We are glad to announce - all be it a bit later than we had hoped - the 2011 MaD Tuk Tuk Challenge taking place in October.
New tuk tuks, New challenges and New route so hurry and get registered or you may miss out!
If you can't organize your life to make this event then not to worry as the 2012 event will happen around Easter April 6th next year!
So that is 10+ months warning!!!!
Get on Board for the Ride of Your Life!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
2011 MaD Tuk Tuk Challenge Announced
The MaD Tuk Tuk Challenge for 2011 kicks off on October 22nd for 10 days of MaDness around Cambodia!
The new website is launching soon....
The new website is launching soon....
Monday, May 3, 2010
Main website down for time being
Hi everyone,
We've decided to take the original MTTC website down for the time being as we are in the process of designing a MaD Adventures website which will incorporate all the other adventures we are planning, not just the MTTC (you can have a sneak preview of what we have in store in the More MaD Adventures page to the right).
Sign up for the event on the 4th July and also for the one on the 7th November is available through the link on the right hand side of the page. We are currently running a special offer for the first five teams that sign up for the remaining two challenges in 2010 (more info on the 'Costs' page to the right), so sign up quick if you want to take advantage of this!
If you want to get a feeling for what the MTTC was/is like then you can check the video above (be sure to switch to high res and turn your speakers up!) and the photos below from the last event. We've also transferred the blogs from the last event to here so you can read what the teams had to say about the challenge in the blogs below! All the info you need to know about the MTTC is listed under the 'MaD Tuk Tuk Challenge - Info' section on the right hand side of the page.
Any questions then fire them on through to "phil AT madcambodia.org"
See you on the road!!
We've decided to take the original MTTC website down for the time being as we are in the process of designing a MaD Adventures website which will incorporate all the other adventures we are planning, not just the MTTC (you can have a sneak preview of what we have in store in the More MaD Adventures page to the right).
Sign up for the event on the 4th July and also for the one on the 7th November is available through the link on the right hand side of the page. We are currently running a special offer for the first five teams that sign up for the remaining two challenges in 2010 (more info on the 'Costs' page to the right), so sign up quick if you want to take advantage of this!
If you want to get a feeling for what the MTTC was/is like then you can check the video above (be sure to switch to high res and turn your speakers up!) and the photos below from the last event. We've also transferred the blogs from the last event to here so you can read what the teams had to say about the challenge in the blogs below! All the info you need to know about the MTTC is listed under the 'MaD Tuk Tuk Challenge - Info' section on the right hand side of the page.
Any questions then fire them on through to "phil AT madcambodia.org"
See you on the road!!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
SEA Backpacker Article
Have a read about our first MaD Tuk Tuk Challenge in April.... Pages 26 - 28 in SEA Backpacker magazine.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
FIRST MTTC is over next one coming 4th July...
The FIRST event is finished.... herewith some fotos of the event.
We are busy planning the next event kicking off the 4th July 2010...
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Reflections on the MaD Adventure (Team Flintstones)
People have been asking me about how the tuk tuk challenge want and I am sorry that it took so long but I finally have gotten around to writing my blog. The tuk tuk challenge was an experience that I will never forget. Departing from Pub Street in full Flintstone regalia, I soon discovered how hot my wilma dress actually was and I have never been so thankful that I was wearing shorts and a tee shirt underneath my dress. We took off from Siem Reap and I found what would become my official riding position, feet up, arm draped over the back of the seat, slouched back into the silky leopard print fabric that covered our seat. We rode out to Bakong to visit some of the MaD projects which included a house building project that my tuk tuk partner in crime, Rob had worked on a year prior. We then visited the homes of some of our wonderful Khmer support team and then started down the long road towards Phnom Phen and Sihanookville. We drove our way out of Siem Reap province and stopped for the night at a small guesthouse. We would spend one last night in beds before we were pagoda bound.
I went to sleep early preparing myself for the early , morning departure. For those of you that know me well, you are all very aware that I don't DO mornings. Getting up at sunrise is not one of my strong suits. I surprised myself at how well I adjusted to the schedule, but then again when you are doing something truly exciting you want to experience it to the fullest so I was up and rearing to go at six along with all of our other MaD participants.
