Finding the Trail

In Cambodia for the adventure the roads have been too good. Yes this cyclists never happy but I brought a mountain bike looking for the adventure route the idea to tackling some tough roads and get amongst it but so far all I’ve encounter has been smooth tarmac and traffic. All my reading had described the hi-ways in disrepair and I was well prepared for some slow days through Cambodia navigating pot holes and corrugations but it seems by our good fortune we have hit all the good roads, recently sealed and in good condition this is an oddity of infrastructure for this part of the world and I am mightily disappointed. Where’s the adventure? The pain and struggle of a sandy trail mud and river crossings, getting lost and running out of food, throwing up your hands in despair and riding headlong into the unknown. “Ah there it is that line there in the map it gets us off the highway and short cuts straight across to the Mekong in about two days. We’ll avoid the traffic and find some real Cambodians simple people living of the land close to the source.”
It was a miner road on my map but it quickly deteriorated into a roller coaster ride of a trail. I wouldn’t have gotten my 4WD through this track and thankfully it stayed dry for us or it would have been impassable even on foot. The main traffic along this route is bullock driven cart, these people are keeper it real with the full oldschool wooden wagon wheels that squeak and groan as their dragged through the mud by the might of these animals. We skirt the puddles finding a dry line and ride on, standing in the saddle you weave and jostle picking you line for the smoothest ride letting it run out as far as you dare on some nice down hill sections. It’s good fun riding and it keeps you on your toes. The land is flat for the most part forested greenery avoids the heat of the day but theirs some hard work ahead. The trail turns sandy in sections and it takes all your effort to keep the bike in a straight line, from side to side the rear tire spinning, it’s just easier to get of and push it through.
We have tents and plan on self serficency but along the trail your never really alone we come across small villages not on our map. A cluster of thirty families in stilted huts have cleared a section of forest and surrounded themselves with rice paddies they take us as welcome guests and offer a place to sleep and a bowl of rice. Their easy going people and since the rains are yet to come there is no planting to be done and the main activity seems to be social. So when we roll into town we are the full oddity, freaks on bicycles and we get a full gallery going. They are all smiles impressed by Jukka’s digital camera or the Thurmarest that never fails to producing a fit of the giggles, you feel like your behind glass for the most part but since I don’t speak a word of Kumer bar name of the next town I smile and point lots its all kinda funny and I enjoy myself in their company.
Not much changes in these places the farming techniques are the same since the agricultural revolution bullock drawn cart and hand made plows. A communal well that’s good for a wash and stilted huts with thatched roof bare except for soot black kettle on the fire in the corner. It seem like a nice life for the most part the kids seem healthy and always smiling; their must be some unwritten law about the poorer the people the happier the kids.

We wave goodbye the next morning and they point us in the right direction. Navigating is a blast as the trail forks quite often and no way of knowing where we are headed we just ride on sooner or later it seems we always find someone when we need to a guy transporting a calf or women laden with baskets. With the next town the only word we know they point us on it all worked surpassingly well and by the third day we cut across the hi-way heading north. It ain’t much better and at the river crossing the bridge is down, the bridge has been down since the seventies but so is the makeshift alternative and we find a fully laden truck winching itself out of the river. We carry our bikes across but it takes them a few hours to unload and reload the truck by human chain but none seems to grumble it’s just part of the daily life here where nothing seems to work that well. Cambodians recent history of consecutive wars and corrupt governments have really taken their toll and it’s the people who suffer.

We made the Mekong and a mighty sight it be for all the heart ache of the trail. A awesome sight wide brown waters rich with silt of it’s journey. Originating from the melting snow of Tibet it captures the imagination as a source of life for those who live along it’s banks. We rest up in Stung Treng and followed it north across the boarder into Laos and another 1500 kilometers it will be my companion all the way to Luang Prabang.

Cambodia

Where have I been? Just traveling slow. From the hills in the north where I left you I caught the train into Bangkok and hooked up with a guy I had meet briefly in Darwin he’s on his way around the world by bicycle and we arranged to do Cambodia and Laos together. It’s been good the roads in this part of the world are never lonely but its good to have someone to talk to.
Taking the scenic route down the Golf of Thailand our first stop was Patyaya a pumped up tourist haven akin to the Gold Coast but the Gold Coast has morality compared to this place, two square kilometers of clubs, pubs and go-go bars, the girls in this place are of tap. And although Prostitution is illegal in Thailand this place remains the center for the sex tourism industry and a fitting insight into the hypocrisy that works so well in this part of the world. Its an eye opener but way to much and the three days ride to the boarder are coastal roads a bit more kicked back with some nice spots beach towns and fishing villages.

I had been looking forward to Cambodia all along and the first impressions did not disappoint. You feel it straight away and although boarder towns are always a bit rough the total lack of infrastructure that is Cambodia gives it a frontier feel. No street lights, curbs or drainage of any kind for that matter, in Phnom Pen a half hour of monsoon afternoon rain fills the streets to waist deep at the mid town intersection, the filth of the street floats to the surface and you wade through it to get back to the hotel. Traffic makes do and no one complains the market venders just shift everything above the high water mark and the business continues. This happens every afternoon and I assume it only gets worse as the monsoon season is only just beginning.
The road into Phnom Pen was one of my favorites to date, we were told it was impassable but you have to give these things a go and although still under construction it was still a good dirt road. Quiet countryside, rice paddies and simple people, a heap of shunt river crossings and some really nice days riding. The Khmer people are so lovely with big smiles and warm hearts and although they have so little they always bring a smile and a hello for the crazy pherang on a bicyclical. The county is really quite impoverished and many people struggle for the necessities such as clean water and enough to eat, they are mostly farmers and their wooden wagon wheels driven by water buffalo denotes to the timelessness of their methods. Their homes are traditionally stilt huts and thatched roof simple places crammed full of naked kids that sound the chorus of hellos from every house as I ride by. The older kids you pass on the road on their way to school at all times of day the girls in clean white blouse and long blue skirt a crocheted sun hat and a cheep Chinese bicycle. The education system seems one of the few working elements it seems to be a grass roots ground up restructuring for the Khmer have had a hard run in recent history, years of war in the 70’s left them with Pol Pot’s tyrannical régime of crazy social reform where every city was cleared of all inhabitance and everyone sent into the fields as peasant farmers, the intelligencer were murdered some 1.7 million died in a mass genocide that totally crippled the country in the late 70’s. And although there are many sad sights of abject poverty, land mine victims and child prostitution you can only hope that this time of peace is prosperous of Cambodia.
It’s often a hard place to witness but this week I am spending some time at one of Cambodians proudest sites, Angkor Wat the site of epic temples of 12th century construction that testify to a time in history when the Khmer civilization was one of the strongest in Asia. An amazing place of grand stone monuments and walled cities, sculptor and carvings to Hindu and Buddhist gods. On of the eight wonders of the world and an epic peace of history.

Push on tomorrow and head out of Sam Reap and some time next week cross into Laos to follow the Mekong River, north enjoying the adventure and loving the ride.