Aomori to Tokyo, via the east coast

23rd July 2018
Narita Airport, Tokyo, Japan
A very pleasant 22c inside T3
Outside a sweltering 39.6c

Yes, we are in Tokyo in the midst of the worst heatwave for 40 years.  However, we are on our way to The Gold Coast where Mr Weatherman tells me it's 23c and sunny.  We can live with that.  My last post was from Hokkaido where we were still wearing 3 layers of clothing and trying to shelter from a freezing wind coming from Siberia.  But that all changed very quickly indeed.

Dave, and the misting sunflowers

The ride from Chitose to Hakodate took us around 2 lakes and along some not very memorable roads, towards the ferry to Aomori.  The most memorable part of the trip were the bear warnings, several of them that included words like 'infestation' and 'dangerous'.  We didn't see any, thank goodness, but it's all very real if you listen to the number of bear bells people wear and the signs in local shops.  The other thing about those last few days on Hokkaido was the light was so poor I barely took any photographs, which is a shame.

Yep, bears, and they are dangerous

The ferry journey over to Aomori was smooth and uneventful, with us being the only foreigners on the boat yet again.  At Aomori the weather turned rather wet again so we stayed put for a couple of nights and we're very glad we did, we really liked the city.  The Nebuta Festival happens every August between 2nd and 7th, where enormous lantern floats, drummers, musicians and dancers all parade through the city.  We were fortunate to be able to see the floats for this year's festival being constructed, and, at the museum saw several of the floats and masks from last year's festival displayed beautifully.  They were truly magnificent.

From Aomori we set out towards the east coast and intended to go to Towada but we were thwarted by a 'Car Only' road which Maps.me doesn't seem to know about.  We were to find several of these roads on Honshu and while the cars got to travel along flatish roads, through brand new tunnels and landscapes, the cyclists and trucks got to climb several hundred metres at a time in order to go around.  Thanks guys!  This meant we ended up on the 123, which started off OK but turned into a beautiful forest track.  Fifteen kilometres later we were STILL on a forest track, in the middle of the forest, with absolutely no way of seeing where we were headed.  Needless to say, forest tracks are much more time consuming than good old asphalt so several hours later we were still nowhere near our destination.  Finally, track turned to asphalt, we changed direction slightly and ended up near Misawa.  Oh well that's what adventures are made of.

Beautiful countryside, planted up

We had decided to take the east coast knowing we would be witnessing the aftermath of the 2011 Tsunami.  Seven years on and, after all, this is Japan we thought, they'll have sorted most of it out by now.  How wrong we were.  I remember seeing the terrifying footage when it happened, all that water forcing its way into towns and cities, but really we had no idea of the extent of the damage or the distances involved.  I also remember the reports coming out of the Fukushima Nuclear plant, those words 'there is steam coming from the cooling towers' were etched on everyone's brain because many of us remember Chernobyl and the devastation THAT caused, and is still causing, we knew what those words meant.

Huge sea wall

Look out tower and tsunami sign

From Misawa we began our route south towards Hachinohe and onto Kuji where we would witness the first of the tsunami damage.  Kuji is 335 miles north of Sendai, where the  earthquake measuring 9.1, hit.  It was 10kms deep and it took an hour for the tsunami to start its journey.  As we made our way further south along the east coast each area hit by the tsunami seemed to be worse than the previous.  The water seemed to come in a bit further, or take out more of a town or village, or more people died or were missing.  As you can imagine, the coastline is very different in all those areas, and as such the reparations and defences they are putting in place are different for each area.  Some have giant, 30 metre plus, concrete sea walls, others have pyramid structures which will divert the water in and around, presumably to cause less damage.  Others have the water diverted upwards in order to slow the flow down, we also saw channels where water would be forced to flow down and across land.

Another type of defence

The signs all along the coastline constantly tell us how many metres above sea level we are, even if that is just 1.5 metres.  We saw two kinds of signs the 'past' tsunami indundation area signs as well as 'estimated', presumably the computer modelled estimation of what might happen if there was another in the future.  It hit home to me one particular day, cycling up the first of many hills, when at 39 metres above sea level I passed a 'past tsunami inundation end' sign.  I thought 'shit, I'm cycling up a hill, miles from the sea and the water came up this far'.  It was then I began to think about how terrifying it must have been to have been involved in such a terrible distaster.  In Sendai, the water penetrated the land by 10 kms!