The next day was filled with the dodging of dogs, cows, little children unattended by adults wandering in the road, and worst of all Cambodian drivers. I assumed my riding position and watched and took in the Cambodian countryside ad scenery. It was the second day when I actually started to notice peoples reactions to our pimped out tuk tuk procession. Even the cows were tilting their heads in confusion and amusement. What were these crazy barang doing, where were they going and most of all why?
Rob my fearless driver smoothly navigated us through traffic like a pro, while I provided the music by singing out loud in the back. Night Train by Guns and Roses soon became Rob and my ballad for the remainder of the trip. It wasn't all singing, we had a very effective form of communication by yelling out messages that were normally short and to the point to avoid confusion. “ROB! TRUCK!” “ROB COW!” “ROB SEVEN YEAR OLD RIDING AN ADULT BIKE ON YOUR RIGHT!” Our system worked very well.
The second night I found out what spending an extended period of time in a pagoda is like for a western female. I miss judged my clothing choices for the trip which was originally based on the thought of keeping cool. So I spent the first night in a pagoda wearing the only thing I had that completely covered my shoulders, a grey jumper that came down to my wrists. A very hot piece of clothing to be wearing in April in Cambodia.
We wanted to be able to give back along our journey to the communities that we were staying in so after we were cleared by the head monk and the police to stay at that pagoda for the night we set up a clinic and our medical man Dave got to work checking all of the monks health and the health of others who heard we were there from around the surrounding area. After everyone had been checked we set up our hammocks trying to pick trees that didn't have the risk of falling coconuts.
We got up early the next morning, packed our hammocks up and got ready to ride another day. We decided about half way through the day to stop for lunch on the side of the road for lunch where there were children walking around with live tarantulas. When we stopped I was approached by three girls all who immediately adorned me with tarantulas and then asked if I was scared. Thankfully I had had previous experiences with tarantulas and found them furry and quite likable. After buying a pineapple off of one of the girls she gave me her tarantula for free. He soon became part of the Flintstone family, Terry Flintstone. She let me take Terry and gave me a bag full small air holes and leaves that she said that he ate. After lunch we were on our way with our bellies full and an extra passenger with eight legs.
We spent a long time looking for a pagoda at the end of the day. Three different pagodas told us that it would be better to stay at a different one and finally we found a pagoda only a little ways out of Phnom Pehn. We set up camp and after talking to one of the monks, we found out that an english class was taking place there in the pagoda. I, accompanied by Maartin, Chris and Rob decided to go check it out. We were invited inside and found that they were teaching the children body parts. Chris had the brilliant idea of teaching them head shoulders knees and toes which the monk who was the head of the classroom thought it was a great idea. The four of us got up in front of the forty some odd khmer students and did head shoulders knees and toes over and over again getting progressively faster each time. Eventually we had the entire classroom on their feet singing the body parts out loud. Tired and sweaty we headed back to our camping area to relax. I decided that a plastic bag was not a suitable living space for a large spider so I made him a home out of a six gallon empty water container which served as my creative activity for the day.
The next day we reached Phnom Phen relatively early in the morning. The traffic increased and there were many close calls with buses and trucks which expect you to go off the road for them. We made it to Phnom Phen in one piece. We stayed at a lovely hotel and it was nice to be able to take a shower finally. We spent two nights in Phnom Phen due to people feeling under the weather but after that we were up and ready to go further onwards toward Sihanoukville. I had to let Terry go after he started to get feisty and bit me a little bit in Phnom Phen. He now has a lovely home in the bushes outside the Goldiana Hotel.
Our spirits and energy were at an all time high and the kilometers seemed to just fly by. We decided to take a detour because of the heat to try to find a place to swim. We ended up at a village near the sea that wouldn't let us go near the water because the boats were loading and unloading. It was not a success for swimming but it was a very interesting little town that we all enjoyed exploring and never would have seen if we hadn't taken the detour. After spending sometime driving on dirt roads we came back to the main road and decided to stop for lunch.
