12-30-07
We finally have returned to the road. Judee started taking Cipro for her problem stomach that would not clear up on its own. About eight days with a tiny improvement around day four makes for a very weak and grumpy stoker.
As we pass many tiny rural villages, differences become apparent. Some have raised market gardens with green onions and leafy vegetables growing. These are narrow bridge-like stick structures that perhaps serve to keep the crops from being water logged in the rainy season or to keep ground critters from eating the bounty. One village displayed tall, cactus plants standing stately by each side of the stairs leading to the main floor. Someone must have seen and applied this Martha Stewart decorator element and now every woman in the village wanted to do the same: keeping up with the Kampongs! I look, but cannot see any sign of an out-house or similar building. Everyone pees along the roadside, bathes in the mud holes and drainage ditches, but where do they squat?
We stop early (12:30) and secure a room in a guest house in Kampong Kdey. Even though the bathroom hasn’t been cleaned since the last several guests, there is one: western style, too! Cold showers and wet floors are ok today and two comfy beds with fan for $5, who’s complaining? Our plan is to get to the next big town, Kampong Thom, 85 km away tomorrow. We scout out a lunch spot and lift the pot lids to point out what we want with our rice – just like the locals. As we munch our three little pieces of pork scattered among the lovely vegetables, we are watched by dogs, cows who amble through and a small boy who sits at our table staring, coughing and wheezing at us. The daughter of our restaurant owner laughs and practices a bit of English. It is good to be off the bike before the heat as Judee continues to recuperate.
1-1-08
Happy New Year 2008! Last year, 2007, we celebrated in Auckland, New Zealand. This year in Kampong Thom, Cambodia with a good dinner next door, then read and watched Mission Impossible II before going to bed at 10pm.
We are taking the day off to let Art’s butt, replete with saddle sores, heal a little and do errands: get shaving cream, face masks for the dusty roads and to mail our postcards and package. Alas! The post office is closed for the holiday so we’ll come by in the morning on our way out of town.
The Hair Cut. Getting a hair cut in the third world, especially in out of the way places makes my hair stand on end. I approach cautiously, look the situation over. Are they blood letting or setting leaches? The hygienic conditions: has it been swept in the last few months? How clean are the tools, powered or hand clippers? OK, this shop will do. I get into the chair; am draped in some clean towels; show the barber the mole on the back of my head and he commences to clip using the power clippers and a comb. As time passes I start to relax, eventually closing my eyes and turning my trust over to the barber. As I come out of my stupor and notice the man next to me is having the ear wax removed from his ears. Long needle-like spike and tweezers do the job. The barber looks like he is digging for god! My barber finishes up, messages my shoulders and upper arms, grabs my ear lobes like he is going to pull them off and leaves me with a bloody lope cut by his fingernail! One of my worst scenarios is getting HIV from dirty clippers or razor – now a dirty nail!
1. The haircut
2. Kamphong Kdey |
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Nuances of eating in Cambodia on the road. While fishing in our morning noodle and pork soup, we come across bones and knuckles which we pick out with our chop sticks and deftly drop on the floor next to our table so the numerous roving dogs can scarf them up. Utensils are a fork (held in the left hand as a pusher and a spoon for the right – no knives), sometimes chop sticks with the fork and spoon. When eating noodle soup the chop sticks glom onto a bunch of noodles and pull them free and place them in the spoon held in the left hand, then into the mouth. Paper napkins, which here is a roll of toilet paper in a plastic holder, is used then deposited on the floor under the table or in the waste basket, if here happens to be one.
At breakfast yesterday we discovered a new taste: coffee with cream ( we usually drink our coffee black). The drink is hot and thick and sweet—at the bottom of the cup sits 1” of condensed milk. It tastes like a souped-up Ovaltine and packs a definite punch, so we had two! Our guest house the night before had a large room sort of clean; foam beds; two fans; dirty but useable shower; all attached to a party center. The room over-looked the food prep area which was very active: slicing meat, chopping salad mixings, getting ready for a huge birthday party that started at 4pm and ended at 8:30pm. The music could be heard blocks down the street. We ate at a lift-a-lid restaurant where the food is kept out front in shiny silver aluminum pots and you lift each lid and point to that which you want. We had both lunch and dinner with the same family.
