A Cambodian party..

The road changed from paved to unpaved. I was excited; this was the real work! However, this unpaved beginning was such a good strech compared to what came later..

Noooo, aaaah!! again I have to step off my bike because of a steering mistake. Manage to get on again despite almost standing still. But only for several meters. Ooooh, forgot to put my foot on the ground and I tumble down, straight in the dust. Grrrhhmm, this is making me agry! Uphill, road destroyed by heavy trucks and running water, loose rocks, gravel, sand and a beeping car behind me. "You'll wait mister" I think, and continue pushing my bike up, while my feet sometimes find grip in the dust, or just slip away. Pushing is so much harder then peddling, considering that I'm probably pushing some 65% of my own weight.
Those five days crossing the (still mined) Cardemom Mountains were hard, but definitely the best and most beautiful part of Cambodia.

During the first days in a new country, I like to notice differences between the new and the former country, just to emphasise that I've arrived in an other country. Upon entering Cambodia, the first big change was already clear; I almost bumped into a heavily loaded scooter, which I thought drove on the wrong side.. But no, it was me, driving on the wrong side. Apparently, Cambodians drive on the righthandside of the road, which I hadn't done for half a year. I was surprised that it took me several days to adapt to this again, although I've done this for (almost) 30 years. And still I prefer driving on the lefthandside, since somehow it seems more exotic to me.
Another obvious difference with Thailand was the spontanuous friendliness of the people, especially the children.

From everywhere I heard childrens voices yelling "Hello" again (though different from Indonesia, no Mister and less demanding). And many people spoke (at least some words) English. Considering that in Thailand, people warned me for the unfriendly thieves of Cambodia... (people warning me for their 'neighbours' while in the end they always turned out to be the most friendly already occured several times to me).
Other changes included the baguettes (yammie!), many scooters and less cars, churches (founded by Korean missioners), quite some English/international schools, people able to pronounce the R, dirty allday markets and especially many dirtroads. So much dust, you could not even see the sunset, since the sun dissappeard in the dust.

In the Thai bordertown I met Tom, a Lituanian cyclist. Together we drove into the beeping, smiling, dusty country of Cambodia. On the road we saw less farangs (except in Angkor Wat) and were joined by many children cycling to/from school, in their uniforms and with backpacks, but still cool enough to wear fancy hairdresses, phones and flirting with the opposite sexes. No matter where in the world you are, the youth acts everywhere the same :)

Long streches of dry nothingness with occasional small in-between tiny settlements with some houses/shops all selling the same few things (some cans of juice, crisps and sweets and small bags of shampoo/shaving gel).

At the end of the day, we found a place to put my tent and Toms hammock in such a settlement. Upon asking, people immediately agreed (as if everyday somebody asked this same question), offered us food (and whiskey) but further not even blinked in our direction.

After those dusty days in the mountains it was time to clean our bikes and ourselves (in that order of importance), once we hit the 21th century (or maybe more mid-20th century) world again. We met some cycling friends and together we drove to Phnom Phen. There, our routes seperated and while the rest is going up north, I'm waiting for my Vietnamese visa and get ready to dive into the beeping craziness of Vietnam.