We stopped at a hotel near the mountain pass when then we realized that we had already done all the kilometers that we were hoping for that day. We got a room there and the boys decided to explore the countryside even more on the motorbikes. Meanwhile I enjoyed a shower and looking at the bunnies that they had there. We had a later start to the day the next day, as we didn't have far to go, we were going to stay at one more pagoda before we hit Sihanookville. We decided to make it a day of challenges. We started the day off by having all of the tuk tuks hidden and the drivers needed to go and find them. It was an entertaining race to watch which resulted in some very aggressive driving by Rob, Charlie knocking off the top to a water pipe and Tom desperately trying to find his tuk tuk which had been cleverly hidden outside the grounds by Soth one of our Khmer team who was in stitches as he watched the bike go round and round in circles. Maartin and Chris won in a matter of minutes and Tom found his after fifteen just outside the gate.
We had a shorter day the next day and set up camp at a pagoda not far from Sihanoukville. Here we had a relaxing last night of the journey. The next day we headed to Sihanoukville. Just outside the city Rob and my motorbike had the spokes break and we had to get it repaired. So we sat on the side of the road, and waited for Vinh to come back with a fixed wheel. We arrived in Sihanoukville in style. We drove our tuk tuks straight to the beach and all ran into the water together clothes on and yelling. We would spend the next couple of days in Sihanoukville relaxing, thinking about our epic journey, and swimming in the ocean. I was when it ended, sad. It was similar to how I feel at the end of a good book, I loved the ride and didn't want it to end. It was a trip full of adventure, good friends, crazy traffic, rough roads, and I would do it all over again if I could. It will be something that I will think back on with fond memories and I know I have made some good friends that I will have for life. Thanks to everyone who went and made the Tuk Tuk Challenge possible.
-Emily
I went to sleep early preparing myself for the early , morning departure. For those of you that know me well, you are all very aware that I don't DO mornings. Getting up at sunrise is not one of my strong suits. I surprised myself at how well I adjusted to the schedule, but then again when you are doing something truly exciting you want to experience it to the fullest so I was up and rearing to go at six along with all of our other MaD participants.
The next day was filled with the dodging of dogs, cows, little children unattended by adults wandering in the road, and worst of all Cambodian drivers. I assumed my riding position and watched and took in the Cambodian countryside ad scenery. It was the second day when I actually started to notice peoples reactions to our pimped out tuk tuk procession. Even the cows were tilting their heads in confusion and amusement. What were these crazy barang doing, where were they going and most of all why?
Rob my fearless driver smoothly navigated us through traffic like a pro, while I provided the music by singing out loud in the back. Night Train by Guns and Roses soon became Rob and my ballad for the remainder of the trip. It wasn't all singing, we had a very effective form of communication by yelling out messages that were normally short and to the point to avoid confusion. “ROB! TRUCK!” “ROB COW!” “ROB SEVEN YEAR OLD RIDING AN ADULT BIKE ON YOUR RIGHT!” Our system worked very well.
The second night I found out what spending an extended period of time in a pagoda is like for a western female. I miss judged my clothing choices for the trip which was originally based on the thought of keeping cool. So I spent the first night in a pagoda wearing the only thing I had that completely covered my shoulders, a grey jumper that came down to my wrists. A very hot piece of clothing to be wearing in April in Cambodia.
We wanted to be able to give back along our journey to the communities that we were staying in so after we were cleared by the head monk and the police to stay at that pagoda for the night we set up a clinic and our medical man Dave got to work checking all of the monks health and the health of others who heard we were there from around the surrounding area. After everyone had been checked we set up our hammocks trying to pick trees that didn't have the risk of falling coconuts.
We got up early the next morning, packed our hammocks up and got ready to ride another day. We decided about half way through the day to stop for lunch on the side of the road for lunch where there were children walking around with live tarantulas. When we stopped I was approached by three girls all who immediately adorned me with tarantulas and then asked if I was scared. Thankfully I had had previous experiences with tarantulas and found them furry and quite likable. After buying a pineapple off of one of the girls she gave me her tarantula for free. He soon became part of the Flintstone family, Terry Flintstone. She let me take Terry and gave me a bag full small air holes and leaves that she said that he ate. After lunch we were on our way with our bellies full and an extra passenger with eight legs.