1-3-2008
Yesterday we rode under cool cloud cover, a brisk wind at our back for about 90k’s of smooth road. Swaley, crater-pocked, rutted red dust interspersed with a rocky cobble-stone like base comprised an additional 10+ kilometers where the road sort of quit in the middle of our route. It was just past this back road section that we stopped for lunch at a Peep-in-Pot stall. Among the tasty offerings were small coiled snakes and a variety of fried insects or frogs. I just couldn’t gaze upon the scene long enough to discern what all was available. We found it hard to swallow – but we needed nutrition. We arrived in Kampong Cham and made the rounds to find a hot-water room. None of the guest houses have hot water, so we have a bright air con double hotel room over-looking the Mekong River. The river is so broad with deep banks, as it glides south under the new Japanese-built bridge.
Today, our lunch of yesterday caught up with Art and he went back to bed after trying to swallow a bit of breakfast. There are a number of sights around here, so we may pull up for a couple days to try to recuperate. We are having trouble staying well in Cambodia. The food offerings in the small towns are difficult. Thank goodness for the re-hydration powder that Anne introduced to us in Phnom Phen. We dissolve a packet (available at all Pharmacies) in a bottle of water – tastes good and provides needed electrolytes.
It is interesting to find many faranges (foreign visitors) in these larger cities. People do go out of their way to see the lesser known and harder to-get-to places – and many stay in the guest houses ($6 p/n) instead of a/c hotels ($12 p/n) as we are doing.
The winds are strong and the next segment of our ride is over 100 km, mostly into the wind! We cannot move on until we are strong and healthy enough to go the distance as there is nowhere to stay in between according to everyone we have talked to and all we have read.
1. 10K poor road
2 & 3 Monks on the road
5. Wood
6. Baskets
7. Stone
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We rode yesterday past the villages of brick makers, villages of sculptors, villages of rock collectors who appeared to make gravel by pounding and breaking the rock with hammers. The dirt road bisected rubber plantations, old and newly planted. We passed villages of wood cutters who took giant trees (old rubber trees, perhaps) and cut and sorted them by size and type of cut/split. The road on both sides was piled solid with wood stacks for kilometers and most trucks rumbled by, loaded above the tops transporting the wood. The people were harvesting a woody weed whose whorled seed heads smelled sort of lemony and large piles of tiny black seeds were harvested from these plants. Cardamom, perhaps? More questions – but no English translators!
1-5-08
Back on the bike to see how I feel. We are off to explore a long island in the Mekong assessable only by a bamboo bridge. In the dry season, the bridge is rebuilt each year. Down the steep dirt trail onto the narrow single lane bamboo slits we go. It is soft, spongy, even mushy in places, making all kinds of clinking noises as we roll over. A strong side wind makes the trip a white knuckler for me, but we arrive to pay our 6,000R ($1.5US) toll and slide on up the sandy bank on the bamboo planks, very much like a woven blanket three layers deep. On the island, we cruise down dirt lanes through tunnels of trees. On both sides are houses or huts on stilts with blue shutters peeking out of the dense foilage. Children greet us with the usual “Hello, what is you name?” Women wash clothes and themselves out by their wells; men tend animals, work on bikes and just sit around and talk. Along the trail that criss-crosses the island, we come across Buddhist temples and Wats, beauty parlors, butchers, barbers, photographers, and tobacco drying barns made of bamboo slathered in mud. The surrounding fields are sprouting new planted tobacco and vegetables, green leaves waving in the breezes along the river banks. We are lost and stop to “wonder” the direction back to the bridge. Through much asking and signing, it is that way: up the dusty bumpy path; past the toll booth; across the bamboo; up the bank and down the road. Back to the Mekong Crossing Restaurant for lunch and discussion of directions, road conditions and places to stay with the owner, Joe (who hails from the great state of Pennsylvania, USA).
