiosity is obviously a universal trait but we got a very visible reminder of that. 
There were kids parents and grandmothers in the crowd.
One woman who looked old by western standards but may possibly have been not much older than us asked us when we were coming back and when we told her next year she asked if we could hurry up as she could be dead by then.! To which the crowd chuckled heartily. !They seemed somehow closer to the ebb and flow of life in the natural world than we are.

This is the kids and group in the first class room

Something I read in a bicycling magazine once said something like ... nothing connects you to the road and a place like sweat.
I feel that. Your bike and your actual self are physically connecting to the ground. 

I struggle physically with this ride. It's hot, it's bumpy , you are chafed, I can't keep food down and it's 1000ks so it's not like u do a fast 50 or 100k and u r done. But what happens is that the ride carves you up and hollows you out and 
the schools you go to, and quality guys like Rith and Rohm, and all the people you meet and the stories you hear just keep filling you back up again and more.

I spoke to a lady connected with the Tabitha foundation about that school . Turns out she lives in East Perth. She told me after the last house build project there was a ceremony  where a decorative bedding item is handed over with the house. She said one of the mothers got up and said in a week or a month you may not remember our faces but we will remember yours until the day we die.
She hasn't been able to relay that story without tears since.

People who ride 1000k in a week in pretty taxing conditions are going to be nothing if not dogged. Big Matty T was trying valiantly to get a quorum to go karaoke ing. We stopped off at this place on the way home from the local restaraunt. Everybody's fucked and ready for bed - except Matty. We have a quick look - absolute shithouse. No takers and no enthusiasm . Most of us back on the bus. Matty works on everyone in the group individually until a few people slump
Inside. Fuck it- one more day to go
What a great night and idea !!
The guides were singing Cambodian karaoke songs, the piss got colder the more ice we chucked in it and we all started singing better as  the night went on.
Large!

Sammy g and Rith.

Kazumi tearing it up and Johnny Rey ....sort of half tearing it up and half resting it up.

Johnny Rey and I seating it up


Woo hoo. Back with the final day soon

Jog on sisters


Saturday 16 August 2014

Day 6 - Preyveng

Just to break things up a little here's a couple of snaps from last night.
  Went to a local restaurant and Matty talbot asked the mama San to sew up his split bike shorts. Not sure she was expecting that. 
On the way home he talked us in to a family karaoke night. After some very real resistance; 


That's Matty giving it some. Fist clenched, head back, shorts stitched up...
I'll have to come back to Matty as he needs a post of his own


That's a picture if me keeping my beer cold


You just try and grab that microphone off Sammy G , not happening. 

Here's one of me and Rith, our guide from last year. Awesome rider , awesome man and doesn't mind a beer



Back with day 5 shortly.
Woo hoo


Friday 15 August 2014

Day 5. Phnom Penh to Kampong Cham 108k

Long day but really interesting.
Lot of trails and lots of river crossings.
We went to Sik island
Here's the first ferry

Here's the second



We met a group of school kids upstairs on this ferry who were talking about what they wanted to do when they left school etc. The subject of our funny jerseys came up and after telling them what we were doing there , the spokesman for the group nodded sagely and said ... 
... your group is very fat...
You just don't get enough of that stuff in 2014.

This is a picture of Rohm and I. This was Rohms first year- he was the driver and the general go to man. 
We were just chatting and killing some time waiting for yet another ferry when we thought we'd take a selfie. 

Same stop - big Johnny Ray  ( Reyner) and Kazumi taking. 5 whilst the ferry pulled in


Not asuch infrastructure as you might anticipate at a port

Everyone has settled in to the ride , are ride fit and there's s a rythym and routine to our days and to each other.

I'll be posting days 6 and. 7 tomorrow. We visit a school on day 6 and finish the ride on day. 7. The kids from the school are on holiday but come and see us. Fordy does a very passable job as a teacher and it was a really moving and worthwhile visit.


Day 4 Kirirron to Phnom Penh

101k's
45 degrees 
We mostly all ride together today. Mostly highway.


Not even sure why I took this picture.? A typical snapshot . You'll see from the picture the actual side of the road and the direction you want to travel is largely up to you. It works though. 

Everybody in the group has a rash where their body meets their bike seats. The rash and blisters are only differentiated amongst us all by itheir severity. Today was partly notable for a number of the group experimenting with two sets of nicks. 

