One thing Freddie Mercury and I have in common is that “I want to ride my bicycle; I want to ride it where I like.” And I can. Kind of. Liberating as the freedom and low-maintenance of bicycle ownership is it puts the rider on the bottom rung of Phnom Penh traffic’s pecking order. Imagine being a tadpole in a tank full of sharks, except that the sharks spit dust and black smoke in your face.
As it turns out, you don’t have to get on a slow moving, nausea-inducing bus to feel the uninterrupted joy of moving through the world at your own pace. Instead, become one with your bicycle in the ultimate marriage of man and machine, and have the scenery grace your eyeballs as you speed through, in it but not of it. Because when endorphins, adrenalin, serotonin and dopamine flood your nervous system, the last thing you want to feel is the shove of an angry Lexus.
There is a place – 20 minutes by boat from the docks near Dreamland – that King Sisowath Monivong called home during the Japanese invasion of 1940 and is now known as Areykhsat. This is where Chan-La, Ratana and Tonet were born, raised and live.
The three met when Chan-La and Ratana were growing up in Sovannaphum Care Orphanage where Tonet often volunteered to look after the kids. At 18, Chan-La left to attend public school and Ratana left to begin work. The three stayed in touch throughout and, after a year of preparation, have just launched Areykhsat Bike Adventure.
The idea is not only to show folk how beautiful rural Cambodia is, but also to give back to the local community. The latter is such a part of Chan-La’s modus operandi that he spends 15 hours a week volunteering as an English teacher in a nearby school. Profits go directly towards helping orphaned local children: “Especially those kids who don’t have the opportunity to go to school,” says Chan-La, who, along with his co-founders, has already taken in three such orphans and hopes to care for more as the business expands.
Going beyond the aesthetic experience of most eco-tours, they teach people about the area they know like the backs of their hands. This includes a temple whose gate is guarded not by tigers or nagas, but by eight-foot-tall shrimp. The tour also goes through fishing villages and farms so folk can “meet villagers, see farming, see fishing and try traditional food”. Then comes a trip across Areykhsat lake in a traditional boat as fishermen haul in the day’s catch.
As we stand on a Buddhist crematorium overlooking the largest lemongrass farm in Southeast Asia, Chan-La pauses for thought. “Most foreigners don’t have a chance to see something like this,” he says. That’s just the thing, though. Now we do. To book a tour, call 097 7659477.
WHO: Areykhsat Bike Adventure
WHAT: Bicycle tours
WHERE: Areykhsat, Kandal province
WHEN: Every day
WHY: Explore Cambodia at a civilised pace