The only sign we saw referring to 'Tidal Wave' all the others referred to 'Tsunami'

The going was hilly for the first week, climbing 500-600 metres each day, one day it was over 1200 metres, and the weather was still a bit iffy, albeit much warmer than Hokkaido.  In fact, the moment we arrived in Aomori we noticed the change in temperature immediately, at least a 10c gain, so the rain we experienced was not freezing as in Hokkaido, we were grateful for that, as well as the lack of bear signs, phew!  At this time the west coast was seeing terrible floods as a result of a typhoon coming up from the south, we just got the tail end of that which resulted in a day of rain and some dense fog.

By the time we reached Kamaishi and Kesennuma the devastation was pretty horrific.  There was either nothing, everything had been flattened, or, it was new.  Some larger buildings survived in Kesennuma but many were flushed away with the flood.  There's a video on YouTube which will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, watch it if you can.

Michi-no-eki, showing flood level after the tsunami

We made our way to Sendai, a lovely city, seemingly recovered from the 10km inundation they experienced, where we spent a couple of nights before setting off on our final leg towards Tokyo.  It was at Minamisoma that we discovered it wasn't possible to carry on cycling on the 6 because of the exclusion zones which were still in place around Fukushima.  It took a very concerned 7/11 employee to alert us to the fact that it was 'dangerous'.  I suppose we envisaged signs, or barriers, of some kind informing us we couldn't go any further, especially when we know that the Japanese are SO safety conscious, but there was nothing.  We now know that we would only have been turned back at the outer edge of the exclusion zone, but that was another 10 kms, so we would have had another 20kms added to the 10kms we were already going to have to backtrack to go around the zone.

Having ascertained we couldn't go on we sat down to work out a route around, at which point a Japanese man, in his 50s I guess, came to talk to us.  We think the 7/11 employee, knowing he spoke some English, had told him about us.  He too was very concerned that we understand we couldn't cycle through the exclusion zones.  He said the only road we could take was the 12, that meant we had to backtrack and go into the mountains, it would add at least 2 days to our journey, but we had allowed plenty of time so we weren't too concerned.  He told us that more than 100 people had died since the disaster, 'blood cancer, but nobody wants to talk about it'.

We chatted to him for sometime.  He had been to England in the past, he mentioned Trinity College Cambridge although whether he studied there or just visited we don't know.  He spoke at least 3 languages (Japanese, Spanish and English) and was clearly an educated man, however, he worked as a security guard.  This came out during a conversation about unemployment levels in the UK and Japan, I'm guessing he would rather not be a security guard.  After a good 15 minutes or so, just before he left us, 4 police officers turned up and went into the 7/11, shortly after they came out and spoke to us, all had mobile phones in hand with translation and map apps at the ready.  After some toing and froing we reassured them that we knew what the situation was and we would definitely be going to ride up the 12 and into the mountains. 

One of the officers still seemed agitated so I fired up the mic on Google Translate (luckily we had wifi at the 7/11) and gave it to him to speak into.  I still have it on my phone, he said 'the store clerk thought you would be here forever', at which point Dave and I burst out laughing thinking it was his idea of a joke.  Stony faces all round, we were the only ones who thought this was funny.  Then the penny dropped, the 7/11 clerk had CALLED the Police, rather than it being some kind of coincidence.  Jeez, this was turning into one hell of a day.

So we backtracked towards the 12, it was midday by this time and already in the mid 30s (the temperatures were starting to soar at this point) but we decided to start tackling the hills anyway.  A lovely young man stopped us to give us 2 bottles of cold, green tea on the longest stretch, so that was nice.  It was along this stretch that we noticed the toxic waste piles, all covered over with plastic.  At first we didn't know what it was but then it dawned on us, they are piling it up in the mountains because they don't know what to do with it.  Subsequent research confirms this to be the case.  What on earth is going to happen?

Storing toxic waster from Fukushima at Iidate

The road around Fukushima

The detour turned out to be a rather lovely, but hilly, affair.  Some of the villages we rode through had the most beautiful old houses, some of them lovingly restored others falling into complete disrepair. The hills were covered in trees, I had no idea there was SO much forest in Japan, so many hues of green.  The rice paddies and the flowers, the allotments and rivers and streams, it was all so picturesque.

