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 tours. I go on these tours to ride primarily but I also like seeing new places and ways of life different from my own.

WHY I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THE PHUKET TO SINGAPORE TOUR IN ITS CURRENT FORMAT - MY OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THIS TOUR

1. It was not as interesting as previous tours - the route is too isolated most of the time and does not visit enough attractions or places of interest. I know for a fact that there are many wonderful things to see in Thailand and Malaysia but apart from Penang, KL and a couple of other areas we avoided them, tending to stick to quiet areas with nothing much to see.

2. We rode through far too many jungles, palm oil and rubber plantations - day after day we rode through these three areas, (particularly palm oil) not seeing much else. It became very boring after a few days. Yes, there’s lots of these in this part of the world, but if you told me I was only going to ride through them for the whole tour and see not much else I would have been pushing for a route change. The Malaysian guide went off the planned route and tried to vary things to take in some local villages and different terrain, but the main route with hotels booked was already fixed so he was limited in what he could do.

3. The guides were very pleasant but did not appear efficient or experienced - they got some people lost on two separate occasions, once is an accident twice is inexcusable. We had six guides, two vehicles and a motorcycle looking after eight people surly that is enough to avoid losing people. They obviously didn’t have set procedures for accounting for the eight riders. The Rear Guide must know the route too, not just the Leader.

4. I personally (others thought it was ok) didn’t like the head guide in Malaysia zooming up and back beside me on a motorcycle all day. He doesn’t add “value” to the tour, he doesn’t appreciate how the cyclists feel as far as tiredness, hunger, thirst, heat or exhaustion go as he’s sitting on a motorcycle. Because he is a motorcycle rider and not a bicycle rider (one of “us”) I didn’t relate or bond with him as well as I’ve done with the cycling guides in the past. Despite the fact that he was very mobile he didn’t prevent the two incidents of riders getting lost.

5. The snacks and drinks were not as well organized for this tour as in the previous four tours I have done with Cambodia Cycling - all I ask is for a bit of fruit (banana, pineapple, or a similar local fruit, (nothing imported or fancy) a sugar-free drink, cold water and maybe (but not essential) some sugar-free biscuits. Most people who attend these tours are health conscious so healthy snacks are in order. The crew didn’t appear to be organized enough to be able to get these on a daily basis. The cool box in Malaysia wasn’t even a proper solid one, but polystyrene and leaking. The itinerary said that snacks and drinks would be provided so it should have been fairly normal to do this. We had to ask too many times, which shouldn’t happen. What should happen is that at the start of the tour riders should be asked what they want as snacks and drinks (within reason and budget) and then it is organised.

6. Tom, the guide in Thailand, was not up to the task really, that is putting it kindly. He very rarely briefed us properly, never showed us anything at all of interest the whole time he was with us, got very confused at the border crossing which wasted a lot of time, and he didn’t communicate very well at all. If he briefed anyone about the plan, he did it with whoever was standing near him (maybe 2 or three riders) he didn’t say, “gather around for a briefing”. He needs some more serious training for running cycling tours.

7. We spent a heck of a lot of time on the minibus, far too long. It was a vehicle designed for people who are 5 foot, not over 6 foot. For the tall riders it was agony getting in it for one, two or even three hours at the end of the ride. It was painfully cramped and far too small for tall people. The minibus that drove us to Singapore from the border was perfect.

8. The Tour tried to cover far too much territory, hence why we spent far too long in the minibus. I appreciate that some of the riders may have had a say in the start and finish points, (not sure) but we should have concentrated on one or two regions, not tried to do three countries and too many kilometres.

9. I have repeated the same tour I have done with Cambodian Cycling (Bangkok to Saigon) as I enjoyed it so much, but I would not put Phuket to Singapore in the same category.