We have been back in Cambodia for 3 months now – there are very few COVID cases here, so we have been lucky to get up to lots of awesome adventures.
We did a DIY-Iron man!
This iron man was truly a DIY-hacky race:
- We did the 3.8km swim in our 12.5m long office pool, 304 laps
- We biked from Phnom Penh down to Kep, and were lucky to have a very generous tailwind which really sped us up
- We ran the marathon over a 5km loop, so that we could keep revisiting our support van (we got very familiar with a small stretch of road in Kep).
It was an awesome adventure, with awful roads outside of Phnom Penh (but thankfully no flat tires), beautiful flat roads on the road down to Kampot, blazing heat in the afternoon, and a long slog to finish the marathon
For the marathon, we got a beautiful view between Kep national park and the ocean and a super cheerful Nate to encourage us for the final kilometres in the dark:
Before we got stuck into triathlon training, our first post-quarantine adventures were full of climbing. We explored Chilea, a small climbing spot north of Phnom Penh:
We also returned to our usual spot in Kampot, for some climbing and running:
After, we visited Koh Rong, an island in the south of Cambodia. It was during the day-long bus and boat journey from Phnom Penh that we first decided to do the Iron Man, so we kicked off our training with lots of morning runs along the beautiful Koh Rong beach.
We also did lots of training in Phnom Penh. This included some (heinous) indoor biking sessions while our bikes were being serviced, and lots of flat tires (roads in Phnom Penh are bumpy!)
We also made it up to Mondulkiri, a province in the east of Cambodia which has cool weather, rolling hills and elephants(!!!).
While we were there, we went on some long runs (it was so nice to have a big natural space to be in), visited some waterfalls and spent all day with retired elephants. It was common among the Bunong ethnic minority in Mondulkiri to own elephants (we were told that hundreds of years ago, a single family would have tens of elephants). We visited the Elephant Valley Project, which has bought elephants from Bunong families to allow the elephants to retire, and spent the day with some old elephant ladies as they munched on trees.
We learned all about the drama in elephant packs – for example, one elephant got kicked out after she didn’t get along with a new addition, and had to make a new friend. We also learned that until a few years, one of these elephants used to live in Phnom Penh, ferrying tourists from the airport to Wat Phnom. Phnom Penh is not elephant friendly!
After the iron man, we spent a few days in Kep and Kampot, soaking up the seaside and national park (and of course, sneaking in some more climbing at Climbodia).
Then, we spent a few days back in Phnom Penh before heading to Siem Reap for the new year!
Angkor Wat was empty of tourists (last year, 10,000 people a day were buying tickets into Angkor Wat. This year, the average was 8 people a day). This meant that we could start to hear and see wildlife as it began to revisit the temple areas, including lots of birds and monkeys.
We rented a beautiful art-house villa during our time in Siem Reap, which meant we also did lots of lounging by the pool. For the new year, we went into town which was packed!
Our friend from Phnom Penh Community Climbing gym (and one of Cambodia’s strongest climbers), Seyha, has been establishing a new boulder area north of Siem Reap, so we kicked off the new year by visiting an awesome boulder field, and doing our first outdoor bouldering in Cambodia
We are grateful to have had such an action packed end to 2020, and to have spent the year with such wonderful people. 2021 is set to be full of uncertainty, but we can’t wait to see whats coming.