Rustic shrine

The easiest route would have been to join Highway 4 straight south but we had touched on it further north and because it was a main trunk road it was busy, and dirty, so we headed back to the coast to join the 6 again.  There was less devastation after this point, still some reminders of the tsunami but not as much as further north.  At Hitachi we headed inland towards Tokyo.  It became clear at this point that Japan was in the midst of an unprecedented heatwave.  More than 30 people have died from heatstroke or heat-related illnesses as for the 10th day in a row temperatures have exceeded 38c, higher in some places. 

While we were in the north Osaka experienced an earthquake, measuring 5.5, killing 4 people and injuring almost 500.  Not long after the earthquake there were devastating floods on the west coast as a result of a typhoon.  Japan really does get it's fair share of terrible weather.  Our friend we met outside the 7/11 pointed out that perhaps Japan is NOT the place for a nuclear power plant, given its tendencies towards such weather, especially not in Fukushima, what with the mountains and the rain that helped the disaster along immensely.  We experienced at least 3 aftershocks, measuring only 2.2 - 2.7 (they were listed on the Japan Meteorological website) where the buildings shook and there was quite a lot of whooness going on, but those around us didn't seem to notice.

Cycling into Tokyo was incredibly easy.  Right up until the last 5kms it felt like we were riding through a lot of joined up villages until BOOM, suddenly you arrive.  But even then, the BOOM is nothing compared to other cities, drivers are still driving nice and calmly, slowly even, and incredibly courteous, it's all very harmonious.  The first bike shop we stopped at had 2 bike boxes, thankfully, so we folded them up and attached them to the bikes making them look a little like flying machines.  We enlisted the assistance of one of the receptionists who spoke good English to help us sort out the bikes getting to the airport, we used Sagawa, a transportation company, the total cost was yen 10,000, worth it when you consider the alternative - carrying 2 boxed bikes (how?) plus panniers to the station, on the train, into the airport in almost 40c.  Nah.

Flying!

We were in Ueno, a lovely district in Tokyo with a fantastic park (the coolest place to be) sporting an Australian - Japanese Friendship festival, they must have known where we were headed :)  We spent a wonderful evening with Markus (Luisa's partner, Luisa is Dave's cousin, living in Canada) wem metat the Tokyo American Club (where they do a mean gin and tonic by the way) and then hopped in a taxi to Andy's izakaya, a small 'under the railway arches' eatery, run by Andy from Leicester, although he's been in Japan forever.  It was while we were filling our boots from the liquor vending machines (also under the arches) that we met Graham, who joined us to eat.  Markus ordered the food, which was amazing, and the drinks, which were strong, and a fantastic time was had by all.  Markus missed his train back to Chiba, we managed to find our way back to Ueno, we waved goodbye to Graham not knowing what was going to happen to him.  Hopefully, he made it home.  We were a little fuzzy around the edges the following day, but we had such a great time, thanks Markus a fitting farewell to Tokyo and Japan.

Markus, our host for the evening

Andy, he's done this before hasn't he?

Talking of farewells, we were in Japan for over 2 months, the longest we've been anywhere on this trip so to try and talk about EVERYTHING is nigh on impossible, but here are some highlights:

Pachinko slot machines - these institutions are EVERYWHERE, even in the wilds of Hokkaido, many of them with pictures of scantily clad women beckoning you in.

Eateries - So many of them, from the tiniest hole in the wall to the absolutely huge.  There are chains like Hotto Motto, Big Boy (yes, that's right), Sukaya, CoCo Curry and many, many more where you can have a set meal for a reasonable price, about 5 quid.  There are a couple of cheap sushi chains (name escapes me, but it will always have sushi in the name :) where you get a plate of sushi for yen100/150 (2 pieces).  Convenience stores are great places to eat and drink cheaply, meals you microwave or noodles (all shops have hot water) coffee for less than a quid, a many of them have seats, wifi and USB points to charge up.  Expect to eat a lot of noodles, we ate our own body weight while there.

Seasons - it's possible to return to Japan, year on year, at different times of the year, and still not see everything.  You can ski in the winter, follow the Sakura in spring, see any number of festivals all year round, lavender in Hokkaido in the summer and the list goes on.  Seriously, there is SO much to see, we were here for over 2 months and saw very little.

