M7 Cycling Club

Vietnam to Cambodia Alzheimer’s cycle ride - 500km over 6 days

Doug's pics; http://www.flickr.com/photos/dougfreeman/sets/
Pete's pics; http://www.flickr.com/photos/24444854@N03/sets/
Marietta Richardson's pics; http://www.flickr.com/photos/24623894@N08/
Alzheimer's web; http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=258

Pete Johnson and Doug Freeman successfully completed their charity ride from Ho Chi Minn City (Saigon) in Vietnam to Siem Reap in Cambodia, and finished at the world famous Angkor Wat.

It was amazing 6 days cycling, plus some bus and boat transfers to avoid major rivers and roads. We cycled 500km or 310.68 miles, which was an average of 51.78 miles a day. It was a very hot and humid 32c in Vietnam and 38c in Cambodia, but the 23 charity cyclists plus 4 support cyclists all got through reasonably unscathed.

We had a great time in a fantastic part of the world, and meet such friendly people in countries which have had such recent violent times. Great friendships were made and lots of fun was had on the way.

We believe that the charity ride raised in excess of £75,000 for Alzheimer's, but the final amount will not be known until a month or two. Thank you to all those who made donations, which were really appreciated.

We had one free day at the end of the ride, and spent it visiting the amazing Angkor Wat during the day, and celebrating at a mega party until the early hours of the morning. We did manage 3 hours sleep before setting of on our 31 hour journey home, and that included a stopover in Singapore where we checked out the Singapore Sling in Raffles.

Doug
http://www.justgiving.com/dougfreeman
http://www.justgiving.com/petejohnson1

Day Reports;

• Cycling Day 1. Ho Chi Minn - Tra Vinh (53km). The day started with a 1.5 hour coach transfer from Ho Chi Minn (Siagon) to the challenge start. The cycling was in the Mekong Delta, through coconut plantations and villages, many ferry crossings, mainly on narrow car free concrete roads and bridges, and finishing in a busy town.
  

• Cycling Day 2. Tra Vinh - Can Tho (89km). The cycling was through rice fields, villages with coconuts and fruits, ferry crossings, mainly on narrow concrete roads and bridges. Early on in the ride we visited the Khmer Temple.
  

• Cycling Day 3. Can Thou - Long Xuyen (74km). The day started with a 1 hour boat ride to visit a Floating Market. The cycling was on narrow concrete roads and later tarmac, through villages with fruit gardens. Early on in ride we visited a rice paper making farm and later tried snake wine.
  

• Cycling Day 4. Long Xuyen - Tri Chan Doc (87km). The day started with a 15km coach transfer out of the town. The cycling was mainly on tarmac roads, with views of mountains and some hills to climb later on in the day. We visited the Vietnamese Killing Fields Museum before lunch, and climbed up to a Pagoda 2km from the end of the ride. This was our last days cycling in Vietnam.

• Non cycling day. Tri Chan Doc - Phnom Penh (0km). We did not cycle as we had a 6 hour boat ride, which included 2 long customs checks at the Vietnam/Cambodia border. In Phnom Penh we had lunch in the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Cambodia, and then visited the chilling Tuol Slent Museum , where Pol Pot’s security forces committed unimaginable torture in the Security Prison S-21.
  

• Cycling Day 5. Phnom Penh - Kompong Thom (95km). The day started with an exhilarating ride through Phnom Penh’s rush hour traffic. The first part of the ride was on dusty pot holed roads, and the later part on tarmac roads. We visited an amazing temple which involved climbing too many steps in the midday sun.
  

• Cycling Day 6. Kompong Thom - Siem Reap - Angok Wat (102km). The day started with an hour coach transfer to our bikes. The ride was on an almost straight tarmac road, with little shade or change in scenery. This was the toughest day’s ride and really made for a challenge in the heat. We finished at Angok Wat and looked forward to visiting it the following day.