Cambodia & Solidarity : 57,000 Kilometres for Children, The Triumphant Return of Tiv Dararith

Two years ago, he left Siem Reap on a bicycle with a promise. On Monday, June 22, he came home.

The sun had not yet set over Phnom Penh when Tiv Dararith stepped onto the tarmac of Techo International Airport. Two years. Forty countries. Nearly 57,000 kilometres covered on two wheels across Asia, Europe, and southern Africa. The 38-year-old Cambodian adventurer had kept his word — the one he made on June 6, 2024, on the steps of the Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, in front of cameras, medical staff, and patients.

"When I started this journey, I promised everyone that no matter what happened to me, I would finish it." That evening, facing the journalists crowding around him, Dararith's voice carried barely a tremor of emotion. Not exhaustion — or at least, not only that.

A Planetary Odyssey

Back in 2023, he had already raised $56,000 for the Angkor Hospital for Children by cycling 10,000 kilometres across six Southeast Asian countries in three months. But this time, the ambition was of an entirely different order. His plan: to ride from Siem Reap to Paris across 25 countries, weaving through Laos, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Turkey before reaching Europe. The itinerary then expanded far beyond what anyone had initially envisioned.

From Europe, he pushed further still, extending his route all the way to South Africa — an entire additional continent, thousands of extra kilometres — convinced that testing his own limits was the surest way to earn the trust of his donors. Along the way, the journey became as much a diplomatic mission as a physical one. In Namibia, he was invited to address representatives from the Ministry of Tourism and organisations working with children, presenting his fundraising effort and its purpose. Cambodia, told from the African desert.

The road showed no mercy. Accidents, illness, nights spent on the edge of what the human body can endure. "I am already beginning to miss the open road," he admitted upon arrival, with that slightly dazed smile common to great travellers who can no longer quite tell where adventure ends and ordinary life begins.

$220,000 Raised — and $30,000 Still to Go

The campaign's goal had been clear from the outset: to secure $250,000 in donations for Cambodia's children's hospitals, principally Kantha Bopha and the Angkor Hospital for Children. To date, the effort has generated nearly $220,000, leaving approximately $30,000 still to be raised.

"We only have $30,000 left, and I believe we can raise it," he said, calling on the public to cross that final line alongside him. Because the adventure, as it turns out, is not quite finished.

One Last Push

Dararith plans to cycle from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap over three days — a final symbolic leg designed to complete the fundraising campaign. Charity events are also scheduled at both partner hospitals, closing the loop on a journey that began within their walls.

And then? A documentary titled Two Years on a Bike is currently in production, with a planned screening at the Cambodian Film Festival in March 2027. A commemorative book of the same name is also in the works.

Throughout it all, Dararith has insisted that his engine was never performance or glory. "I never thought about breaking a record. My goal has always been the Cambodian children." There is something disarming in that statement — and entirely believable, coming from a man who crossed forty countries with no crew but himself and no camera crew but his own two hands.

To support the campaign: angkorhospital.org