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