dirtbiking through the backdoor of Cambodia

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After quite reluctantly tearing myself away of an unexpectedly pleasant and long stop in Nong Khai, I was pretty annoyed to be turned away from yet another border. This time the Cambodia one.

But never fear, rather than running back to Chiang Mai in defeat, I headed a few kilometers north, checked into a hotel and collected myself. The next morning I made for the rarely-used Chong Jom/O'Smach crossing. Much to my surprise, I was nearly ushered into Cambodia.

I should have known it was too good to be true. About 30 seconds down the road (that seemed I should now be driving on the right side of), it appeared to abruptly end. Welcome to the dirt roads of Cambodia! I mean, I had heard the roads were bad, but this tested my novice biking skills to their limit.

The next four hours were a hot, slow, dusty slog over hard-pan, washboard, sand and the 0.25 km tease of potholed pavement in the one 'town.' I passed numerous dusty, yet oddly quaint villages, not actually knowing where the heck I was, but encouraged as the sun appeared to be on my right, to the west, indicating that I was heading south and bound to hit the road to Siem Reap...eventually.

I was halfway through tossing back some curry and rice at a roadside shack when I realized that I had no local currency and only one $20 American bill (the other Cambodian currency). I left the poor woman who fed me terribly disappointed with a handful of Thai baht.

A couple of hours into the ride, I was feeling very lost. I had effectively no money, no map, less than 1/2 a litre of water, was getting low on fuel and having no success communicating with the locals. Traffic (and therefore dust) did appear to be increasing, which I took as a good sign.

It was past four in the afternoon when I rolled across another stretch of broken pavement and spotted a fuel station with real fuel pumps. I had seen plenty of fuel along the way, but all of it in old Coke, booze or pop bottles in little roadside stalls. Hmmm, I thought, these people might be able to break a twenty or take some baht. Indeed, I was in luck! They took baht and gave me change in local riel. Not only did I now have 5 litres of fuel, but money for water!

Better than that, just around the corner was the first significant intersection I had come across. It was lined with vendors selling drinks, food, clothes, trinkets and the usual market goods. I pulled over and pointed east, "Siem Reap?" I called to a lady on the corner. Nods and smiles, "Yes, yes! Siem Reap! Siem Reap!"

I pulled away, turned left and giggled to myself that I was actually going to get out of this one. The laughter did not last long as I absorbed that the quality of the road I was travelling on was sort of better, but much more varied, potholded, paved/unpaved, often under construction and with a brisk, aggressive load of motorbike, truck, bus and car traffic in both directions. Woah!

It took all of my concentration to get through the next couple of hours. A decent stretch of pavement eventually emerged a few kilometers out of Siem Reap, just as the five o'clock rush hour river of motorbikes and cyclists were pouring out. I rolled to a stop in the middle of town, covered head-to-foot with red dust, exhausted.

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Photos

village
northwestern Cambodia

red dirt road
northwestern Cambodia

ah, sweet pavement!
highway 6 west of Siem Reap

Comments

[Anna]

Best adventure yet!!
I love this story...it's your best one yet! Glad to hear that you survived. Happy travels!

[Heather & Denise...]

backdoor of cambodia
OMG Girl! At this time of the your trip we would be booking a flight back home! You are one brave travelling mango! Take CARE Laura

[EVB]

Glad to hear you're rocking the Far East
Your bike is way cooler than J-Rawk's. And good on you for taking on "the unknown" like this. Sounds like a blast.