John Quinn - cycling in Cambodia: 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!