"CYCLING CAMBODIA" Cambodia by skydivefred

What an interesting country is that?!!! As I always write on my pages, what I am going to tell is only from personal experience and cannot be taken as a generality to be applied.
I've had mixed feelings about this country but I ended up loving it !!!
This country and its population combine the charms of South East Asian countries and the stigmas of a sorrowful, ugly recent history .

Serenity

The last 3 trips I've done before going to Cambodia were all in Vietnam.
My mistake was to assume that Cambodia would be roughly the same. Well I tell you what : this is a whole together different story !!!
People seemed to be more difficult to communicate with, you really have to make an extra effort to gain there confidence.
Interestingly enough, I found that the Cambodian people in touristic places were more civil than the Vietnamese but all is reverse in the rest of both countries.
I also found that the legendary smile of the Cambodian hides a lot of suffering too .
This country desperately needs educated people (they almost all "disappeared" during the civil war).

Pupils in the classroom

Well, My trip lasted almost 6 weeks but it took me a full 3 weeks to really adapt to the conditions there (weather as well as population ).
When I first arrived in Phnom Phen, I just decided to cycle out of the city. 60 kms later I visited a pagoda ( it was lunch time) I saw about 100 monks having lunch. They invited me for lunch and a whole adventure started. I stayed 10 days with them, sharing their life, waking up at 4 am (that was tough!!!) for meditation !!!!! They asked me whether I wouldn't mind teaching English to the kids of the surrounding villages, and so I did 4 hours a day. that was absolutely unforgetable and so gratifying.Of course all the doors were open to me and I had a very privileged opportunity to share the life of these people.
One night robbers came into the princinct of the pagoda and stole everything they could, among which two pairs of shoes of mine and more specifically my special cycling shoes!! I was stuck and couldn't use my bike anymore !!! I had to go back to PP to by normal trainers and conventional pedals as well. The head of the pagoda, who was very embarassed came with me. On the way back, at night, the taxi got attacked, a window exploded for a big stone was thrown at us. the driver and the head of the pagoda got very badly cut on the face and the driver was partially deaf because of the huge burst of the impact !!!! Amazing and intense first two weeks !!!!!
I will write more of my experiences in my travelogue sections.

• Pros:No rules!!!!!!
• Cons:No rules !!!!!
• In a nutshell:To visit in depth to appreciate