The bigger, the better.

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(Sorry if I mislead some of you ....)

I'm not sure of the distance covered, but we made it from Battembang to Phnom Penh in four hours flat. My new second or third hand "big" bike attracts more than it's fair share of groupies who invariable ask how long it just took us to complete our latest run, and their amazement that we take longer than the inter city bus on any given route, indicates their inattention to the etiquette of road use in Cambodia.

The bus is the largest vehicle on the road and takes full opportinity of it's birth right. Ignoring any semblance of a central dividing line, it travels down the middle of the road, horn blaring to warn others to move to the side, or get off the road altogether.

The heirarchy is set and descends in the order of official SUVs, cars, motorbikes, bicycles, pedestrians and then dogs. Cows being herded to and from the fields seem to be singularly unaware of this pecking order, and even the bus drivers are forced to slow down when faced with stubborn bovine.

Sophat was determined to upset the established natural order of things by refusing to move to the side of the road until the last possible moment. This forced impatient drivers to apply their brakes, whereupon Sophat would accelerate ahead into the distance. It was this refusal to back down today that led to him setting his land speed record.

During the trip, we gave up donning rain gear with every downpour encountered along the way, and arrived in Phnom Penh decidedly damp but not chilled. The Hotel room is decorated with our rinsed, if not washed, clothing, and the carefully thought out social plan for this evening includes (and is limited to) wearing a towel each and watching telly.

Overly tired, already we're arguing over who gets to choose what channel and when. Which raises the question (by those who already have them) .....
"Kids! Who'd HAVE one when you can BE one"?
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

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