PEPY Ride 4 News, Updates and Reflections!

[PEPY]

Hey riders! This is the place to share your hopes, thoughts and reflections for the PEPY Ride 4, before, during and after the ride. We will have access to internet here and there during the journey, so if you find some time please hop on here and share! Your family, friends, donors and PEPY people can keep up with your adventures while you are on this incredible adventure!

We will post the itinerary closer to the start date so our supporters can follow us on a map during the tour. :)

[Josh]

I'm looking forward to meeting the team and sharing coconuts at the side of the road!

[PEPY]

I am looking forward to sharing little bunches of little bananas with everyone! :) Lucky

[Daniela Papi]

I am looking forward to MEETING the PR4 team! I can't believe this is our fourth PEPY Ride!

[Lucky]

It's today! Welcome to Cambodia and to the start of PEPY Ride 4!!!

[Lucky]

Hey guys, I wrote this on my blog here a few days ago and I thought I'd post it here as well...

I am totally blown away after meeting all the riders! It has been so much fun matching faces and in-life personalities to names and emails I've been receiving these past few months. The entire office, on top of their regular work, has been planning, organizing and running errands to make this trip run smoothly and for that I am very thankful. I've been looking forward to this for months and it is finally here and I feel like our entire group is rockin' it!

We spent an amazing day at the temples with the morning grade 4 class from the PEPY Ride School. It was the most fun visit I've had to the temples and with the cutest company. We took over a shady spot under a huge tree outside the Bayon with the largest hockey pockey circle I have ever been a part of! The students were our teachers for the day and taught us some Khmer and a Cambodian game that involved lots of running around the big circle we made and giggling. I'll remember that afternoon of huge smiles on flushed faces, the sound of leaves crunching under running feet and laughter for a long time to come.

Yesterday, Lucky our bike guide took us on an adventurous ride through the temple grounds on small sandy trails and dirt roads running through green fields. I always find the experience of cycling around the temples surreal as I catch glimpses of ancient walls and carved faces through the bushes and behind large trees.

We start riding out of town tomorrow and our cycling journey to the southern coast begins. I am excited to be a part of this team and feel very lucky to have the opportunity to cycle through Cambodia and learn more about development here, the country, our partners, fellow riders and myself.

[Josh]

9 days into our adventure and the team of 16 riders is looking STRONG.

After a few great days in Siem Reap exploring the temples with students and by bicycle, we packed up our panniers and headed West for Kralanh. The first 30km was a breeze with sunny blue sky and smooth freshly paved highway. The second 30k, however, was a hodgepodge of gravel and dirt making up route number 6 which connects Siem Reap to Thailand (via Poipet). To say the road conditions were less than ideal would be an understatement, as the road was undergoing construction, but hey, that’s the REAL Cambodia, and it is what we came here for.

After showing up in Kralanh, tanned and a whole lot dustier, we relaxed and had an amazing holiday dinner with the whole PEPY staff, including the Cambodian school staff and local commune dignitaries. It was a great opportunity for riders to get to know some of the teaching staff prior to the next two days, as we were to get involved at the school.

Doing as Cambodians do, we get up each day before sunrise and have a breakfast of fried rice, noodles, soup and omelets. Traveling with 13 interesting and diverse people presents challenges at meal time, with different eating habits and preferences, but somehow it all ends up working extremely well.

Biking out to school at sunrise and back at sunset along a red-dirt road was incredibly enjoyable with a gigantic sky and flat landscape of pastel colors. As it is the dry season, the previously harvested rice stalks have turned golden yellow, and the view is a drastic difference from the bright green fields in rainy season, when I last visited.

At the school, the students presented English songs and projects that they had worked on in PEPY’s English classes, and demonstrated their XO computers. It was incredible interacting with the students, who were eager to use the English that they had learned and to play with the funny looking foreigners. On the second day at the school we had the opportunity to work on the new school building that will house the jr. high and touch up a mural. It was hard work, but the great food cooked by some local women was a great reward.

After we said our good-byes at the school, we headed out, early as usual, for another 60km grinding day on route number 6 headed for Sisiphon. We arrived well before lunch and had the afternoon for some much needed rest time. Later on, we visited a local college and participated in a question an answer forum with the students. We learned a lot about life as a college student in Cambodia, and talked about their goals and dreams. Many of them want to work for the government, as they are the best paying jobs. After our discussion, we ate dinner with them at the restaurant next door, which gave us the chance to talk one-on-one.

Yesterday, was an 80km ride into Battambang, Cambodia’s second-largest city, again arriving before lunch. It is an assault on the senses as the pace of life picks up as quiet countryside transforms into a bustling city. I have never considered myself much of a country person, but I now realize now how much I value the calmness of rural life… must have been the past two years living in a small town in Southern Japan that has changed me.

Another lazy afternoon after the ride and a fabulous dinner at a roof-top restaurant, some of us were ready to party. We wandered aimlessly in search of a bar, and after a chance encounter with a young man on a motor bike, we ended up at Sky Bar, Battambang’s premiere disco… er.. I should say cheesy dance club. After a good session of exchanging dance moves with young Cambodian men, we were tuckered out and ready for bed.

Today, some people joined a Khmer cooking class where they toured the local market, bought the ingredients, and then learned some great new recipes, and from what I have heard, filled their faces all morning long.

This afternoon we had a great visit with an organization called Digital Divide Data, or DDD. They train young disadvantaged Cambodians and provide part time work doing data entry and other outsourced computer work for American companies. The organization provides training for new employees and also pays a good part of the workers’ university costs. It was super informative and I think everyone learned a lot.

Tomorrow is a 100km day to Pursat, where we will be spending New Years and learning about an NGO called Sustainable Cambodia. I am really looking forward to that visit, as well as the rest of the tour.

The team is great with really interesting people and diverse personalities. Long talks on the road are common and are really great for passing long rides.

Until the next internet shop….