Accommodation - if you want to stay in hotels in Japan the cheapest way is either dorm or capsule.  A room will set you back 45-75 quid, for an average, but always spotlessly clean, room.  The downside of Japanese hotels being scrupulously clean is that to do all that cleaning they need time, so they tend to have late check ins (3-4pm) and early checkouts (10-11am) and don't try and check in early, you will be charged yen 1000 per hour!  There are plenty of free camping sites and of course the Michi-no-ekis mentioned previously, I suggest joining the Free Camping and Hot Springs group on FB for more information.  Parks are a favourite of touring cyclists, there's always a 24 hr toilet block (clean, with toilet paper and drinking water) although don't expect a lie-in, cleaning usually starts around 6am, so there'll be people milling around, walking the dog, exercising, practicing their saxophone etc.  The Japanese are early risers.

Rubbish - there are no bins, you are expected to take your rubbish 'home' with you, but what if you have no home to go to?  Convenience stores have recycle bins, and on Honshu we found most of them would take the 'combustible' rubbish, but in Hokkaido only plastics and definitely no glass - our empty wine bottles were usually bagged up and left in one of the rubbish cages (bear-proof) on the edge of the road.


Countryside and Gardens - I had no idea Japan had so much forest and it's all ridiculously green.  It's also very mountainous, so beware going off piste into the hills, some of them are long and steep.  The Japanese love their gardens and they are all incredibly orderly.  Often the front garden is a little allotment, growing vegetables and flowers alongside rice paddies.

Hot Springs - I discovered that I actually like my own company when it comes to bathing and Dave really wasn't bothered especially when he discovered he would have to cover up his tattoo to enter an Onsen (Yakuza not allowed) so we didn't bother with them most of the time, although I understand the attraction of sitting in some of the natural springs, with a fab view and nobody else around, I get that!

People - We have loved the Japanese people.  They are so respectful, kind, considerate, unassuming and very incurious.  While you may feel like a right Gringo and not understand anything that's going on around you nobody will stare at you, but they will help you out if you need it.  Like the lovely man who took our bag of rubbish from us on the beach saying 'to my home', with a very deep, respectful bow.  How kind is that?  He would have had to dig around in our rubbish to recycle it, that's what I call doing someone a favour.  There are so many examples of kindness I can't list them here.  The other thing to note is that Japan is one of the safest countries we've every visited.  We left our money belt on top of the bike one day, went shopping for an hour, when we finally realised we didn't have it and went back to the bike a little apprehensive, there it was, exactly where we left it.

Wifi - download the Japan Free Wifi app and sign up to it, you can search and login to any free wifi (most convenience stores have it).  We managed without personal wifi most of the time we were in Japan.

Wildlife - The bears, of course, but the butterflies - they are SO plentiful and beautiful, caterpillars, frogs, toads, birds (some incredibly noise and others just huge) and spiders.

Culture - Temples and shrines, you don't have to go far to see these.  Some are more famous than others but I found myself drawn to the smaller, more rustic examples, usually in the backend of nowhere, and with not a soul to disturb my wanderings.  Festivals, music, art - OMG everywhere you go the country is oozing all this stuff, don't expect to do too much on your first visit.

Wrapping up - Japan has been absolutely amazing, the best place we've visited this trip, can't recommend it enough to both cyclists and general tourists.  It was a bit of a slow burn for me, I don't know why, maybe the initial culture shock took time to wear off, but wear off it did.  Neither of us can believe we've actually left, but here we are, 8.5 hours later on the big silver bird and we're in Australia.  G'day mate!

Laters

Northern South Korea and Northern Japan

9th June 2018
Dormy Inn Wakannai, Hokkaido, Japan
Cool and overcast but the sun is peeking through

The reason we're staying in the lovely Dormy Inn is because the forecast was for extreme cold and rain.  The extreme cold came with a vengeance, overnight when we weren't looking, in the guise of 3c with a wind chill factor making it feel like -5c.  It was then we realised just how far north and close to Russia we are, in fact Vladivostok is to the south of us there are ferries to Russia and all the street signs are in both Russian and Japanese.  The rain, thankfully, did not materialise.  But the clouds are clearing and we're hopeful that tomorrow will be a lovely day.  Fingers crossed.

