This is a guest post from Claire Le Hur who is cycling to China with her fiancé Stuart Block. The couple started their journey in East Africa and followed new ‘silk roads’ charting the journey of key natural resources as part of an exciting new education project. Claire is riding a bamboo bike, built by an African social enterprise, and Stuart is riding a tandem and he’s keeping the back seat free for those they meet en route. The dynamic duo are raising money and awareness for two great educational charities. You can find out more about their big adventure here.
We saw three different sides to Cambodia, the smallest yet most interesting country in our Asian odyssey. The first side was the remains and memories of the huge and powerful Angkorian Empire 1,000 years ago. The second was the memorials and stories of the terrible Pol Pot regime three decades ago. And the third was a country desperately trying to escape its recent past and powerful neighbours and rebuild itself. Our group ride with United World Schools (UWS) really bought this hime to us. It made us realise how lucky we are and what vitally important work UWS and Beyond Ourselves in Zambia, do. The week we spent with UWS was incredibly humbling.
Approaching Chan Tuk on day one
When we entered Cambodia we headed straight for Siem Reap and the astounding Angkorian temples. It’s amazing to think that 1,000 years ago this town had 1 million inhabitants when London had 50,000 and New York was just a few pig farms. Even Stu was impressed.
A sweet little boy in a Cambodia t-shirt
It may be touristy and cliched, but seeing Angkor Wat at sunrise is magical. The temple is believed to be the world’s largest religious building and being the heart and soul of Cambodia is a source of fierce national pride.
Angkor wat at sunrise
Learning more about it’s history and seeing the mysterious and mercurial faces at Bayon, the power of nature taking over Ta Phrom and the awe-inspiring gates into Angkor Thom, made for a fascinating few days. We were lucky enough to find the Isann Lodge on airbnb and very much enjoyed Hugh’s hospitality and food.
Bayon
Cycling down to Phnom Penh took us through Skun, which is famous for its spiders. On our travels people have often asked us if we’ve eaten any strange foods and until now we couldn’t really answer. Thanks to Cambodia we can now say we have tried frog, mouse, tarantula, silk worm and crickets!
In Phnom Penh we had to visit SL-21, the High School turned torture centre and prison and the killing fields. It was a harrowing morning which really opened our eyes to the tragic and tumultuous history of this country. We met many people who lost their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles here in the 1970s, and had some interesting conversations about whether the power of the Khmer Rouge has really abated. Pol Pot (whose real name was Saloth Sar) was the leader of the Khmer Rouge and during his time as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea between 1975 and 1979 he imposed his particular version of communism, emptying cities and forcing all labour to take place in the fields, abolishing currency and eliminating any possible source of uprising. It’s estimated that between 1.5 and 2 million people were executed, or died directly, because of his regime.
Khmer Rouge and the other ‘brothers’ may have gone now but this country clearly has many issues to face.
Skulls
In the capital we met up with Tim Howarth CEO of United World Schools (UWS) and 14 other riders who had flown out to meet us for our group ride. Spirits were high as we ate together, although everyone was very nervous, especially Tim, Stu and I as none of us knew what we were letting ourselves in for! The next day we piled into the minibuses and drove to Stung Treng where we met Sitha the Cambodian manager of UWS who has been with the charity and the Howarths since day one. Sitha, Tim and everyone at UWS hugely impressed us with their professionalism, vision, motivation and hard work.
School
The bike ride was great, albeit far more more challenging than any of us expected. It was the hardest route Stu and I have done in the last seven months. We had to navigate our way through a lot of sand, over several tricky bridges, and on the last day up a lot of very steep hills. Our group ranged in age from 26 to 62 years, with a wide variety of cycling proficiency. We were impressed by everyone’s resilience and we all improved a huge amount in terms of technical ability, and fitness, as a result of the ride.
We visited nine of the UWS schools in total. These schools are so remote and they really proved UWSs tag line to ‘Teach the unreached’. It was such a pleasure to see the school children so happy and so well behaved in their lessons. There were a few impromtu lessons taught by some of the riders too.
We spent three nights here rouging it, sleeping in hammocks under the stars and washing in the Mekong river.
Group ride through forests (above) and sand (below)
Just like when we spent time with Beyond Ourselves in Zambia, seeing the school children in this very poor area really brought home to us why we are trying to raise money for these charities. It has spurred Stu and me on even more and the memories we have will spur us on when we’re struggling up the mountains in Laos and China! Wish us luck…
