Had the worst sleep ever last night, it was bloody horrible, first could not get to sleep then kept waking up all night, lucky no dreaming, at least my stomach was a bit more settled. I was up at 5.30am one of those mornings were you wake up before your alarm and then just before it goes off you fall into a deep sleep. Motivation Zero. Dragged myself out of bed and packed, then out to put the trailer and bike back together before hitting the road.
For 6am in the morning there was a lot of traffic on the road, had had the map out earlier for a look so knew basically were I had to go. Joined the traffic and off, worked my way through the city till I hit the main road out, Now remember I had left only a few minutes after 6am. I had my mouth and nose covered as the amount of car pollution is incredible. I think this was a reason I was feeling a bit sick.
Threaded my way through the traffic, Bangkok has nothing on Phnom Penh, lots more bikes then cars here but there is even less road rules. I inched my way out of town. Not Phnom Penh has the same problem with signs as you find on the open road, I came to a sign saying State Highway three off to my Left, about 5km further down the road I had still not found the road, it was not till I had done about 10km and I only know this from the map that I finally found the Left hand turn onto Highway three.
Once I had found Highway three I was not even sure it was the right road I had to ask someone to be sure, Highway three makes the road into Phnom Penh from the north look like a main Highway, Highway three consists of what would be a single lane road with a dirt verge on each side. The road has more bumps then it does flat bits, I have ridden mountain bike tracks smoother then this road, in the end I just rode on the dirt track on the side of the road because it was smoother and a bit safer.
Now I had a bit of a head ache that I think was caused by all the car fumes, My stomach also let me know it was still there as well, I carried on out of town form about 47 km, I only know this because I had just passed a sign when I decided it was time to catch a Minivan ride, I signaled one to pull over and with, thank the heavens for this guy who could speak English negotiated a ride to Kampot. $4 for about 100km.
We loaded up the bike and me up front and headed off, I was going to have to change vans but the driver of mine would sort that out, all I had to do was pay my $4 at the end. There was a few of us in the van as we headed off. On the way to the changeover we came across a crash between two of these vans and I thought maybe its not such a good idea being in the front.
When we finally made it to the change over, my bike was dragged off the back of one Minivan and taken down to another, I watched my bike being taken away while I tried to keep an eye on bike and trailer, it ended up they both made it to the same place and were tied to the back of the van, It did not really look that safe but what was I supposed to do.
I still had a headache and was in the back of the van with very loud high pitched music blarring out of the speakers, plus because the back door was open the dust from the road poured into the back of the van, at more than one point I was considering getting out and riding. The road progressively got worse, till even the gravel roads in New Zealand looked better then what we were driving on. They really have shocking roads.
When I finally made it to Kampot we were listening to remixes of EMINEM with Cambodian voice over, if I did not have my headache it might have been funny. I am here now and settled into my room after moving from another one because the roof leaked when it rained. Will be catching up with Ellea later on, then will see if I head to Kep tomorrow or stay around Kampot for another day.
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