Five layers of clothing

My last post was from a spa/ski resort in South Korea call Sunbeo, it was raining then too.  From Sunbeo we wound our way up north towards Seoul and eventually Incheon, where we would eventually fly to Sapporo in Hokkaido.  One of the most interesting areas of the 4Rivers cycle path is the Mungyeong area where it feels as though the mountains are getting squished together, closer to the river than at any other time.  Maybe it's where tectonic plates meet, I don't know.  In any case, the river is forced to take many twists and turns and it's all in all very beautiful.

Local camping spot on the river

I've got to hand it to Korean Water (publicly owned body that looks after the dams, bridges and water structures and supply in South Korea) they know how to keep cyclists interested in their bridges.  Many of them very grand and often with lovely artworks, or buildings, often a bit 'other wordly'.

Bridge at night

Another bridge

We were entertained along the way by wild animals and the Korean version of the Red Arrows were training for an event so we got to see them doing their formations on two occasions.  Generally though we just enjoyed the peaceful nature of the path.  Weekends can be a bit hectic, specially if you're near a city, but the rest of the time we had the path to ourselves.  We were able to camp in beautiful, sunny meadows, or, close to the river, only once did we feel exposed to several noisy roads, literally we were between 3 motorways and a couple of minor roads, however, the next day we discovered if we had just gone on a few more kms we would have been in a lovely little spot by the river.

Eventually we made our way to Seoul and the busiest part of the path.  Many old railway tunnels take you into the city and like most cities, just when you think you're there, you notice it's another 10kms to get you to your destination.  Unlike most cities though, the cycle path goes right into the centre of Seoul, making it rather easy and if it hadn't been for the rain we would have been happy peddlars all the way in.

We found ourselves near Hongik University, a very trendy but cheap area of the city, where you can drink, eat and shop to your heart's content.  We did some sightseeing and went to the fabulous Dongdaemum building, designed by the British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid. While we were there we spotted some ole Bristol friends, Wallace and Gromit.  Someone didn't do the proofreading!

We didn't make it to the DMZ because there is a strict dress code in place and sandals are prohibited.  Apparently, the North Koreans take photographs of scruffy sandal-clad westerners and use them as propaganda, presumably in a 'look at them, the filthy Johnny Foreigners' kind of way, so we didn't go but we weren't that bothered.  We'd had plenty of American air activity in the week leading up to our visit to Seoul, Chinooks, F16s (or whatever their jets are called) and they all looked like they were on a bit of a mission.  We learned later that Trump had just cancelled talks with the North Koreans.

The Korean Red Arrows

We made our way from Seoul to Incheon to catch our flight to Sapporo.  Incheon airport is on an island, Yeongjongdo, so after getting our final stamp in our cycle passports we headed for the ferry terminal.  As we rounded the corner we found ourselves in a theme park, we thought we'd been transported to Barry Island.  Not our cup of tea.  Once on the island it was the most weird experience.  We had spotted a very large green area close to the ferry terminal, and thought we'd head there to pitch for the night.  It was all rather ghostly.  The 'Beach Park' was obviously new, had all the parking, toilet facilities, playgrounds and water fountains installed, and had been for sometime, but there was nobody there.  The streets were all new but there were no cars and the very tall apartment blocks (lots of them) were all empty. 

Another bridge

As we cycled closer to the airport the theme continued.  Lots of building work, brand new 4-6 lane highways but no people and no cars.  Most odd.  Getting into the airport on a bicycle proved even more tricky because of all the building work and when we were stopped by men in uniform at the gates to what seemed to be the entrance to the airport, much time was spent trying to explain to us it was not possible to cycle to the airport.  We made all the right noises about getting the train but then just carried on cycling, eventually arriving at Departures.

We were flying the next day but wanted to make sure we had everything covered as far as the bikes were concerned, after all, Eastar Jet are a budget airline.  We had purchased 15kg each for the panniers and the t&cs informed us that bicycles could be transported for W10,000, that's only just over 6 quid.  The conversation went something like this:

Me:  We are flying to Sapporo tomorrow and we have bicycles (points to fully loaded bicycle) and we just want to find out what we need to do.

