The plan today was to cross the border to Laos, but I’m happy to be only 120 kilometers far from Kracheh where I spent the last night. I am in Stung Trang. A few people told me that the road connecting Kracheh and Stung Trang was bad, but I thought: “C’on, how bad a road connecting two major towns can get… Even in Cambodia. I’ve ridden through the Australian desert and this can’t be worse…”. Well, let me assure you it was – in its own way. The road is not only bumpy with thousands of potholes, but at this time of year it is also full of up to 1 m deep pools of water of varying sizes. Mostly these pools are taking over the road from edge to edge. The regular users of this road solve such problems mostly by creating little detours around such ponds so you end up not only zigzagging from side to side to avoid the numerous obstacles and bumps on the road, but you also venture into the bush on either side of the road very often on such detours very often (I think the average could be close to every 200 meters). Where there is no detour the locals created wooden crossings of varying quality (mostly very low; just a few thin logs laid across the shallowest parts). Isn’t that nice of them… Well, I think that one day somebody thought about charging a toll for using such a crossing and the rest of people living along this road from hell quickly adopted the idea. So what you get is on some stretches of the road very numerous crossings with a branch across them and somebody who charges the toll nearby, usually a child. At the beginning I wasn’t even sure if it was in fact a toll crossing and I was going over these crossing passing next to the lower end of the branch “gate” since I fit and nobody ever objected. Well, to be precise nobody except two little boys (maybe 5 or 6 years old each) who shouted something behind me, but then again, I was not sure what it was as it could have been marvel over my bike… ;-)

Sometimes it was possible to cross such section of the road completely around the “toll gate” so if I could I did, so that I didn’t have to feel guilty for not paying ;). Once I tried to cross just next to the wooden crossing, as there seemed to be no better way and I bellied the bike instantly, having it falling on my foot that got stuck in the mud while trying to use it as support against the fall. As the foot was actually pointing backwards, having the bike lying on it caused quite substantial pain in my knee, in which there was lots of twist action. The “gate keeper” run from the nearby mound where he was resting to help me to lift the bike off my leg.  When I was free it was the turn for the bike. I certainly couldn’t back up as the villager was suggesting. The only way was forward, through the mud. So I started the bike, pushing at the handlebars while my most recent hero was pushing at my top pannier. The mud was flying everywhere and the bike was slowly moving forward. When we got it out we were both very muddy. However, it was him who had the mud all over his body as he was almost directly behind the rear wheel. I was ready to pay him for the effort and for saving me but strangely enough for this service he didn’t ask for anything. For a few logs across the road he takes money from everybody and for an actual effort and involuntary mud bath he doesn’t want anything. Go figure… I guess something like this doesn’t happen to him too often so he might have had forgotten about the money thing for a while.

Although black clouds threatened with rain all the way it was still not raining a few hours later. As I started to think how merciful the weather was being to me first drops started to fall. “Nooooo, not yet!” I was shouting in my helmet. Make the road little wetter and the pools little deeper and I will be stuck here, if not injured. A light rain was falling for the next half an hour, which was still OK. Then finally I reached the start of maintained and quite smooth (certainly compared to the previous 120 kilometers) dirt road. It was at that point when the rain started to pour down. “Thank you, Thank You, THANK YOU Mother Nature!!” I shouted again inside my helmet with great relief. Even though either one of my wheels slid here and there this road was rideable in this rain. I really don’t know what would happen if I got rain of this intensity on the bad stretch…

Another 20 kilometers and I was finally in Stung Trang. As it was already almost 5PM it was clear that there was no way for me to reach the border before they close it for the day. All and all I had been riding for almost 6 hours, lost (and replaced) the same nut from the pannier frame that I lost on the bumpy road through Simpson Desert in Australia and I have moved by only 140 kilometers. My overall average speed was under 25 kilometers per hour!

To find a guesthouse was very easy again. I just rode to the end of the town where I was stopped by Kong River and there by the river was a guesthouse with great rooftop restaurant that could house my bike and me for mere USD2.50. It stopped raining just as I stopped in front of it. I guess that the nature wanted to show me today that she can be merciful, but at the same time she didn’t want to let me forget who is the boss here. Or maybe she just wanted to get me to my destination safely but not let me get too comfortable. Whatever – it worked out just fine today.

As soon as I stopped I was the centre of attention for both the locals as well as a few western travelers at the guesthouse. I guess a muddy and soaked rider on a very muddy bike deserves to answer a few questions… J

(128km)