We went and had a couple at the FCC the Foreign Corrrespondents Club where the Mekomg River converges with the Tonle Sap. A lot of history in that building. 
 I haven't checked the dates but someone with is told us the Khmer Rouge entered that FCC building in 1975 and told all the press and US sympathisers to leave the city. Only a proportion took that threat seriously. The Rouge came back the next day and shot everybody still there. 

Big Nick has gone the half dozen oysters. Not sure where they originated from but looking out the window at the water we couldn't say a polite no thanks quickly enough when he generously offered them around. The big man was more lateral than vertical the following day. He does everything with relish the big boy. He's a mate of jonesys and had bbq's through the year to raise money for this. Then he and his missy ( Karen ) took their holidays to come and support Jonesy  - and now us !  - from his motorbike. No helmet, no sunblock - just a big Australian man going hard. He'll drive ahead, pull under a bridge and be swimming with the locals as we cycle past. If it wasn't for his genuine and instantly likeable demeanoir I think he'd scare the shit out of most villagers.

More of a fun day tomorrow. We cross the Mekong 3 times on ferries. Quite a bit of interaction with the locals, some quite cool photos and a couple of gems from some school kids we meet. 

We're coming home hard baby




Day 3 - Kampong Chhnang to Kirrirom 177k

Where do I start?

I was thinking about not boring you with the detail but on reflection thought id do my best to describe the  toughest day I, and I'd suspect most of my little riding buddies, have ever had.


Just on 180k at less than 20kph.
Almost all of it off road, rutted and at times very sandy.
All of it into the wind.
Trucks throwing up dust in a thick blanket settling on to you
6.00am til 7.30 at night.
All of that and the temperature in the mid forties til late afternoon.
In a word - brutal.

Hardest day I've ever had - period.

I was overheated for a lot of that day ( Tuesday - Have been having some technical difficulties getting my posts uploaded hence the lag. )

Went very close to hopping in the van on more than one occasion. 
Common sense and your iiq tells you one thing but there's competing voices isn't there. 
A large part of that day was spent very close to despair.

How funny is this particular post so far!!

A lot of little kindnesses helped everybody.

Couple of pics, the pics are of nice scenery most of the road was closer to Hades when u were riding it. 
One of our early stops



Got to the hotel out the back of beyond Fordy organized some spring rolls and I was in bed in 10 minutes or so, 

He had some beers to attend to.

Air con stopped working at 12.30pm just to keep the surprises coming.
Not a day any of us will be forgetting in a hurry. 
The support crew were exhausted also. What a performance, Nick, Karen and Kazumi. 

Next update and day later today or tomorrow. Might even try and up the entertainment component. 



Monday 11 August 2014

Day 2. Battambang to Kampong Chhnang

Jesus.
205 kilometers.
Nearly 12 hours on the road with the bulk of it above 40 degrees.
It got 43.5. The tar was liquifying in sections and sticking to our tyres.
In sections it was arguably hotter than my missus.

We smashed out a solid 60 k to get a decent slab of it out of the way then gradually chewed through the rest in more digestible  25 or 30k chunks. 

Whole group ride the last 20 k together which was terrific.

Rode a lot of today with Steve Jones and a fair bit with Wayne Bradshaw. Here they are at dinner last night.



Jonesy got a flat during the ride today. This how we fix those sorts of problems over here .
None of that namby pamby take it to the bike shop carry on for us.

Our guide Buntry stopped off at a stall on side of the road and picked us up a yummy treat. A delicious dogs head.! I nearly shat myself. I'm so soft I couldn't even bring myself to take a photo of it. 

Massive props to big Sammy Gobran and even bigger Johnny Reynen. Both first timers but just doing it easy. V impressive as was ( sort of ) big Wayne ( Bradders) Bradshaw

I thought today was the hardest day but it turns out tomorrow is almost 200k but nearly 170k is off road. Fuck me!

Fingers crossed peoples. Just need to get through tomorrow then it all gets a little more manageable.

It's 7.30 and there's only four of us left at dinner!!! I'm down to the semi's.

Jog on sisters.






Sunday 10 August 2014

Well, we're underway... Siem Reap to Battonbang 173k

Yo

Up to Fordys on Thursday. He and I shot out for a ride in Singapore Friday morning then Singapore to Siem Reap yesterday.

Took this quick snap at Simgapore airport



Two things, there's only a select group of people who can pull off the camo look, and fortunately Fordys one of them. Secondly if you have a look behind him you'll see he's being photo bombed. Obviously that only ever happens to celebs.

