After a hearty breakfast I left the luxury of the Hoang Anh Gia Lai Hotel at 8am and set of for Cambodia. Much to my surprise I had another 100m to ascend from the hotel! The road has just been remade so was in perfect condition making for rapid descents. Although once again it was a continual up & down ride which made it very tiring.
Not so much traffic today but still pretty busy. Interesting to see all the pepper drying out in the fronts of all the houses
I eventually reached the border at midday where the chain jumped off meaning I arrived with black greasy hands. The border guy walked me to the water butt to wash them. He was curious why I was leaving before my 28 days expired 🙂 I changed my dongs to Riel and headed down the very rough track to Cambodia. Once again all very friendly I filled in my forms fortunate I had a passport photo and $20USD to complete the visa.
What a change is Cambodia! the roads are deserted and you can hear birds sing 🙂 the forest is being bulldozed & burnt down to make way for vast plantations some reminding me of the Spanish Estacia. In between these are houses build on stilts. I also saw a magnificient Buddhist building.
The afternoon heat was getting to me so when I saw a hotel I immediately stopped and called it a day at the Ratanak in Borkeo for £4.24 a night! Lovely cold shower and no internet!
Going out I managed to pick up a SIM for $4 that immediately translated to $15 as a Metfone bonus deal. Apparently the internet is 0.2 cents per 100Kb which I make is $£13 per GB so more expensive than Vietnam but still way way below what 3 wanted to charge me £6000 per GB. All very efficiently done with no need for passports, credit cards etc.
The real shock was trying to find cooked food to eat, no restaurants here & the market vegetables looked good although the meat & fish were covered in flies. I eventually found a street vendor selling bread rolls I pointed to the eggs in boiling water. Cutting the egg open I discovered it contained fluid & a chick 🙁 bit to free range for my liking. So I ended up with just a bread roll and cabbage.
The village just seems so much poorer than Vietnam its certain Cambodia is going to be interesting, especially with the heat!
The Strava is below:
and the pictures are here
I hope that you do find something to eat . Doesn’t sound that great 🙁 , shame they cut all the forest down , but if Plantation is going , I suppose that is ok,
OMG think that egg would have made me sick 🙁 at least you had your bananas 🙂
Indeed 🙂