We spent a long time looking for a pagoda at the end of the day. Three different pagodas told us that it would be better to stay at a different one and finally we found a pagoda only a little ways out of Phnom Pehn. We set up camp and after talking to one of the monks, we found out that an english class was taking place there in the pagoda. I, accompanied by Maartin, Chris and Rob decided to go check it out. We were invited inside and found that they were teaching the children body parts. Chris had the brilliant idea of teaching them head shoulders knees and toes which the monk who was the head of the classroom thought it was a great idea. The four of us got up in front of the forty some odd khmer students and did head shoulders knees and toes over and over again getting progressively faster each time. Eventually we had the entire classroom on their feet singing the body parts out loud. Tired and sweaty we headed back to our camping area to relax. I decided that a plastic bag was not a suitable living space for a large spider so I made him a home out of a six gallon empty water container which served as my creative activity for the day.
The next day we reached Phnom Phen relatively early in the morning. The traffic increased and there were many close calls with buses and trucks which expect you to go off the road for them. We made it to Phnom Phen in one piece. We stayed at a lovely hotel and it was nice to be able to take a shower finally. We spent two nights in Phnom Phen due to people feeling under the weather but after that we were up and ready to go further onwards toward Sihanoukville. I had to let Terry go after he started to get feisty and bit me a little bit in Phnom Phen. He now has a lovely home in the bushes outside the Goldiana Hotel.
Our spirits and energy were at an all time high and the kilometers seemed to just fly by. We decided to take a detour because of the heat to try to find a place to swim. We ended up at a village near the sea that wouldn't let us go near the water because the boats were loading and unloading. It was not a success for swimming but it was a very interesting little town that we all enjoyed exploring and never would have seen if we hadn't taken the detour. After spending sometime driving on dirt roads we came back to the main road and decided to stop for lunch.
We stopped at a hotel near the mountain pass when then we realized that we had already done all the kilometers that we were hoping for that day. We got a room there and the boys decided to explore the countryside even more on the motorbikes. Meanwhile I enjoyed a shower and looking at the bunnies that they had there. We had a later start to the day the next day, as we didn't have far to go, we were going to stay at one more pagoda before we hit Sihanookville. We decided to make it a day of challenges. We started the day off by having all of the tuk tuks hidden and the drivers needed to go and find them. It was an entertaining race to watch which resulted in some very aggressive driving by Rob, Charlie knocking off the top to a water pipe and Tom desperately trying to find his tuk tuk which had been cleverly hidden outside the grounds by Soth one of our Khmer team who was in stitches as he watched the bike go round and round in circles. Maartin and Chris won in a matter of minutes and Tom found his after fifteen just outside the gate.
We had a shorter day the next day and set up camp at a pagoda not far from Sihanoukville. Here we had a relaxing last night of the journey. The next day we headed to Sihanoukville. Just outside the city Rob and my motorbike had the spokes break and we had to get it repaired. So we sat on the side of the road, and waited for Vinh to come back with a fixed wheel. We arrived in Sihanoukville in style. We drove our tuk tuks straight to the beach and all ran into the water together clothes on and yelling. We would spend the next couple of days in Sihanoukville relaxing, thinking about our epic journey, and swimming in the ocean. I was when it ended, sad. It was similar to how I feel at the end of a good book, I loved the ride and didn't want it to end. It was a trip full of adventure, good friends, crazy traffic, rough roads, and I would do it all over again if I could. It will be something that I will think back on with fond memories and I know I have made some good friends that I will have for life. Thanks to everyone who went and made the Tuk Tuk Challenge possible.
-Emily
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
More pics & vids (Team Pirates)
Hi all,
Some more pics have been uploaded by Maarten which can be viewed here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=162082&id=516697953&l=cafede19aa
We've also made a video compilation of the best pics and vids from the trip, which you can check out here:
http://animoto.com/play/HeBBqhnoRQdGNDsS0LQjnA?autostart=true/?res=hq#
Be sure to watch it in hi-res with your speakers turned up nice and loud ;-)
And once again, we'd like to say a HUGE thanks to all those who donated to MaD, we managed to reach our fundraising target of €1500 which we are incredibly pleased about.