Ground staff:  Just turn up here, and I will check them in and you wheel them round to the oversize baggage (she spoke good English)

Me:  Are you sure we don't need to bag them, or box them?

Ground staff:  No, just turn up here, and I will check them in and you wheel them round to the oversize baggage

Me:  Oh, so we know we need to pay to transport them, where do we do that?

Ground staff:  Here, at this desk (points to check in desk)

Me:  Oh, so we definitely don't need to wrap them in anything?

Ground staff:  No

We'd had this experience 30 years ago.  Nobody used to box or bag a bike back then, they were just wheeled onto the aircraft and we'd heard that in Indonesia the budget airlines are a bit carefree when it comes to bicycles.  Too good to be true?  Of course it was.  The next day, at 0530 this is what actually happened.

Me:  We need to check in these bicycles and our baggage, on the flight to Sapporo

Ground staff:  (Looking rather perplexed, takes our passports) Wait here.  A few minutes later.  You have to go to Packaging Area, Gate A.

Me:  We were told yesterday we just had to bring the bikes here, no packaging, no boxes

Ground staff:  (Smiling at me as though I'm the cutest puppy dog she's ever seen) No, you have to go to Packaging Area, Gate A.

Me:  (looking at the time, we have exactly 1.5 hrs till the flight closes) you mean get them boxed?

Ground staff:  Yes

So off we go, find two likely lads working in the packaging area who do a fine job and charge us W80,000 that's the equivalent of 53 quid.  Just as they're finishing up Ground Staff Lady comes to tell us we're running out of time, yes, it's 3 mins till check in closes.

However, that's when the fun really begins because Check-in Lady is now asking us to weigh the bikes.  At this point we know this is going to cost us an arm and a leg.  

Me:  Why do you want to weigh them?  They cost W10,000 per bicycle (takes out computer with t&cs, shows Check in Lady who is now frowning).

Check in Lady:  No, only domestic

Me:  You show me where it says only domestic

Check in Lady:  Only domestic

Sports Equipment
Passenger will be charged 10,000won for bicycles(including foldable), Surfboards and Wind surfing equipment regardless of the free baggage allowance in domestic flights.


Me:  OK, so show me your international policy for carrying bicycles

Silence

Ground Staff Lady:  Still smiling, with head cocked to one side, You have to pay

Long story short, after much tooing and froing about policies and weight, the Excess Baggage charges were negotiated down from 37 kilos to 25, but at W10,000 per kilo it doubled the price of our flight.  We made it to the flight with about 5 minutes to spare.  Ah well, tis only money but we could have done without the stress.

Laters

Koh Kong and the Cardamoms

7th December 2017
Aspara Kampot City Hotel, Kampot
Everything has stopped.  It's too hot.

The ride from Koh Kong took us along Highway 48, through the very beautiful Koh Kong Corridor, also known as the South Cardamom Forest.  It's probably the longest stretch of untouched (by palm oil production) jungle we've come across in SE Asia, apart from the East West highway in Malaysia, where for 100kms or so on the eastern side the jungle is (was, in 2009) pristine.

South Cardamom Forest

The road undulates and then climbs up and back down to waterfalls at Tatai.  Directly out of the village there is a fairly steep climb, which everyone had warned us about, but it turned out not to be that steep at all and it's all of 3 kms.  Traffic was light at this point, mostly motorbikes and cars, a few trucks but perfectly doable.  We met 2 Dutch cyclists, brothers, on the road, and they had just come from Trapeung Rung, they recommended asking the police about homestays when we arrived at the checkpoint. 

Ooh, err ...... we weren't lucky enough to see any

We had found homestays on the web, several of which were on Booking.com or another site called Priceline, which I'd never heard of, and we found one we really liked the look of.  We asked around about the homestay but nobody knew where it was, and we simply couldn't work out it's whereabouts given the numerous alleyways and lack of roads.  So after lunch at a local hostelry we set off to ask at the police checkpoint.  Mistake number 1.  We showed the name of the homestay to the officer who could speak a little English, he explained to another officer what we wanted and he immediately got on the phone.  'Sit down' they said.  Fifteen minutes later, just at the point we were wondering what on earth was going on, a young man on a scooter turned up.  He is not, it turns out, from the homestay we asked for at all, but quite clearly a tout.  Of course he wanted to take us to somewhere that did eco tours, was 'only' $8 a night and very friendly.  When I said we wanted to go to THAT particular homestay they said 'no more'.  Oh yes, that old ruse.  So now we have a situation where the police have a tout working for them and no doubt everyone is getting some kind of kickback. 

