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Wrap up and Reflections

Firstly, I would like to give thanks to all the staff from Cambodian Cycling involved before and during the tour. They always tried their very best to please the eight riders. For a great start we received brand new Trek bikes and after fitting my own bits and pieces my bike performed extremely well for the whole tour. I am a loyal and satisfied customer of Cambodian Cycling, and I am very privileged to have now been on five tours. I want them to continue to provide great tours, which is why I feel obligated to provide feedback whenever I feel it’s necessary. That way I hope the tours will continue to be even better so I can enjoy them into the future. Please do not take these points the wrong way or as a personal attack on anyone, it’s not meant to be like that. The food and hotels were great, no complaints there at all, although maybe an upgrade of restaurants occasionally could be the go. I enjoyed the riding very much and had a great time catching up with my old mates from previous...
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Day 22 - Tue 3 Dec: Singapore to Brisbane to Home

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Up very early (4am) so I didn’t have to rush. Would rather sit at the airport for an extra half an hour than feel rushed. Kept waking up during the night to check that I hadn’t missed the alarm; no chance really, I had two of them set. I was finally woken by the 4am one, had a coffee, shave etc, packed up and was downstairs checking out by 4:30am. The very helpful staff ordered me a Grab (Uber) for $17 and said it would be outside in four minutes, which it was. Very clean, and efficient ride to Terminal 3, tipped him $3 to make it $20. Did the automated check in and bag drop for the first time ever. Very good and hassle free. Automated immigration also, hardly see a real person these days, soon it will be robots available if you need help. Had a very fresh smoked salmon roll with a nice real coffee at Paul’s (A$24) then just wandered till I went through gate 22, at 6:30am. We boarded on time and left on time at 7:15am. Thank you Qantas for cancelling my flight and forcing me to fly Sin...
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Day 21 - Mon 2 Dec: Singapore

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Fine and mainly sunny in the morning with an afternoon thunderstorm (sounds like a stuck record) 25 to 33 deg Walk: 25 km My last full day in Singapore so I’ve got to make the best of it. Two more places I wanted to visit were the National Art Gallery and Arab Street, where as a young (19-year-old) infantryman I used to go to buy better kit than the Army issued us. Most of the gear the Army issued us in the late 1960s was leftovers from WWII. My early morning walk this morning got a little extended (just over 7km) as I kept finding interesting stuff “just around the corner”. Singapore has got to be one of the best pedestrian cities in the world, it’s clean, (squeaky) safe and it’s interesting. Yes, it’s got its ugly glass and concrete high rise but intermingled with them are some nice old colonial stuff and old Asian architecture. Called into Starbucks for coffee and a little cup of chia “porridge,” which set me back over A$14; maybe a tad more expensive than home but not much. Back ...
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Day 20 - Sun 1 Dec: Singapore

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Fine and partly cloudy with a late afternoon thunderstorm, 26 to 33 deg, felt like 38 just after lunch walking back from the Bot Gardens Walk:22km Due to a relatively late night (for me) 10:30pm, I slept in till 6am this morning. Had a cuppa in my room then did a lap around Chinatown. You can see that in the main it’s very prosperous. Most of the old buildings have been renovated and it’s much cleaner than I remember it from previous visits. I’ve noticed too that the whole of Singapore is greener now with extensive tree and garden plantings everywhere. Off course with their rain and heat everything about jumps out of the ground when planted. Even some of the buildings are being greened up by vegetation on the balconies and rooftops. The worms drove me back to the hotel for breakfast, which although very ordinary is included in the price so I take advantage of it. After brekky I started my trek to the Botanical Gardens. I estimated that it would be about 7km each way with a few more...
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