Sunday 31st December
Miles: 94 Climbing: 7861ft
I felt so refreshed after yesterday but that didn’t last long. I at least manged to get a good breakfast, and I managed to sneak a few bits out to eat for lunch. I had 95 miles to go before I reached Siem Reap and there were no real options for anywhere to stop any closer so I had to go for it.
I quickly reached the main road between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap so for the first time in weeks I was in busy traffic which made for quite a boring day. It was even hotter than yesterday, towards the end there were a lot of trees lining the road so it was fairly shaded. Only, I was on the wrong side of the road to get the benefit of this. At least I could move to the other side when I stopped for a rest.
I reached Siem Reap and found a reasonably priced hostel. I was absolutely exhausted, it was New Years eve and I hadn’t made any plans. I was also feeling very much like I had cystitis. It’s not surprising really, considering how dehydrated I had been for weeks now, I had not had to stop for a wee once during my rides, typically going only once a day. I found a pharmacy close to the hostel but decided that I needed to be prepared. I tried to use google translate but it couldn’t translate cystitis so I had to use bladder infection instead and saved that to my phone. Armed with this I went out to find some medicine. The first pharmacy handed me several boxes of tablets, one of which I recognised as being a steroid so I tried another. I got lucky at the third pharmacy and managed to get what I needed, plus some ridiculously expensive cranberry powder.
I had a huge dinner for one at a restaurant that was all set up for a New Year party later and returned to my hostel for a nap. I felt like I was glued to the bed and decided I would be better off staying in it. Besides, I had plans that involved getting up really early on New Years Day.