And of course, we can't forget our more than generous company sponsors:
Maaike Media (http://www.maaikemedia.nl/).
Multimedia Unieke Service (http://www.m-us.nl/)
Den Haag fm (http://denhaagfm.com/)
Dap & Co (http://www.dap-co.nl/)
On Edge (http://www.onedge.nl)
THANK YOU!!!
Big love,
-Chris & Maarten
ps. you should definately sign up for a future event, as I'm sure you've realised by now, it's pretty awesome ;-)
Some more pics have been uploaded by Maarten which can be viewed here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=162082&id=516697953&l=cafede19aa
We've also made a video compilation of the best pics and vids from the trip, which you can check out here:
http://animoto.com/play/HeBBqhnoRQdGNDsS0LQjnA?autostart=true/?res=hq#
Be sure to watch it in hi-res with your speakers turned up nice and loud ;-)
And once again, we'd like to say a HUGE thanks to all those who donated to MaD, we managed to reach our fundraising target of €1500 which we are incredibly pleased about.
And of course, we can't forget our more than generous company sponsors:
Maaike Media (http://www.maaikemedia.nl/).
Multimedia Unieke Service (http://www.m-us.nl/)
Den Haag fm (http://denhaagfm.com/)
Dap & Co (http://www.dap-co.nl/)
On Edge (http://www.onedge.nl)
THANK YOU!!!
Big love,
-Chris & Maarten
ps. you should definately sign up for a future event, as I'm sure you've realised by now, it's pretty awesome ;-)
Friday, April 16, 2010
First set of pics are in!!
Dear all,
The first set of photos from our adventure are up online ready to viewed by all:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2262827&id=61303789&l=2bf8d50e68
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2262830&id=61303789&l=b8cf4e79e7
More to come, with lots of videos as well. Huge thanks to all those who followed us and sponsored us!!
The first set of photos from our adventure are up online ready to viewed by all:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2262827&id=61303789&l=2bf8d50e68
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2262830&id=61303789&l=b8cf4e79e7
More to come, with lots of videos as well. Huge thanks to all those who followed us and sponsored us!!
Monday, April 12, 2010
We made it!! (Team Pirates)
Hello everyone!!
We made it, woohooo! Apologies for the lack of blogs over the past few days, we didn't have access to internet whilst on the road and we've been partying too hard since we arrived in Sihanookville to even look at a computer!!
So, the last blog left us in Phnom Penh. Since then we had to delay our departure for a day because one of our group came down with food poisoning and another with worms (we think!) so they didn't have the best few days! Everyone needed the rest though after the strenuous journey to Phnom Penh so it was definately for the best. We also had another team throw their toys out the pram and drop out because they weren't getting their own way, but they were causing non stop grief since the day they arrived so everyone was glad to see the back of them...
We left the following day. In the morning Emily's adopted tarantula, Terry, had to be let loose into the wild because it tried to bite her, obviously didn't appreciate being saved from the deep fat frier (or the drugs that it was being fed just wore off!!) She dropped it off in the bushes right next to the hotel so someone's going to have a nice surprise soon! Within 5 minutes of setting off we got stopped by the police again, we were both bricking it because we set up a smaller pirate sail a couple of days before and thought they were going to try and bust us for that again! Turned out they just wanted to fine everyone in the support vehicle $2 for not wearing their seat belts... However, they were quick to let us off 'just this one time' when Phil asked for a receipt! Once out of Phnom Penh we hit the highway, cruising along at top speed before another police officer came running in front of us screaming in Khmer at the top of his lungs and waving his arms for us to stop. Nope, this time we weren't in trouble: our mast was just too big for the bridge in front of us and would have completely wiped us out if we tried to go under it at the speed we were going, we managed to scream to a halt about 2 metres in front of it so that was a seriously close call! We then caused a traffic jam as we had to get out, reverse the tuk tuk, push it up onto the side of the road and then drive it round the bridge, much to the amusement of many passers by!!