It is now the hottest part of the day and the sun has decided to come out with a vengeance.  We are hot, tired and in desperate need of a shower and cold beer.  So we give in and go with the tout, not before telling him that a) we are not paying $8 (the going rate is $5) and b) if we don't like it we won't be staying at all.  The room was OK.  The bathroom had a squat loo and a mandi (you bathe by swishing cold water from a large receptacle).  It didn't look anywhere near as nice as the one we would have liked to go to, but hey ....... We got the room for $5 but I wonder how much the landlady received, given all the hassle and work that goes with renting a room to foreigners, after the police and tout had their cut. 

Sunset at Trapeung Rung

The next day we come down out of the jungle and reach Botum Sakor.  It was still early so we ate and then carried on to Sre Ambel.  About 10kms from our destination we happened upon 3 more cyclists, 2 French and 1 Dutch.  After a long chat and exchange of details, the French were going in the direction we had just come, but Jack was heading our way so we set off together.  We arrived in Sre Ambel just as school was finishing and suddenly we were engulfed by children on bicycles, or foot, all shouting 'hello'.  The next thing I was being taken by a young lady to 'her guesthouse' while Jack had been accosted by a gentleman who wanted to show him his place.  We ended up staying at different guesthouses (I think Jack's was better than ours but I couldn't bear to say 'no' to the girl who had escorted me through the village) but we met up later and ate at the restaurant also belonging to the young lady.

On the road to Sre Ambel

We said our goodbyes as Jack was heading towards Phnom Penh, while we were cutting off south to Kampot and Kep.  However, next morning, just as we're about to take the turning for Kampot, along comes Jack, so we stopped and took a farewell photograph.

By now Highway 48 is full of traffic, mostly trucks.  Sections of the road are being re-graded so the rain from the night before was by now quite muddy, bright red mud!  We mostly cycle on the asphalt lane to the side of the highway, sometimes being forced off by the trucks.  Twice more that day we bumped into cyclists, one from Switzerland and one from Russia.  In case you're counting, that's 7 in 2 days!

At Veal Renh we find a pleasant, new (in fact they are still building the top floor) Chinese-run hotel for $10, although the room has a distinct cabbage odour emanating from the bathroom.  So out comes my trusty disinfectant spray purchased in Germany as an antidote to smelly shoes but we have since discovered has a whole plethora of uses, and the cabbage smell miraculously disappears, for all of an hour.  That evening we are reminded of the trials and tribulations of shopping for half decent food when on the backroads of countries like Cambodia.  Snacks and whisky abound, but what we're looking for is something that will go with peanut butter or just some nice biscuits will do.  We find a little cake shop which has to suffice, and actually, the swissroll-like affair was quite nice.

Children playing and one of them being a 'cheeky chappy'

Whooah!

The traffic lessens and we are seeing rice paddies, water buffalo and freshly harvested rice is drying on mats in the intense heat.  As we get closer to Kampot there are more and more stalls selling food and other commodities.  It's the dry season and that means weddings, hence the competitions being run by beer companies to win a honeymoon and $3,000 spending money.  Wedding venues are popping up all along the side of the road.

Drying rice, praying it doesn't rain

Could have done with a dip myself at this point!

We arrive in Kampot at 1130 and head straight for one of the 'traveller' cafes for breakfast.  BW has the full monty and I have fruit salad with yogurt; we both have a banana milkshake.  We find the hotel and after a cold can of Angkor beer each virtually pass out in the heat.  Around 4pm, when the sun has waned, we wander around this lovely old town.  I think we're going to like it here in Kampot.

Kampot

Laters

Cambodia here we come

29^th November 2017

Pop Hostel, Trat

Hot and humid, with a breeze

Trat is the place to be if you want to take a boat to Koh Chang.  It's also the main transport hub from Thailand to Cambodia if you're using the Hat Lek border crossing.  We've been reading up on border scams which includes a fine for no passport photo (we now have 4, although what they do with them is a bit of a mystery), a bogus health inspection certificate (apparently we just ignore the request and walk straight through) and several other dubious practices that backpackers need to be aware of most of which involve the transport companies overcharging. 

