Well, cruising... It wasn't as easy and enjoyable as that. On the first day we rode from Chi Phat to Prey Nob, again a day of well over 100km - more than we normally aim for. In Cambodia there is not that much choice of places to stay, so you need to go to those towns where you can find guest houses. In this case, it was after either 50km - a bit short - or, like we did, a bit over 100km to Prey Nob. It was a long day, that looking back at it, can be split up in 4 parts.
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| A last picture from Chi Phat; I didn't shoot many pictures on the way these 2 days, as there was not much worth stopping for... |
Part 1, from Chi Phat back to the main road. Very nice, we left early as it was going to be a long day and enjoyed the cool morning, making for a good ride over the hills - still sweaty, as it was very humid too. Part 2, once we hit the RN48 again; it was busy, dusty, bumpy and we had more and more traffic on our way. There were still all these roadworks, getting us covered in dust. The scenery was nice however, and the villages on this stretch very picturesque (quite primitive!). The sun was out in full force, and we were happy to arrive at a nice place for lunch. We enjoyed a long and nice lunch, with several cold drinks (soft drinks, which we normally never drink, but when spending all this energy on the bicycle it feels good to replenish with some sugar...). It was a welcoming cooling lunch, nice food (which I could order in Thai...), and we left well recovered for part 3.
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| We had been told that riding in Cambodia can be very dusty... |
After a bit more on the RN48 we entered the RN4, the main road from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville... We were hoping that that was the end of the roadworks - and it was. We were also hoping for a nice road with a good hard shoulder to ride on - and it was not at all. Yes for the nice road, no for the shoulder - there was none. Cycling on the road was out of the question, you'd only do that - literally - if you'd be suicidal. It's a very busy 2-lane road, just wide enough to fit 2 vehicles - definitely not to fit well loaded tour bikes next to that. Well, there was kind of a shoulder, but it was not sealed - so it was another 40km of dirt road riding basically; definitely one of the most terrible roads we've ever done on our bikes and unfortunately, one that seems impossible to avoid. Lucky for us, clouds had come in after lunch and it was a bit cooler (less hot, that is) to ride. After 2 hours or so, we stumbled upon a nice coffee shop, stopped to cool down with a great ice coffee, enjoyed the temporary escape from hell, and after that we were ready for the last part, and push into Prey Nob.
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| An idea of what cycling on the RN4 means... You understand that riding on the road is not an option... |
These last 23km were just "functional cycling", don't think, don't look around, just cycle and get it done and over with. We arrived in Prey Nob just before dark, the last bit was not too bad all together... It had been a very mixed day, with nice scenery, being showered by thousands of friendly "hello's" from enthusiastic children, with a cloudy afternoon but also, with busy, dusty, very unpleasant cycling roads. Luckily we found a nice hotel, a bit overpriced but great room and worth it for this day, were thirsty, hungry and tired. A good shower, a good meal and then, a great sleep.
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| The heavenly gate to... nowhere? |
From Prey Nob to Kampot was "only" around 60km. But honestly, it was a day that we won't remember; dull, boring, dusty, bumpy... The morning was not too bad. As we had a shorter day ahead, we left "late" - 8 am, that is. After half hour we took a breakfast (noodle soup, how surprising), after another hour on the road and we stopped in a very unexpected, nice brand new coffee shop, and then another half hour and we stopped at a waterfall area (Anlong Thom) where we went for a refreshing swim and a simple lunch. By then we had done less than 30km and were 5 hours on the road - and we enjoyed it! After lunch... well, it was all you don't want on the bike: hot sun (it had been cloudy in the morning), headwind, bad bumpy dusty busy road, and even the scenery was not that nice anymore. So after 2 more hours we were happy to arrive in Kampot, check in to our guest house, and enjoy our time.
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| A welcome and unexpected coffee stop |
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| Anglor Thom waterfall, not much waterfall but a beautiful and refreshing place for a long break |
This is in a way the end of "phase 1" of this bike trip. We'll be in Kampot and Sihanoukville for the next week almost, and we'll have the "Solstice Hash On Tour" festivities happening over this coming weekend. Looking forward to meet our friends from KL!!! Kampot is not a bad place to spend some time, at all. A nice town - it has a little bit the Luang Prabang feeling - with good restaurants, nice hotels, pleasant vibe, and things to do. We enjoyed a really really nice dinner in Baraca, run by Belgians, who also happened to have... fantastic Belgian beers!!! (anyone who believes that was a coincidence, is very naive). We also found excellent bread (also by a Belgian!). Not bad after almost 2 weeks mostly off the beaten track, doing a lot of mileage - we're at 900-ish km so far, but some very tough ones indeed. Time for some treats... After that: Vietnam - probably!
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| Cambodians enjoying the waterfall |
