travel – Page 4 – Tinkadventures

21/12/201418/11/2021

Cycling Angkor’s Temples

Having spent a few days wandering around Siem Reap and dodging the traffic, I have to admit I was a bit wary about the idea of jumping on a bicycle to head around the Angkor temple complex. In the end it was the best way of travelling; weaving through the traffic, learning to adopt a ‘blinker approach’ and just riding and letting the traffic go around me. Its loads of fun when you get over the initial fear of being run over by a tuk tuk or a huge truck.

The UNESCO protected Angkor site stretches over 400 km2 in total and reflect the different capitals of the Khmer Empire during the 9th to 15th Century and is one of the finest archaeological sites in South East Asia. However the chances are you’re probably going to head for the main temples of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple with its fantastic sculptural decorations.

The traffic significantly reduced as we passed through the checkpoint and onwards around the outside of Angkor Wat. We purchased a 3-day temple pass for $40 allowing us time to properly visit the temples and not rush around too much. I highly recommend this as the temples are too extensive, varied and vast to be able to see the best in one day.

20/12/201418/11/2021

Social enterprises in Cambodia

Its hard to travel in a country like Cambodia and not be affected by the poverty that exists. A relic from the conflicts and genocide under the Khmer Rouge that has left a country, with a powerful and glorious history, struggling to rebuild itself.

For the traveller, this provides an opportunity to see a country untouched by too much commercialisation (except perhaps in Phnom Penh where development is quickly racing along), and a place were the people are open to the opportunities tourism can bring, without being ruined by it.

The Khmer Rouge robbed the country of a generation, especially those best able to transform its future economy and infrastructure. Its hard not to notice that loss as you walk around the cities and towns – there’s few people over 50.

17/12/201418/11/2021

Arriving in Cambodia – a week in Siem Reap

Cambodia provides a fascinating mix of history and culture along with a beautiful environment, neither feeling ruined by extensive over-development by tourism.

My first encounter with the country perhaps gave a very jet lagged me, the wrong impression of the people I was going to meet in Cambodia. Passport control around the world it is the place of hard nosed, smile-free faces and in Siem Reap I was met with seven such faces behind a long wide desk – like a panel at a talent show or prison guards at a jail (I imagine!). Despite having arrived with with money for my visa but no photo, I discovered this wasn’t a problem as I paid an extra two dollars and got into the country anyway. Was that a bribe, or an official payment? They obviously didn’t care too much about who I was.

As a place to start Siem Reap is where most people head, it being the nearest town to the world famous and UNESCO world heritage sites of the Angkor temples. I recommend before you jump in a tuk tuk and follow the crowds to the temples check out the town itself. So many people arrive here on an organised trip and don’t have the time to wander. Its a great place to start an adventure in the country as it is small enough to explore on foot – just remember where the river that runs through the town is in relation to you and you won’t get too lost. Or that’s how I navigated the myriad of roads and back alleys.

17/11/201419/11/2020

Travelling, a prayer for teleportation

I love travelling.
Or rather I love arriving new places unexplored by me before. I actually hate travelling.

Sitting in airports, waiting, in transit.

Flying to Cambodia has taken a very long time.
I had a 40 min flight to London, a 11 1/2 hour flight to Hong Kong and then 2 hours 45 to Cambodia. That’s 15 hours and 5 mins of flying. But then in between all that there’s been a lot of sitting about for flights making the whole journey 22 hours or so.
A whole day almost!

And in that duration I wandered around when I could, read, browsed over priced shops of stuff I don’t need, watched a tiny TV, ate prepacked reheated meals and drank rocket fuel strong coffee so I arrived in Cambodia spaced out, sleep deprived and confused. And minus my luggage which had a nice stop over in Hong Kong.

But I love seeing new places and so I travel. The world is huge and too big to see places more than once so I’m in Cambodia determined to see as much as I can while in here.
So there’s going to be a lot more travelling…..

04/11/201418/11/2021

Sunshine cycling around Lough Furnace

We’d intended to pick up the bikes in Newport for our day’s cycling, but we’d left it too late to book them. In autumn the bike shop in Newport isn’t open all day, just first thing in the morning or for repairs at request during the day. This meant having to get them in Westport and cycle back along the Greenway (and back).

I wasn’t really put off by the additional distance (22km for the round trip), but I’m not one for doing something more than once so having done the full Greenway two days before I wasn’t that thrilled by the idea of doing part of it again. There’s so many other things to do! Its finally sunny outside we could go hiking!

I was in the minority, so we headed out cycling, and to be fair it was a great day to be out on bikes again.

So here’s some views of the Greenway from Westport to Newport which I didn’t take a few days earlier due to dusk setting in and the race back to Westport being a priority. I even managed to get a clear summit picture of Croagh Patrick!

31/10/201418/11/2021

Cycling Westport’s Greenway

I’m not much of a cyclist (if you hadn’t noticed). But I do like a challenge and completing routes of any description and I love saying yes to opportunities thrown at me. So when friends I met in Corsica suggested meeting up and cycling The Great Western Greenway in Ireland, I wasn’t going to refuse.

This was my first trip to Ireland and my first trip somewhere which had been built around the idea of cycling and not hiking.

31/10/201418/11/2021

Autumn hiking on Croagh Patrick

Having left home at 4am I was bleary eyed and ready for a nap by the time I’d landed in Dublin. A relatively short hop across the Irish sea I couldn’t really understand why I’ve not made it there before. I was greeted by sunshine and friends not seen since the start of summer so it was great to catch up as we drove across the country to Westport in County Mayo, and straight for a quick hike up Croagh Patrick.

06/08/201417/11/2021

Corsica GR20 if you dare

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I’m going to publish my pictures and tales of the GR20 in a few different posts, as there is so much so say about this trail and so many pictures!

But I should start with the some of the facts you should be aware of if you’re going to undertake this trek. Also this website is fantastic for general facts of the route – Corsica for hikers.

31/03/201417/11/2021

A week in the Cairngorms

I love Scottish winters, endless white snow, ice and summits. What more do you need?

16/03/201417/11/2021

Cycling Huddersfield Canal and the Calder Valley Greenway – and back!

I must start by saying, my beloved bike might be the second oldest possession I have, but it hasn’t really been out for the last 15 years (if you don’t count cycling at Kielder 3 years ago). But, this weekend I decided to make friends with my bike and headed off, with Dewsbury as my goal.

Ok, Dewsbury is not a glamorous destination I’ll admit. But I knew that from the Colne Valley to the west of Huddersfield, it was possible to cycle there via the canal towpaths and the Calder Valley Greenway and so should keep me away from two barriers to me cycling – traffic and hills. And should you decide to follow this route too and perhaps doubt how far you might get – fear not. You are also following the train line so you can always catch it back, which was my initial plan (and which I wished I’d taken as I got within 1 mile of home and my legs started to seize up).