So we made it to Laos, and things have been a slight challenge since. Marie has come down sick, and is now on her fifth day of being unwell, so send her some love (email/telepathically/bank deposits of cash etct etc are all accepted forms of love) so we can get back on the road. Until then I will just spend my time eating large quantities of food in an attempt to beef up my little chicken legs.
Here on State Highway 7, the only road connecting Cambodia and Laos, things got pretty hectic. As you can see traffic was backed up for miles, well not really, but we started to feel like we were the only people left in the country. The border crossing to Laos was so low key that if you blinked, you’d miss it. In fact I think you probably could have driven right past without stopping as no one had guns and there was only a single guard from either country.
Cambodia has a bit of a dubious record with corruption, I couldn’t help but take this shot. On a serious note though everyone seems to want a piece of the pie here. The Aussies, French, Japanese, Americans, Chinese and Russians all displayed examples of having their fingers caught in the honey pot. I’m sure NZ is at it too, we just didn’t see any examples of it.
The Chinese friendship bridge is a classic example of “aid”. The chinese built a highway of considerable length of which this bridge was apart of. In exchange though the Chinese were given foresty rights to the forest on either side of the road.
After leaving Phnom Penh we decided to take a few back roads as we headed north. The roads quickly deteriated to tracks, and it got even narrower than in this shot. On the first day out we clocked up a respectable 105km on dirt roads to Kempong Cham, although our backsides protested at the rough terrain. Day two on the dirt roads saw us tackling a signposted distance of 70km, our cycling computer recorded 90km for the day – suggesting we mave have been teporarily misplaced (because navigators never admit to being lost).
Robbing banks wasn’t on the itiniary, but as the roads deteriated, the dust clouds grew until we started to have a certain orange glow to our skin. A kind local offered us these face masks, ironically the road returned to tar seal about a kilometre down the road.
While on the back roads we got to meet some of the locals. In this particular village we stopped for a short drinks break, which turned into a full on mango eating session as the entire village came out and plied us with freshly picked mangoes. We ended up leaving the village weighed down with a large bag of things.
Marie carries out some quick repairs on her saddle bags. Sowing seems to be one of our favourite pass times, with saddle bags falling apart, rips in pants and the creation of new items of clothing - but luckily there has been no sowing of people so far.
While Marie sowed I was forced to watch the sun set. Travelling is tough!!! [Joe this shot is especially for you, because I know how much you love it when I take sunset shots]
Cycling around Phnom Penh was a blast, Marie said “its just like traffic back home”, which I took to mean Chaos, as there is no such thing as road rules here, the upside being that there is no waiting at red lights.
After another week of cycling we have arrived in Phenom Penh – the capital of Cambodia. We were pretty amped to arrive as we had clocked up 70km by about 10.30 in the morning thanks to an early start. We are now sitting at about 1500km.
Another tough day as we soak up the last of the sun light over a beer and a bit of a reading session on the riverside in Kampot. Kampot still has a really colonial feel to it, which I kind of liked.
Here we were on our way to Ream National Park where we camped. Not having any fuel with us we cooked noodles over a fire, truly an awesome experience. We got massively rained on during the night requiring a mad scramble to get the fly on the tent by which time we were already soaked. Live and learn.
Upon leaving in the morn the local army representative barked an order “Hey you, come here”. We thought we were done for! but it turned out he just wanted to practice his English which he had learnt entirely from listening to the radio in his hands.
The army grunt wasn’t the only one wanting to practice his English, regularly people ride beside us and want to speak to us. Questions range from destinations, origins, how we are doing, children and marriage – although no offers of marriage as of yet.
A new country to explore. We finally made it across Thailand. Here I’m waiting for my visa to be processed – it took a while which is why the next shot is in the dark.
After making it across the border we cycled into Cambodia in the dark. A fixer who adopted us had arranged for some cheap accommodation for us for which we were relieved to arrive at.
Our bikes being loaded onto the boat from Koh Kong to Sihanoukville. It was nice to cover some KMs by boat instead of bike.
We crossed the 1000 km mark and I celebrated with a very uncoordinated and slightly disturbing victory dance. Marie looked on, trying to distance herself as though she didn’t know me.
Note the new additions to the bike – horn and basket. It gives me plenty of street cred, well not really. Bart the only other tour cyclist we have met laughed at me when he saw I had a horn. He said its the same horn that the dried squid salesmen use.