The rest of the day was without incident, just a brilliant day's driving, passing beautiful scenery, everyone racing each other down the road, high fiving people on the back of trucks, motorbikes and anyone else we could reach (although Emily won that competition!!) We managed to cover over 100km before we stopped for the night, at a guest house at the base of the cardomon mountains. Once all checked in, we decided that we wanted to do some more driving so we took out the bikes and the tuk tuks and went off road for a couple of hours exploring the nearby villages, veeeery beautiful!! Tom was very close to toppling his tuk tuk though when he hit a pot hole too fast and lost control of his bike!! When we got back many beers and laughs were had before we all passed out ready for the next day!
When we awoke the next morning we were told we had to complete the first of two challenges, the winners of which would receive a crate of beer when we arrived in Sihanookville. The Khmer team had hidden all of our tuk tuks and the challenge was to find them, reattach them to the bike and then make it back to the starting point first! Team Let's Do This rocked the challenge and made it back to the starting point in 1 minute 10 seconds, get in!! The following two teams both found their tuk tuks at the same time and both raced back to the starting point, playing a game of chicken in the process when they realised that there was only enough room for one of them to pass, very nearly resulting in a head on collision!! They were very disappointed when they saw that we had already made it back though! Tom's tuk tuk was hidden outside the guest house and he spent about 5 minutes racing around on his bike looking for it, the Khmer team all rolling around on the floor laughing the whole time!!
That day's driving was the best yet, everyone had really grown in confidence riding their tuk tuks and we hit some great speeds as we flew along through the mountain range, only just managing to climb the steep hills at about 10 km/hour but then hitting over 60 km/hour as we raced back down them. We stopped off at a huge 30ft golden buddha which was really impressive and then decided to do a few hours of off road as we were making such good progress. We decided that we were all exceedingly hot driving along in nearly 40 degrees heat so we went on the search for somewhere we could have a swim! We cruised around on some very bumpy roads, and were told when we stopped of at a roadside shack that the sea was only 30km away, so we went off in search of that, leading us to a lovely seaside village which was great fun to drive through (although we had to drive very carefully as there was lots of low electricity wires that we could have taken out with our mast!) The sea was not very nice there though, so we decided to give swimming and possible cholera a miss!!
After getting back on the main road we went in search of a pagoda, and we found a beautiful one up a dusty old road in the mountains, surrounded by stunning scenery. The monks there were all very friendly and accomodating, so we set up our hammocks in the trees surrounding the pagoda, sleeping next to statues of buddha. Amazing.... Charlie decided that he wanted to have a go at cooking so went down to the local market in search of food and actually managed to cook a very decent meal, all things considered!!
The following morning saw the next challenge, where we had to fetch our front wheel, roll it back to the bikes and then reattach it as fast as possible. Once again, team Let's Do This rocked the challenge and came in first place (however, we actually managed to bugger our speedometre in the process which didn't work for the rest of journey, but ssshhhhh you're not supposed to know that!!) We all drove off and had another great day's driving, as we came closer and closer to Sihanookville. We had an hour's delay at the roadside though as Rob managed to snap the spokes of his wheel when he hit a pothole so hard! After we set off again we overtook a motorbike carrying a pig in a cage behind it, which then proceeded to overtake us again a couple of minutes later and whilst it was passing by the pig started to piss which then caught the wind and went all over Maarten's legs and face!! The kid on the back of the truck thought it was hilarious as Maarten was forced to spit pig's pee from his mouth whilst driving!!
And then we arrived in Sihanookville, woooohoooo!! We went straight to the beach and all ran straight into the sea, fully clothed (our pirate outfits which had been worn for 8 days straight now were seriously smelly and in desparate need of a wash, as were we!!) It was the first time many of the Khmer team had swam in the sea, so that was one hell of an experience for them: Soth couldn't understand why the water was so salty!! That night we had an awesome seafood barbeque and then proceeded to drink ourselves to oblivion in true celebratory style!!
Huge thanks to all those who sponsored us, raced with us and helped to make this amazing experience happen!!
LET'S DO THIS!!!!!
ps, photos and videos to follow soon, so stay tuned!!
