March 17th 2012
The journey to the next town -Stung Treng is 120k from BanLung and here you can join National Route 7 the paved road to Phnom Penh which is still 500k south. When we arrived 18 months ago this last dirt road part of the journey was the killer. Horrendously bumpy and so dusty that it prevented many people from travelling to this beautiful province in the north east of Cambodia.
Last year work began on improving the road and access over the Sre Pok river (famous for the river scenes filming in Apocalypse Now). The road was widened, many bridges have been built by the Chinese who have an agreement with the Government here and in one section a new road was built.
Little by little sections have been opened cutting the time from over 4 hours to 3.Having a flat tarmac surface is so good.
Last weekend we travelled to Stung Treng on our motorbikes to spend the last weekend with our Dutch friends who have completed their placement and return to Holland on April 1st.
We packed a few clothes and Dave tied them behind his seat to save them getting too dusty and I just had a few tools to carry. We left at 7.30am on the Saturday and hoped we had missed all the mini buses hurtling to PP at high speed creating vast plumes of dust.
The first part of the journey leads out of town and past the Pagoda and the houses where the monks live, then past the new bus station which is not quite finished and then through hectares of rubber trees and past 2 schools which I work in, Both open which was good. Then maybe 40 k to the first stop. Both sides of the road are complete but for an unfathomable reason only one side is open! We travel through the district of Koun Mon and its getting very rural. Ox carts and water buffalo as well as untethered cows to look out for and children playing chicken when you least expect it.
We have a quick stop to stretch my fingers, for some reason I get terrible "pins and needles" on bumpy roads. We turn onto the very new stretch of road and its all finished. Hooray, so an easy ride through the teak trees and the now open countryside where the trees have all been logged and ready for more rubber trees to be planted. After 12k we stop again to look at the river from the top of the new bridge then on again. This time only one side of the road is complete so we travel as far as we can with all traffic using just one side of the road. remember the rule of the road is the larger the vehicle the more right to the road you have so we are always forced to the side when traffic is coming from either way.Then we eventually have to get on the dirt side. Only its very worn and big stones appear to trip you up or with heavy traffic use the surface in some places becomes corrugated and it shakes you to pieces. Eventually we come to one side which has been complete but traffic not allowd yet and prevented by places large tree branches from one side to the other. We find a way to get on and then spend an hour doing a slalem course to get round the trees. (I knew there must be a reason for the slalem on motorbike training in the UK). We alternate between good road but slalem and dirt bumpy, dusty roads until like a mirage we eventually see the advertising boards which mean we have reached O Pong Mon. Its like a motorway stop but of shacks and plastic chairs and poor food in the middle of a road triangle where three roads join.We stop for a very wecome iced coffee at $0.5 each and buy a pineapple for our hosts.
The final part 12k is easey peasey. We only have to dodge the 1 metre rows of drying cassava on both edges of the road and passing the lorries loaded up so much they can only go at 25k per hour. Finally, 3 hours later we get to Stung Treng- just for a second I do not look at the road, was going too fast, hit a large pot hole and the pineapple and the tool bag flew out and landed in the midst of on coming traffic.
Luckily no damage and the pineapple was very sweet!!