The mercury got up to 39.9 degrees today. That's Celsius ladies and gentlemen. Do you mind!! Day one!
Here's where we stopped for lunch;


Some of the group ate crabs from that river. I liked the idea of it ...but anyone that read last years blog knows I've got the constitution of an infant baby's marshmallow snack.

I personally found the last 25k pretty challenging but big Stevie J ramped back the rpms and coasted in with me. 

Different group this year, slightly different vibe but travelled just as beautifully as a unit. 

Hopefully it'll be just as hot tomorrow as it's a not for the faint hearted 203 Cambodian kilometers tomorrow. Hammer time. 

I've been talking plenty about how id learnt from last year and how I'd be drinking my fair share of beer this year - it's taken less than a day for everyone to see through that shit.

I haven't struck a blow since finishing the ride. Right, kit up and off to join the group

Where da party at?



Wednesday 6 August 2014

It's a happening thing..

And it's happening to you..

Off to join most of the other riders in Singapore early tomorrow morning.

Had a cup of coffee with one of last years riders , Hollywood Johnny Harris today for a last minute catch up and see if he had any advice for this year. Keep your lunch off the bigger kids he proffered. That's bullshit obviously. He is disappointed not to be coming this year and will be sorely missed.

Last ride in Perth yesterday with medium Brendy. Pulled over and took a last snap of Perth.



Before I sign off I caught up with my old cocker spaniel big Grizzy Grogan a few weeks back in a bike shop / cafe in Wembley . He'd come to a fairly spectacular stop out the front just in case id missed the fact that the luxury import he'd pulled up in was less than 24 hours old.

Anyway , we 've not long ordered, grabbed a table and sat down when a guys asked if he can join us. 
All good . He's reading the West Australian drinking his coffee and saying hello . Finishes the sport section at the back of the paper and rests his coffee on the next page - which is the naughty girl ads. 
Just planning the rest of your day there Horse ? I wittily observe to keep the convy rolling.

He says, what I do is when my workmates head off to lunch i circle a couple of ads in bright red texter , and then leave the paper open on that page and prominently positioned on their desk for all their other workmates to see and draw their own conclusions . Not bad.

At this rate there will be another post up before the weekend. It 's nearly go time.

Jog on sisters. 


Sunday 3 August 2014

Anyway, as I was saying...

What's uupppp? 

For regular readers you may have cottoned on to the fact that I've been underperforming on several fronts for months, including;

1 News flow, and
2 The overly ambitious jack and john get fit project.

That's all behind us now...

Hasn't been an ideal preparation for Cambodia peeps but it wasn't last year either and we managed to lurch our way through. No reason we can't again this year.
 
Two or three months ago I was riding the best I've ever ridden. Could not have gone worse since. Flu, abscess under my tooth, busy at work and chubbed up, just a nightmare.

Brend and I eked out a workmanlike 100k yesterday and Rich and I laboured thru another 100k this morning. Can't go back in time what we've done will have to do.

This is what it looked like out there at daybreak this morgan


As anybody who has read a few of these posts would have picked up on, sometimes there's a huge amount of enjoyment to be found is some unlikely places. 

Last year you might recall I was pretty delighted about a zoo in China getting fined for replacing their lion (after it died) with an employees raggedy arsed pet dog that looked a little like a lion. 
Patrons twigged when it barked.

Have a geek at this.


A mate of mine is shedding a few kilo's and is doing it quite successfully. I've been doing some work in his office and he's often got this 40 gallon drum tucked under his wing . That's an in the flesh protein shake alongside the super sized mega container of protein powder not far away from being hoovered down


It's not until you really drill into the data that you discover how close to the frontier of science this stuff is closing in on.
For starters it's called Hydroxy Burn Pro Clinical. I know as much about the medical profession as the next bloke but if I'm to be completely frank I'm not entirely clear what that actually means in that sentence construction .

What I do know is that it's the High Protein Lean and Ripped Formula.! So even though it's chocolate flavored you just literally keep throwing it at yourself and watch yourself get ripped.! It's awesome!


And, Its only $90!!!!

If there's any left I'm grabbing a couple.

Now... I'm off to Singapore this Thursday, the 7th August, bunker down with Fordy Thursday and Friday nights, then we scuttle off to Siem Reap in Cambodia on Saturday morning. 

There's a bit to catch up on - I'll post again  shortly. Anyone new to this blog oldest to newest will make more sense.

The ride starts this Sunday.

Would love to hear your comments or feedback. Get on board.