We’ve pedalled 3,442km from Hanoi to the above roundabout. Initially we headed north towards the Chinese border, south down the length of Vietnam and westward into Cambodia. But today at Sisophon that all changed. We finally turned east as we rounded the statue having reached the western extremities of our cycling journey.
It was odd to change direction and to not follow the road receding away from us towards the Thai border. As we turned the sun moved from my left hand shoulder to the right and my orientation felt completely different. We seemed to pick up more speed too as we headed towards Battambang, a short half day’s ride away at 68km.
Our new direction takes us to Phnom Penh, the Vietnamese border, the Mekong delta and Ho Chi Minh but also towards my birthday and Christmas with Za, Yasmin’s sister. There’s still plenty of riding to do but the first real milestone has been reached. There’ll be others hopefully in the months to come for furthest east, south and north but for now ‘west’ has been reached.