1 & 2 Bamboo bridge to island
3. Cruise down dirt lanes
4. Tobacco curing house
5. Island temple
6. Mekong Crossing restaurant
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1-7-08
I maybe need to correct an impression that I may have left: that the roads in Cambodia are in poor shape. The roads we took from Sihanoukville #4 then #3 to Kampot and on to Takeo to Phenom Phen on #2 were good, sealed asphalt surfaced roads; same for route #6 from Siem Reap to Kampong Thom. Outside Kampong Thnor we left #6 for #71, a cut off for Kampong Cham. Now #71 started off sealed asphalt and ended that way but has a 10Km stretch in the middle where the road surface disappears and the road becomes quite challenging dirt, rocks and heavy dust and silt. We never had to get off Bici and push but I had thoughts of doing so at times. At Kampong Cham we were on #7 for 38 kilometers and turned on #73 to Chhlong. Again, this road was ok for the majority of its length but toward the end, road repairs showed up: gravel and dust, soft surface. Of course we decided to test our obstacle course skills by weaving around a grader and steam roller and promptly fell of the narrow dirt trail at the road side. All of this to the laughter of the construction workers as we picked ourselves out of the deep dust, brushed off, checked our road rash. We wanted to kill the laughing observers as we pushed Bici on through the continuing construction. The road surface did appear once again and we rode with bruised egos and bodies on into Chhlong to find a guest house for the night.
1. Route #6 Cambodia
2. Cambodian dirt
3. Chhlong guesthouse and family
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Our chosen lodging place was #99 Guest House right on the high bank of the Mekong River. A young Belgium couple, also staying there, greeted us and since she spoke Khmer, negotiated a stay with the landlady for $7 per night with cold shower, shared bath in a traditional Teak Khmer house. We unloaded Bici with help from a teenage son of our landlady. Later after showers, we lunched on the porch looking out over the Mekong with its cooling breeze blowing thoughts of a nap into our heads. I napped, Judee took a walk to explore this small, old French colonial river metropolis. Upon Judee’s return, we again settled on the porch for late afternoon beers and to watch the sun set. It was very soft light – good picture time. So Judee went to retrieve our camera.
“Art, where is the camera?”
“In the handle bar bag!”
“No, it is not!”
Oh, no! A frantic tearing through our luggage – No Camera! Did we leave it on the table at lunch? When did we take the pictures of the boys floating in the bath tub on the river? Could it have fallen out of the handle bar bag when we fell? What about the boy who took the bags up to our room and rummaged around a bit when we were still bringing up luggage? We are heart broken. Our camera gone – our latest 200 pictures of Cambodia gone.
How are we going to replace it in Cambodia? Let’s get a moto and go out and look for it!! So we arrange with our landlady to have her son-in-law pick us up. The Belgian couple assisting us and ourselves wait impatiently for the moto driver. The landlady is not the least bit upset as the sky darkens and it becomes too late to go back and look for the camera. Arrangements are then made to go tomorrow. A poor night’s sleep and up early to get packed and one of us will go look for the lost camera with the moto driver. Judee carries some of our bags down to load Bici who it seems has been moved into the house. While we pack Judee opens the rear pannier and the camera magically reappears!! Joy is our hearts and tears in our eyes! The in-law moto driver never appeared and as I first suspected: the young son had taken the camera. No one in the family acknowledges what has occurred, but it is all smiles now.
1-8-08
Dirt and dust blanketed us, Bici and our gear as we peddled the road along the Mekong to Kratie, a bustling center that dispensed tourists up river, down river and into the hills, mountains and Cambodian National Parks that back up to Vietnam. Pleasured by home-baked whole wheat bread, cheese and lettuce salads we whiled away our afternoon reading and making arrangements for a mini-bus to Stung Treng, 140 km up river, too far for us to ride in one day, and with the only option for an overnight stay half way: cots behind the restaurant, using your own mosquito nets. Not appealing!
When our minibus arrived about an hour late, it was packed to the gills and high on top with luggage, vegetables, rice sacks. Inside there appeared to be only one seat left among the brown bodies. We were stunned. How were we going to fit inside and Bici on top? Patiently the minibus staff waited until we recovered and took over as we began to remove Bici’s bags for loading into the minibus. Twenty minutes later, Bici was roped on top and we were pressed shoulder to sweaty shoulder with the teaming masses in the back bench seat. There were four bench seats: four to a seat, and that was before a few more stops. Men even climbed through the windows to access non-existent seats. After the 2.5 to 3 hour ride along a lovely road paved recently by the Chinese, we arrived at the riverside town of Stung Treng.