We made it, woohooo! Apologies for the lack of blogs over the past few days, we didn't have access to internet whilst on the road and we've been partying too hard since we arrived in Sihanookville to even look at a computer!!
So, the last blog left us in Phnom Penh. Since then we had to delay our departure for a day because one of our group came down with food poisoning and another with worms (we think!) so they didn't have the best few days! Everyone needed the rest though after the strenuous journey to Phnom Penh so it was definately for the best. We also had another team throw their toys out the pram and drop out because they weren't getting their own way, but they were causing non stop grief since the day they arrived so everyone was glad to see the back of them...
We left the following day. In the morning Emily's adopted tarantula, Terry, had to be let loose into the wild because it tried to bite her, obviously didn't appreciate being saved from the deep fat frier (or the drugs that it was being fed just wore off!!) She dropped it off in the bushes right next to the hotel so someone's going to have a nice surprise soon! Within 5 minutes of setting off we got stopped by the police again, we were both bricking it because we set up a smaller pirate sail a couple of days before and thought they were going to try and bust us for that again! Turned out they just wanted to fine everyone in the support vehicle $2 for not wearing their seat belts... However, they were quick to let us off 'just this one time' when Phil asked for a receipt! Once out of Phnom Penh we hit the highway, cruising along at top speed before another police officer came running in front of us screaming in Khmer at the top of his lungs and waving his arms for us to stop. Nope, this time we weren't in trouble: our mast was just too big for the bridge in front of us and would have completely wiped us out if we tried to go under it at the speed we were going, we managed to scream to a halt about 2 metres in front of it so that was a seriously close call! We then caused a traffic jam as we had to get out, reverse the tuk tuk, push it up onto the side of the road and then drive it round the bridge, much to the amusement of many passers by!!
The rest of the day was without incident, just a brilliant day's driving, passing beautiful scenery, everyone racing each other down the road, high fiving people on the back of trucks, motorbikes and anyone else we could reach (although Emily won that competition!!) We managed to cover over 100km before we stopped for the night, at a guest house at the base of the cardomon mountains. Once all checked in, we decided that we wanted to do some more driving so we took out the bikes and the tuk tuks and went off road for a couple of hours exploring the nearby villages, veeeery beautiful!! Tom was very close to toppling his tuk tuk though when he hit a pot hole too fast and lost control of his bike!! When we got back many beers and laughs were had before we all passed out ready for the next day!
When we awoke the next morning we were told we had to complete the first of two challenges, the winners of which would receive a crate of beer when we arrived in Sihanookville. The Khmer team had hidden all of our tuk tuks and the challenge was to find them, reattach them to the bike and then make it back to the starting point first! Team Let's Do This rocked the challenge and made it back to the starting point in 1 minute 10 seconds, get in!! The following two teams both found their tuk tuks at the same time and both raced back to the starting point, playing a game of chicken in the process when they realised that there was only enough room for one of them to pass, very nearly resulting in a head on collision!! They were very disappointed when they saw that we had already made it back though! Tom's tuk tuk was hidden outside the guest house and he spent about 5 minutes racing around on his bike looking for it, the Khmer team all rolling around on the floor laughing the whole time!!
That day's driving was the best yet, everyone had really grown in confidence riding their tuk tuks and we hit some great speeds as we flew along through the mountain range, only just managing to climb the steep hills at about 10 km/hour but then hitting over 60 km/hour as we raced back down them. We stopped off at a huge 30ft golden buddha which was really impressive and then decided to do a few hours of off road as we were making such good progress. We decided that we were all exceedingly hot driving along in nearly 40 degrees heat so we went on the search for somewhere we could have a swim! We cruised around on some very bumpy roads, and were told when we stopped of at a roadside shack that the sea was only 30km away, so we went off in search of that, leading us to a lovely seaside village which was great fun to drive through (although we had to drive very carefully as there was lots of low electricity wires that we could have taken out with our mast!) The sea was not very nice there though, so we decided to give swimming and possible cholera a miss!!
