Advertisement
Published: January 23rd 2018
Edit Blog Post
Day 13. Sihanoukville. Tuesday 23 Jan
The best sleep this week and a good breakfast before wee set off for Sihanoukville by the main road. The road got busier the further north we got. Good lunch if noodles and veg for $2.50 after which the road got even busier with heavy lorries. Mostly 10 wheel rigid tippers and 5 axle artics. Lots of makes such as Hino, Hyundai, Volvo, Mitsubishi and American Sterling with long noses. We have never seen as many HGV,s as this all week and think that there was a quarry nearby since there were a couple of weigh bridges on the roadside. This made it quite unsafe for cycling since they were going quite fast with little room to pass,especially when we came to the narrow bridges. Chris actually fell off into the road coming up to a bridge as he was riding up the tarmac edge from the red grit side strip. Luckily there were only cyclists behind him and not a lorry. We eventually turned off the Highway 3 and took a grit road around the hill which took us up a steepish gravel hill with sections washed out. Only Haen, our 22 yr
old mechanic got up it without feet down. I just had to dab once on one section and then walk 6 ft across another before getting back on trying to control the wheel spin. As we went over the top and started our descent the rain started again and got heavier and heavier. Eventually we pulled off the road and found a shelter to hide under and let the rain and thunder subside. It appeared to stop so we set off and guess what happened? Yes you already know and to top it all The other Richard got a rear wheel puncture and as we got to the beach the piece of glass was removed a new tube fitted and off we rode along the sandy beach road full of red dirt puddles and a 20 stone westerner who had fallen off his scooter. It was embarrassing to see all the overweight westerners waddling along the road with it all hanging out. One lady was at least 25 stone and a vast contrast to the lean Cambodians we have seen since our arrival. The hotel was found and the bikes washed off after the wet sandy encounter. Those of us
who had brought our own bikes then set about stripping them and boxing them up. I struggled since I had lost my glasses but just managed to complete the task as it was growing dark. As Channi was watching me he got bitten so my apprentice Roger kindly dashed to the room and brought some insect spray down for me. My saviour. The room is great and I had to wash all my kit during my shower since it was covered in sand and not even fit to travel in my case. The evening meal was at the Angkor Beach restaurant and was really nice with a big selection of BBQ foods. I stuck to my seafood noodles after last night’s disappointing episode and enjoyed it immensely. We said goodbye to two of our backup team, Hean and Kuhn, who have done a great job as mechanic/ backup man and truck driver. Well done. Back to the hotel for a small glass of wine and the barmaid gave us some small pieces of toast as an appetiser. What she didn’t say was that it was laced with Red chillis, Zut Alors my mouth and lips. Goodnight.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.057s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0214s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb