Cambodia: Cutting Corners

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Another town, another Guesthouse. This current one was a little distant from Koh Kong town center and very near the start of the dirt track we would be taking to Battembang across the Cardomom mountain range.

Having arrived from Sihanookville by motorbike, I was burned from the sun on my lower arms and legs because I forgot to reapply sunblock and was suffering from a fitful night of rest in a fairly smart hotel (woken by a 3am call from my son in USA who had accidently selected my phone number instead of his Father's). By 7:30am we were on the road north from Snookie to the Koh Kong turn off, stopping for a top up of petrol from a litre size Pepsi bottle and for a breakfast of gui dtieu (noodles in broth). These days I'm understanding more and more khmer...when people are talking about me rather than to me, as they were at the breakfast stall!

The road to the south west winds through the mountains merging Cambodia with Thailand. It's an excellent new road with very little traffic but I still had to give Sophat a quick lesson on cutting corners safely. A sharp rap of my knuckles on his helmet to alert him that he just made or was about to make a less than smart decision. He learned, quickly, not to cross the yellow center line and enter the opponents side of the road to cut a corner during a blind curve to the left. Twice we ended up facing an oncoming vehicle before he 'got the picture'. Luckily his reactions were fast.

Recipe For Overtaking Slower Vehicles: take one slow car and one fast motor bike, drop bike back from car's arse in order to have clear view of road ahead when faced with potential overtaking possibility, begin accelerating so that if road does open up a quick pass can be completed and time spent on the opposite side of the road minimized. Common sense you think? Apparently not! This one took a few knuckle raps to the helmet to get the message across!

The only delay on this trip to Krong Koh Kong was due to the construction of two new bridges spanning a couple of rivers. This meant waiting for the 'special' motor bike ferry (a wooden platform strapped to two wooden canoes) in order to cross the first river. The cars crossed on a larger slightly safer looking contraption. For the second crossing we were allowed to find a space on the ferry once some official looking cars with armed bodyguards had been waved into place. A cramped and cozy crossing it was too!

The way through the countryside was peaceful. Poor yes, but without the fly infested mounds and trenches of refuse and sewerage of the towns and larger villages. Disturbed only by a few Thai trucks and the occasional bus load of tourists heading to or from the Thai border (the sea often being the preferred route), this may be the last frontier now that Ratanakiri province is gradually being linked to the rest of the country with the opening of another Vietnamese international border crossing.

Where land is for sale, contact telephone numbers are painted across wooden fences or on makeshift signs. The danger is that large tracts of Cambodia will be owned by a few landlords and the landless poor will predominate. Those who have rushed to sell their land rarely have the knowledge or counselling to be able to reinvest and provide a future income for themselves and instead they buy big cars or bikes and fritter the money away to become poverty stricken. Planning for the future is not a common concept or practice amongst many Khmer and buying their land may turn out to be an unconscionable act

Having arrived in Koh Kong and settled into the guesthouse, we drove across the toll bridge and up to the Thai border, made some enquiries about travel to Thailand before returning to the town quay to wander through the market streets. It's still a fishing town and the best that can be said is that it is full of potential from it's position next to Thailand and possession of several undeveloped offshore slands. To me it has more charm than Snookie but I'm excited to be moving on. This area of Cambodia is thought to provide habitat for crocodiles, information confirmed by signs warning people to stay alert for such endangered species. With this in mind we have also been warned by locals about bandit activity along this isolated route (previous dirt bike tours have had their loads involuntarily lightened), and the need to carry petrol with us (only one village on our route, which is as likely to relieve us of our petrol as it is to sell us any). We are prepared and if we reach our destination tomorrow I shall update this site. otherwise............

(So excited I shall hardly sleep)!

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