Paradise Lost (or Biking Around Koh Trong Island)

I woke up the next morning feeling completely depleted and with an uneasy stomach.  I figured it would be a good idea to relax in the room instead of going on the island bike ride with our group.  It was a good idea until around 8:30am when the hotel turns off its electricity to save energy.  I was left without any form of circulating air, without the internet and without anything to do.  I was a miserable mess.  At one point, I decided to write the blog post for the day, but after I felt better, I quickly decided it was far too whiny and self-pitying.  Instead, I'm going to turn the writing over to Neil who actually enjoyed his day around Koh Trong island.

The main event of the day was a 13 km bicycle circuit of the island.  The only problem was that it had rained most of the night before, so the trails were all very muddy.  This didn't dampen our enthusiasm, so we started out by going one kilometer to the local pagoda.  Behind the pagoda there is a nonprofit that is replanting trees to counter the island's deforestation.  They have planted over 5,000 trees since 1989.  Barb, Holly and I each planted a tree that was around 18 inches tall that will eventually be a great hardwood.

 

Following this we started biking down the long side of the island.  This is when the biking got really tricky.  We each fell off our bikes to various degrees.  Holly skinned her knee, which made us much more cautious, and we walked our bikes quite a bit.  Nyp didn't seem to have an issue with the trails, and at the end of the ride he barely had any mud on him.

The bike ride provided views into rural life in Cambodia along with panoramic vistas of lush fields, the Mekong River and tropical trees.  Along the way all of the local kids waved, and several wanted high fives as we passed, which was accomplished awkwardly.  One kid stopped me wanting high fives and to be picked up.  We stopped at the kids' grandmother's house for water and to try to find pomelos, which the island is know for but it was too early for them to be ripe.

At the other end of the island there was a Vietnamese floating village that was incredible.  The villagers live their entire lives on the boats just off the land, because they are illegal immigrants.  It was interesting to see how they live.

It was an awesome and surprisingly challenging ride that left us hungry for lunch and rest.  After lunch, Holly went bird watching, and Barb and I went to the pool to take occasional dips in the lukewarm pool and to play gin rummy.  It was a great day that we ended by walking to the end of the island to watch the sunset, which ended up being blocked by storm clouds.  Along the way we saw this awesome huge tree.  Unfortunately, Nyp told us the next day that it's where the Khmer Rouge executed people on the island.  That reality took away a lot of the beauty.

The day as a whole though was a day in Cambodian paradise.  A beautiful bike ride, an afternoon spent lounging by the pool drinking Angkor Beer and hanging out with Aunt Barb was a blast.  It was just too bad that we were only a group of three.