After securing a guesthouse room ($6 with fan) our first order of business was to get money. We discovered this morning our credit card is missing. We don’t want to point fingers, but all our memories lead to our light-fingered suspect who lifted our camera at the Guesthouse in Chhlong. We are trying to fight the feeling of victim and to put down the general bad feelings we have because of the thievery. We have other cards, probably need to cancel the missing one, but money is not available here by ATM’s anyway. We have gotten low on cash and are learning that northern Cambodia and southern Laos do not have ATM’s or that the banks will not give cash advances. Whoops! We try to use Western Union via the internet as other Europeans have done but US rules do not permit Western Union to release funds unless we have a US phone number. A quick SOS to Judee’s son Phil in hopes of a dollar bail-out. Time differences will make this a drawn-out process. The clock ticks; the money runs out = stupid travelers!
1-12-08
We are back in a land of mirrors: Laos motor bikes sport rearview mirrors. There is little or no honking of horns and the children don’t shout their “Hellos” nor do they ask “what is your name?” Someone told us that the Laotian people were laid back. Yes, they are in their own way. They will respond; they are helpful if asked but do not approach us as did the Cambodians. Yet Bici still draws a crowd to touch and point at his workings.
No troubles crossing the border except the road is under construction and the old trail is a terrible mess. No charge leaving Cambodia but there is a $1US stamp fee on our pre-purchased $40 visa procured in Phenom Phen to enter Laos. The road in Laos is smooth and sealed, side roads are dirt and gravel. Soon after entering we left the main road for the 4,000 Island area in the Mekong. We loaded Bici onto a taxi/ferry ($10US) to take us to the island of Don Khon, where we found a guest house with a room in an old French cottage, Sala Don Khone, for the princely and expensive sum of $25US, including electricity from 5pm to 10pm for hot water and fan. We looked at another place that looked much better south of the railroad bridge for $10US: ensuite bungalow on the river with fan called the Seng Ahloune Restaurant and Guesthouse. We weren’t planning on staying long enough to warrant a move.
Dinner on the porch of our guest house restaurant at sunset took our breath away: a red ball of fire setting behind a mountain with reflections on the narrow channel of the Mekong with local fishermen flinging their nets. It reminded me of the sunset ending each episode on the TV program China Beach. The two nights were quiet, filled with gin rummy, reading and listening to the Ipod.
Morning we awoke to swing open our shutters in the bath only to find just outside a mother water buffalo and newborn calf grazing happily in the warm sunrise. Later, we took off on Bici to explore the two islands of Don Kong and Don Det. All combined, we got in about 20km of dirt track, passing farms, villages, rice fields, now dry and brown with water buffalo finishing off the last stubble. These two islands are located in the middle of a vast fourteen kilometer wide expanse of islands in the Mekong River. Just down stream from our room there are hundreds of falls and rapids exploding through narrow clefts and chutes. It in not easy to miss the noise and power of the mighty Mekong.
1. Water buffalo and calf
2. Island Trail
3. Life on the river |
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Irrawaddy dolphins can be spotted in a few remaining small pods of four to six animals just below this area of cataracts and falls. We decided not to disturb them, but tour on the bike instead. The island of Don Det is the smaller one, yet has the most development of the two islands. On the north end along the perimeter trail are found all the back packer bungalows and support services. Lots of beds to choose from. There even is internet access so we stopped to check our email and thank Judee's son Phil and his wife Tricia for sending us money via Western Union!
Tonight finds us on another island, Don Khong, in the 4,000 island area. Our guest house is the Villa Kang Khong with cold water and fan for $7US. The exchange rate now is about 9,000Kip for $1US. Not too long ago it was 10,000K to $1US. Art’s butt is still rather raw so short days in the saddle are good for now as is the baby goop he is administering daily to his saddle sores. After a day or two of internetting, reading and staying off the bike, we will ride on to Champask about 100kms north of here.
in Laos