After getting back on the main road we went in search of a pagoda, and we found a beautiful one up a dusty old road in the mountains, surrounded by stunning scenery. The monks there were all very friendly and accomodating, so we set up our hammocks in the trees surrounding the pagoda, sleeping next to statues of buddha. Amazing.... Charlie decided that he wanted to have a go at cooking so went down to the local market in search of food and actually managed to cook a very decent meal, all things considered!!
The following morning saw the next challenge, where we had to fetch our front wheel, roll it back to the bikes and then reattach it as fast as possible. Once again, team Let's Do This rocked the challenge and came in first place (however, we actually managed to bugger our speedometre in the process which didn't work for the rest of journey, but ssshhhhh you're not supposed to know that!!) We all drove off and had another great day's driving, as we came closer and closer to Sihanookville. We had an hour's delay at the roadside though as Rob managed to snap the spokes of his wheel when he hit a pothole so hard! After we set off again we overtook a motorbike carrying a pig in a cage behind it, which then proceeded to overtake us again a couple of minutes later and whilst it was passing by the pig started to piss which then caught the wind and went all over Maarten's legs and face!! The kid on the back of the truck thought it was hilarious as Maarten was forced to spit pig's pee from his mouth whilst driving!!
And then we arrived in Sihanookville, woooohoooo!! We went straight to the beach and all ran straight into the sea, fully clothed (our pirate outfits which had been worn for 8 days straight now were seriously smelly and in desparate need of a wash, as were we!!) It was the first time many of the Khmer team had swam in the sea, so that was one hell of an experience for them: Soth couldn't understand why the water was so salty!! That night we had an awesome seafood barbeque and then proceeded to drink ourselves to oblivion in true celebratory style!!
Huge thanks to all those who sponsored us, raced with us and helped to make this amazing experience happen!!
LET'S DO THIS!!!!!
ps, photos and videos to follow soon, so stay tuned!!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Arrived in Phnom Penh... Just
Another very early morning and an especially tough day driving today!! We left at 7am on the dot and hit the final 70kms to Phnom Penh, and these were the craziest yet! Insane traffic all the way through with lorries, buses, cars taking over us at any given times and hundreds of large potholes along the road which made it an exceedingly bumpy ride! The scariest point of today was when a minivan of about 20 people tried to overtake us only to realise there was traffic coming the other way a bit too fast and so darted back into our lane again, only to hit our tuk tuk and push it along with them!!We were both shouting at them but they seemed completely oblivious to the fact that they were close to overturning our tuk tuk!! Eeeek!! The scenery was beautiful today though, miles and miles of rice fields, palm trees and gorgeous scenery (until we got to phnom penh when things took a slight turn for the worse!)
Anyway, we managed to make it to Phnom Penh in one piece this morning and we got a seriously good breakfast (full english = massive win after nothing but noodles and rice for 4 days!) and checked into a cheap but nice guesthouse. We went to the killing fields and S21 during the day which were absolutely horrendous but well worth seeing. Put everyone on a bit of a downder though, not very nice standing next to a tree with bones at the bottom of it which was used to smash babies heads in order to save bullets...
Now we've got back, had our first decent shower in a while and don't smell quite as bad anymore (although our costumes are getting very skanky now, but have promised to wear them til the end of the trip!!). Off for a decent steak tonight apparently which will be followed up by many a beer in order to celebrate getting half way there and which then be promptly followed by passing out in our beds until 6am tomorrow!!
Anyway, we managed to make it to Phnom Penh in one piece this morning and we got a seriously good breakfast (full english = massive win after nothing but noodles and rice for 4 days!) and checked into a cheap but nice guesthouse. We went to the killing fields and S21 during the day which were absolutely horrendous but well worth seeing. Put everyone on a bit of a downder though, not very nice standing next to a tree with bones at the bottom of it which was used to smash babies heads in order to save bullets...
Now we've got back, had our first decent shower in a while and don't smell quite as bad anymore (although our costumes are getting very skanky now, but have promised to wear them til the end of the trip!!). Off for a decent steak tonight apparently which will be followed up by many a beer in order to celebrate getting half way there and which then be promptly followed by passing out in our beds until 6am tomorrow!!
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