Biker's Butt

My ass hurts.  On a scale from 1 to 10 where 1 is Hiney Heaven and 10 is Tush Torture I am scoring at least a 27.  Our pace is SO SLOW that I end up with my butt on the bike for about twice as long as it needs to be.  There are two people in the group who practically go in reverse (you can guess who one of them is) and the rest of us have to slow down to make sure we don’t lose them (no matter how much we want to lose them).  It ends up with me practicing my balancing skills quite a bit because I’m standing still on my bike for a good portion of the ride.  Anyway, the good news is that there are 2 nurses in the group and they each have their own special remedy for Bikers Butt (I’m not sure if Biker’s Butt is a real condition, but there really should be more readily available treatments).  

Tomorrow we have another 12 hour travel day but only about 2 hours of it will be cycling so hopefully I’ll be able to make it….the rest will be on the bus which means I will be asleep for most of the day.  Today we cycled through the city of Phnom Penh which was an experience.  Between the city cycling in Vietnam and here I’m totally over my city cycling fear. 

Traffic here is complete chaos.  It’s not like places in China I’ve visited where is seems drivers randomly got a license and said Woooowee!  Let’s give this driving thing a try!  The drivers in Vietnam and Cambodia definitely know what they’re doing and then consciously and collectively decide to ignore all rules.  In Vietnam there were motor bikes coming at you from the left, right and center – you really had to pay attention.  On top of it, you’d have little kids on the bikes that would zoom up next to you waving and yelling ecstatically “Hello! Hello! Hellooo!!!!!  What is your name!  What is your name!  What is your naaame?!?!?!” and I found myself wanting to respond: “Listen kid, appreciate your enthusiasm, but I’m just trying to get to a rodent infested hotel so I can wash all the mud and dirt off of me and I’m not going to get killed by a motorbike in Vietnam just because you want to practice your English.”  But instead I would wave hello and yell back and forth until all English was exhausted which really didn't take long.

The difference with Cambodia traffic v. Vietnam is that there are cars, which makes cycling more even more exciting.  Overall, Cambodia is definitely different than Vietnam.  The food is better, the people are very beautiful, and it is more corrupt.  But that’s just my first impression.

I didn’t get many pictures today because I was on a bike for most of it but here are a few…

I wonder if their butt's hurt as much as mine does.

My "friends" let me cycle around looking like this for a few hours.  Finally Patrick asked to take a picture so he could show me how silly I looked.  But at least I didn't get a sunburn!

This is a temple that the old King build like 15 years ago.  The whole king situation here is very interesting...

Buddhist Temple.

This is the traffic in Phnom Penh.  I'm in a tuk tuk which felt a lot safer than riding a bike.