From Koh Kong to Chi Phat

Riding east of Koh Kong, the directions were pretty straightforward: just follow the RN48; there is no other option. The road is a national road, but not bad at all in terms of traffic. It's mostly in good condition, although there are some renovation works going on in many places along the road. These stretches were much more dusty, and also mostly on loose gravel - or rather rocky pebbles. Not always easy, especially when uphill, but no complaints: it was definitely easier than bad dirt road. The one thing which struck us, was the amount of (plastic) rubbish strewn along the road. It hadn't been too bad in Cambodia yet, but along this RN48 it was just terrible. Plastic about everywhere... So strange, you can imagine people litter in the beginning, when you don't notice all the mess, but after a while everyone will notice; unfortunately that apparently doesn't stop people from littering, to the contrary, it probably reached a point where people feel it doesn't make a difference anymore. The broken window syndrome...

Rest area after a long climb. Plastic rubbish all over the place. Unbelievable why people don't care, and throw their stuff out where and when they like. So easy to take it with you, and properly dispose of it later on... Note: this is not only true in Cambodia, we've seen this in so many places...

The RN48, leaving Tatai - steep uphill (you can see the start of that at the far end) on loose stony surface

We did have a better experience in Koh Kong however. On our day off, we went to the mangrove center. We had read about it being full of litter, but that was not the case at all. It was clean, with bins everywhere. So there, the broken window had been fixed it seems! Hooray! Koh Kong town was not that remarkable, but not too bad either. We had great coffee and a good relax morning, we visited the very nice mangrove forest, and then went to the beach - by tuk tuk for a change - for sunset, made a short walk, and enjoyed super yummy seafood: crab with kampot pepper, delicious.

View over the Peam Krasaop mangrove forest

Beautiful mangrove

Ending the day at Koh Kong beach with a nice sunset

Back to cycling. From Koh Kong it was a relatively "short" ride, 60-something km, to Trapeang Rung. Short does not equal easy... It was actually quite a tough day, with several steep and long climbs, and a very hot sun. Really beautiful though, with nice nature all around, good views, and some pleasant stops. Tatai, on our way after about 20km, seemed like a pleasant relax village, on the Tatai river, to spend a few days - but not for us. We continued to Trapeang Roung, a bit a weird town. There are several (4) homestays on the map, but none of these were actually there. Luckily we met somebody who was able to show us the way to another homestay (well, rather a Cambodia style guest house really), the Green Home Stay - and that was the only place to stay it seemed. It was a bit overpriced, as was everything else in this town. It was also the first place in Cambodia where people were not really friendly. Something strange going on there...

The RN48, beautifully curving its way through the forest

Trapeang Roung riverside at dusk

We then had another 60-something km day to Chi Phat, and again pretty tough and hot, with continuous up and downs, some of which a bit steep. There is not that much more to say about this day, it was similar to the previous day, through nice nature. After around 40km we had a final downhill and left the mountains behind us, all part of the Cardamom Mountains and related, in which we have been riding for the past week or so. From the RN48, a bit past Botum Sakor, it's then another 20km on dirt road towards Chi Phat, with some gently rolling hills and definitely really beautiful cycling. Chi Phat is a community tourism village, and it was recommended to us 2 years ago by another couple of cycling tourists we met in Thailand - we finally got here. It's well off the beaten track, there are some tourists here but not many. Chi Phat is a very relaxed place, basically a remote village that somehow got (a little bit) into tourism. As the guy from our guest house noted, it's interesting to see how "rich" people from cities and developed places come to see and enjoy life in a simple, remote, "poor" village while the villagers would love to go to the cities, go shopping in malls, and drive expensive cars. People are strange animals... Maybe the only animals that desire things they don't have...

Tarmac surface versus "under construction" surface. In some places like this one, one of the lanes was closed by laying branches on it.

Dirt road from the RN48 towards Chi Phat

With beautiful views over the surrounding hills, and the mountains (in the distance) which we had left a little earlier

Another ferry to get across the river to Chi Phat

Our home for 2 nights, Cardamom Cottages, such a nice place with great people. Anecdote: the owner's wife, Chiva, had been sick for 4 days. In order to get to a good doctor and proper healthcare, she left today to travel to... Phnom Penh! A trip that takes about a day, I'd guess. One of the downsides of living in a remote village...

We have another rest day in Chi Phat - yes, we do enjoy our breaks, plus we only "have to be" in Sihanoukville this coming Friday, so plenty of time... Tomorrow we'll be on the road again, probably going to Kampot first before making a side trip to Sihanoukville. From tomorrow, there'll be much less hills/mountains to climb. It's going to be "easy" again. Maybe...