Holiday in Cambodia

Boarding the plane to Hong Kong and knowing to be back on the road soon felt really good after being home for almost 3 months. Arriving back in Kunming made me instantly feel like coming home. The heat, the crazy traffic and life just about everywhere!

After acclimatizing for a couple of days, I soon realized that apart from having put on weight, most of my fitness was gone. And so the first days felt like I wouldn't have had ever cycled before. If you don't use it - you lose it. It's just like that. But fortunately the body seems to have a memory, so soon I was again able to do the big climbs in southern Yunnan Province.

Crossing into Laos was easy and somewhat straightforward. Many people seem to like Laos. Laos is Backpackers heaven. And indeed, Laos is nice. The Lao people are friendly, no-hassle people, which makes travelling easy. The climate in Laos was, the same like in Southern China - very hot! From now on the main task was to stay properly hydrated, and to avoid the hottest time of the day.

But Laos also seemed to me a bit ho-hum first: everything being easy and very conveniently set-up catering for the budget- as well as the rich tourist. My attitude towards the country grew better the further south I made progess.

Crossing the border into Cambodia was again no big deal, with the immigration staff being extraordinarily friendly and courteous. Just the guy who issued the visa asked for US$ 21 straight (the usual fee is $20), which didn't leave any opportunity to avoid the $1 "stamp-fee". Not that I'd go broke on that dollar, but as a principle I try to avoid paying bribes or imaginery fees. A few minutes before, getting stamped out of Laos was more exciting: just when I had theimmigration-officier at the point where he'd got bored of the fee-extortion game and willing to let me leave without paying extra-money, a skandinavian couple showed up. Witnessing our conversation, the guy told me with the immgration officers listening, that this would be an official fee which I had to pay, as it is also mentioned in the Lonely Planet! Well, no need to say how I fell about happily exploited people....

10 Km's after the border I met a dutch cyclist, who provided some useful details about route the road ahead. The ride to Steung Treng is pretty straight forward these days with drinks available every few km's marked by orange freezers alongside the road. I decided to have another day off (didn't do much cycling recently), but the next day going to Kratie would be a tough one: approx. 150km, hot, headwind, sealed but rough road. Met Alain again, a 19yo. swiss-french guy which I had previously met in Laos. We were both quite happy about the unexpected encounter, pushing on the next 3 days to Kampong Cham, where we separated. I went south to Phnom Penh and he to Siem Reap.

Getting closer to Phnom Penh stirred quite some excitement, having read and heards lots of wild stories about the place. After struggling the whole day on dusty dirtroads and getting sick from the dust-intake, I finally crossed the Tonle Sap river over the Japanese Bridge and started the usual quest for decent priced accommodation.

I ended up in a new guesthouse, which was just to be setup, not a bargain, but it was convenient for the bike and the owner had a lovely 26yo. wife, who gave me best of her attention...

The owner seemed to be a nice guy, but became a bit annoying soon. He when I left, he ripped me off a bit, but probably not on purpose but due to his bad bookkeeping skills. More or less it was my own fault - I shouldn't have been so trustworthy or at least asked for receipts. So when I just accepted the facts, headed downstairs, packed the bike and stole a kiss from his lovely wife!

Phom Penh itself, from what I heard, seems to be pretty tamed these days: no people with big guns roaming the streets, no brothel villages, no freely available ganja anymore. All kinds of NGOs and foreign investment seemed to have taken over, with masses of expats spoiling the place. The Tuol Sleng (better known as Securityprison S-21), was quite haunting knowing the fact that under the Khmer Rouge Regime within 2 years time 20.000 people (men, women and children) have been detained, severely tortured and killed, with only 7 people who have managed to get out alive! Not to forget about the other 2 million who have died, by just being randomly killed due to suspicion of being a traitor or an enemy of the system, or simple being starved to death by malnutrition and forced labour while producing rice (!) to be exported to China to get weapons in exchange.

Compared to Laos, Cambodia is still a wild place. Having had 2 (!) primeministers for quite some time, no special permits needed to pick up work or ride any kind of motorbike, 20 people, 2 motorbikes, 3 fridges and a lot more stuff traveling on a minibus designed for 8 passengers, eating fried spiders as a substitute for vaccinations, or a fishpaste which is made by letting the just caught fish rot in water for a week, before further processed...

Siem Reap, with the gorgeous ruins of the ancient Khmer-Kingdom better known as Angkor Wat, was quite impressive. Being offseason, the presence of tourists didn't have such an impact on place. I imagine it to be really bad when there is busload after busload shuttled around. Apart from the site, the main attraction for a cyclist was the town's Pub-Street. Washing down the dirt one's throat with a well chilled beer and not to forget, the "Tell", a swiss-german restaurant with the best schnitzel east of the german language space.

Apart from the climate and the dust, which both do not suit very well to do extensive physical exercise, I could have stayed another month or two. But, as the visa couldn't get extended in Siem Reap and the extension would have cost a fortune anyway, I had to say good-bye to this sweet place andleave for the final task: a 160km-stretch of corrugated dustroad to Poipet, the bordertown to Thailand. I had heard horror stories about the condition of the road, as well as the border itself. As for the road condition, I am not on a bus or pickup truck so I can take it easy. As for the dodgyness of the border: Central Asia had been a good training, so I rather looked forward for some entertainment instead of being scared. The road then was tougher then expected and the border was piece of cake: after I started queuing with the rest an official made me advance the line of backpackers to get my passport stamped - these are the moments why I like this way of traveling...

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