We picked up our scooter as soon as the shop opened, hoping to get an early start and to beat the heat as much as possible. The scooter for this round was not nearly as glamorous as our Vietnam rentals had been- we were assigned an old 50cc with Popeye floor mats. We figured out […]
We rarely travel without a bike, a car, or some other form of transportation, so it was a weird feeling this morning to ride in a tuktuk clear across Siem Reap to the bus station to head toward Phnom Penh. We had booked our tickets at our guesthouse and not given it as much thought […]
Once the day had cooled even a tiny bit, we headed back into town to wander the markets in Siem Reap. We had our eyes on a few things to take home to our families, so we got busy trying to shop. As it turns out, we are two of the world’s worst shoppers. Even […]
Having done Ta Prohm justice, we were back on the road again, but the cool morning was rapidly turning into a blazing hot afternoon. There’s a reason there are so many people selling cold drinks near the temples and we were buying them like crazy. As we pedaled, not toward anything in particular, we stopped frequently […]
Upon planning our trip, something was prominently missing: bicycles. Our time in Vietnam included some of the most rugged, hostile terrain we have ever seen, cycling just wasn’t a realistic option. Cambodia, however, is flat. Bicycle rentals are also seriously cheap (a high-end mountain bike will cost $5 or $6 per day, while entry level […]
As we walked through the old quarter with our friends, a light rain began to fall. Our first instinct was to stop and find some breakfast while we waited for Flamingo Travel to open but we had a hard time finding an open cafe. The only open restaurant seemed targeted toward tourists and as such […]
It was sad to say our final,difficult goodbye to our bikes upon leaving them on the loading platform; we’d had such a great adventure on our scooters in Vietnam! Without our own wheels our mobility was limited so we spent the rest of the evening hanging out at the local park in Lao Cai. We […]
Pulling out of our lovely Lai Chau hotel, we weren’t exactly sure what our last day on the motorbikes would bring us. We knew that we were heading straight into Sapa, one of the most touristy places in Vietnam and had heard reports of constant barrages of sales pitches and overcharging tourists. Since our last […]
Once on the road again, conditions quickly deteriorated into loose gravel, and then into large rocks. After riding about 20 minutes over really rough terrain, the conditions were not improving. Having already gone through several fairly deep mud puddles and been rattled to pieces, we suspected that we might have taken a wrong turn and […]
Morning couldn’t come fast enough, though I slept well enough in the safety of our net-shelter. The bird had quieted overnight and was nowhere to be heard. We strapped our bags onto our bikes with the rubber straps provided to us, fueled up at a nearby petrol station, and hit the road. We were glad […]
We hardly took time to look around our room after our arrival, basically just dumping our bags and heading out to town. We checked out the local grocery store to pick up some water and some juice and then sought out some pho. This particular rendition was full of some really tough duck meat that […]
It is amazing at how many kids we see running around this place. Whether riding bikes, walking home from school in large groups with matching blue and white uniforms, or playing shirtless and shoeless in the street, kids are everywhere. They seem particularly excited to try out their English on native speakers and as such […]