We left Highway 3 for a while, travelling along the lovely coast road between Rayong and Laem Maephim and we were very pleasantly surprised to find a cycle path.  So much more relaxed, less traffic and generally greener, plus the added bonus of beautiful beaches.  Interestingly, European beaches usually have sunbeds laid out in twos, with an umbrella and table to share.  In Thailand, the deckchairs and tables are set up for families, usually 6-8 people, and eating and drinking is a favourite activity suitably catered for by the many permanent stalls on the beach, or, the travelling carts selling drinks and snacks, ringing bells to advertise their wares. 

Bike path, lasted for a couple of hundred kms

Family deckchair setup

But return to Highway 3 we must.  The road begins to undulate approx. 20kms before Trat, otherwise it's dead flat.  One particularly hot lunch time I spotted this poor guy, up a ladder, trying to fix whatever was wrong with the hundreds of wires entering and leaving this particular junction.  He wasn't even breaking a sweat.  Meanwhile, some girl guides were being led through town by a young woman, who, as a younger woman myself would have called a 'bossy moo'!  She got to wave the flag and shout a lot.

Up a ladder, in 34c, aye aye aye ......

Girl Power!

Trat is a very typical Thai city, not much for the average tourist except transport and accommodation.  There is a fabulous night market selling just about anything you could possibly wish for, and all of it so beautifully presented.  Last night we marvelled at the thousands of Mynah birds hanging around the centre of town.  We're not sure if Mynah's murmurate (is there such a word?) like Starlings, but, they were certainly gathering and making one hell of a noise.

Tomorrow we head down the narrow strip of land belonging to Thailand to the Cambodian border at Hat Lek.  On the left are the Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia, on the right is the ocean.  We are moving on .............

Laters

PS wildlife excitement, yesterday I saw a Raquet-Tailed Drongo!

Heat and grime

24th November 2017
B J Boutique Residence, Rayong
Hot and humid

We thought 5 days of relaxing in Bangkok would have set us up nicely for coming to terms with the heat of being on the road.  To a certain extent it has but when the thermometer jumps from 31 to 35, and the sun makes her presence felt in no uncertain terms, all bets are off.  Regular stops for cold drinks and a little sit down in the shade is definitely the order of the day.  We've become a bit obsessed with cappuccino frappes and our old favourite chocolate milk is back on the menu (there's scientific evidence suggesting recovering after exercise is enhanced by drinking chocolate milk).  Today I "remembered" around the 60km mark that I hadn't eaten since breakfast and started to feel a little peculiar.  Note to self: don't rely on BW to suggest food.

A cappuccino frappe

Highway 3 has been a bit of a bugger to be honest.  The further away from Bangkok we get and the closer to the Cambodian border the lighter the traffic.  We're even getting some jungle now and yesterday we saw a troop of monkeys.  Unfortunately they were picking around in a ditch of horrible trash looking for food, but still .......  In theory we have a lane to ourselves, but more often than not we share it with motorbikes coming in the opposite direction (the barrier in the middle is so high, or deep, they can't just slip across to the side they need to be, so they just ride the wrong way) also cars and trucks who have decided to stop for a drink, to buy some food or simply to have a chat.  It's all very cosy.

A cold drink stop, and we met these lovely pair

Haven't spotted a live one yet!

Highway 3, not ALL bad, some smiles along the way

New housing 'estate' on the outskirts of Rayong,

love the cheesy grin!

We skirted around the main part of Pattaya and ended up staying at Jomtien Beach.  A nice, if narrow, beach in parts crammed with beds and umbrellas for tourists, and the sea was a very acceptable 29c.  Even I went in for a swim. The resort is a mix of new high rise concrete monstrosities and the old, traditional Thai hotels, bars and restaurants.  This morning I was chatting to the lovely lady who cooked our breakfast and it would appear that business has been slow for the past couple of years.  Apparently, tourists now like to go to Laos or Cambodia. We didn't see much of the "sexpats" Pattaya is known for, or at least, it wasn't evident on the streets of Jomtien.

Jomtien

We are now going to comb the outskirts of Rayong for food and a cold beer.  Wish us luck!

Laters