09/03/2020 – The race to get out of Asia

It was 300km to Siem Reap along flat roads so I plodded along trying my best in staggering 38 degree heat with unbelievable humidity.

The roads to Siem Reap were a bit boring as they were just highways with nothing but flat farmland either side.

Occasional towns would provide welcome relief and the ability to fill up my water bottles.

I arrived at my hostel in Siem Reap and booked myself on a tour of Angkor Wat for the next morning with my alarm set for 4am.

The minibus picked me up still half asleep and drove us there. We managed to get a fantastic spot right by the lake with no one in front of us to see the sun rise.

The tour was fantastic and it was really interesting to learn the history about this ancient area.

Unbeknownst to me there was more than just the 1 temple. We spent the rest of the morning touring round all of the sites.

Our guide said that there were far fewer tourists than normal, partly due to the growing concern over coronavirus but also did to there being a lot fewer tourists to SE Asia in general. This wasn’t the first time this had been mentioned which is concerning for lots of people whose livelihoods rely on foreign tourists.

Just as the sun was getting unbearable we made our way back to the hostel and I spent the afternoon getting some planning done for my race across Australia.

That evening I overheard some people talking about some caves in Cambodia where bats fly out every evening during sunset. I asked them about it and decided I had to go.

The next day I set off for Battambang. The road was currently under construction so there were some parts that were nearly unrideable but some parts were amazingly smooth and closed off to cars until it’s finished. Sadly I missed the cut off to see the bats that evening so I checked into the hostel and got an early night.

I found the most amazing vegetarian restaurant the next day that I went there for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I arrived at the hill which the bats live in and it is bizarre, everything around it is completely flat with this being the only blot on the landscape.

After walking round the temples on top of this hill I made my way to one of the cave exits, found a good spot to sit down and watched the bats fly out of the cave into the sunset.

It was incredible. The noise of the bats was far louder than I thought it’d be. The sunset that day was also stunning.

I awoke the next day having stopped at a supermarket with my sights set on Thailand. Sadly the last few weeks of cycling kept getting interrupted by punctures.

I’d been unable to get a new tyre as road bikes aren’t that common here so every other day or so I’d stop by a motorbike garage and they’d put a patch on the ‘old school way’. This time I was in spitting distance of the Thailand border and I really wanted to get across as soon as possible as I’d heard rumours from fellow travellers and hostel staff that countries were going to close their borders.

I managed to find somewhere to get it fixed, thanked them and jumped straight on the bike and sprinted to the border before the sun went down.

The immigration part for non SE Asia residents was almost empty. I had my temperature taken twice and was given the all clear again.

I’d booked my flight from Bangkok to Perth a couple of days ago so knowing I wasn’t in a rush, I found a hotel and checked in for the evening.

The temperature was really playing havoc with my body, I was going through so much water that I was having to stop all the time to fill up and in the evenings wash my kit each night to rinse out the salt.

I had done it though, I had made it to Thailand. The last time I was here was New Years Eve less than 3 months ago and was my last country in Asia. All I had to worry about was the Australian border staying open long enough for me to get there.