BATTAMBANG - COUNTRYSIDE, Cambodia

From Siam Reap to Battambang Stefan and I kept going together after splitting up with Miriam and Rene for a while. We found a descent accommodation at Battambang visited a few art places. Many French people are around in that city which you can tell on the shops, restaurants or art galleries they have. Battambang is known as the creative capital of Cambodia. I had a late night stroll around the streets by myself and noticed the old beautiful colonial buildings which are hidden behind all the advertisements but at night they all disappear in the dark.

We rented some automatic motorbikes and made our way towards the killing fields from the war. In the end we didn't find the fields but we arrived at the bottom from a temple hill where docent of people were waiting for something come out of the huge cave which was just 60 meters away. The smell was terrible, but just a few minutes after our arrival, a swarm of bats came out from the cave and that "swarm" didn't stop. It's was fascinating how many bats where in that cave and the stream didn't stop. 100, 1000 each minute. We decided to keep going to the top of the hill for the sunset. Later on, someone told us that the cave is inhabited by over 2 million bats. On the way back down bats still came flying out. It was magnificent.  Later we had to ride back in the dark and at the roundabout I had my first crash. As not everyone from Cambodia know how to drive in a roundabout a truck just came along the wrong way and cut my line. I was lucky that I didn't had much speed but the sand and stones on the road didn't help me to stop.

A few little scratches on the hand and a broken mirror didn't stop us to start the journey to Koh Kong the next day. A city in the south, next to the border of Thailand. We travelled quiet far the first day to get into the area of the national park. As we haven't planned much and believed the route from google maps, we ended up on a dirt-road. Amazed of the scenery as we both where, another accident happened. I stopped, Stefan was looking the same way then I did and couldn't stop any more. Again the dirt road didn't make it easier to break. A coffee, 20 minutes brake and some first aid made us keep going. As the dirt road wasn't enough we arrived at a mud road. The difference? It's not straight any more, it's not even anymore, it's not dry anymore. Going back was silly because google maps says it's only a few km - it took ages and lots of nerves. Two bikes which were already both on the floor got scratched constantly. We had to go through mud and little rivers where you don't see the ground. As the locals go down this road with two people on the back or a women in the lady seat we kept on going further into nowhere.

At around 4 o'clock we got stopped from a river which was too big for us after exhausting hours on the cambodion street. We asked a farmer-women nearby if we can stay overnight. She did’t speak a word english and we did not have a proper dictionary - we communicated by hand and foot. The family invited us for dinner and breakfast, we helped out with the corn and we tried to figure out how much further it is to get to the next town and nicer road with the whole family. It seemed that we need just 3km more on the mud road to the next city. We went early to our hammocks, as they had no electricity. Sleep was still short, as dogs kept on shouting into the wild and the pretty cold night. The early morning was introduced by the proud cock at around 4pm, accompanied by a huge bonfire from the corn-leaves enlightened by the farmer, without any obvious reason.
 On the next day, the announced 3km turned out to be 35km, what took us about 4 hours. We made it through a river, some billabongs, mud holes and some huge gaps. We even had to carry the bikes over one. Locals use this streets just as normal as we use ours. It´s astonishing, how harsh their daily live in the mountains must be.
In Promoui, the capital of the state which didn’t even find its way onto google maps yet, we found a guesthouse. There is a lot going on. Not for tourists but for business. It's a town far from anything else and hard to reach except via dirt roads. We accept the fact that we won't go further into the mountains as planned, and made our way back to Pursat the next day. Pormoui would be a perfect place to start your travel into the national park and further to the wildlife sanctuary where you could see wild tigers and elephants. But without any idea where to start, you need to worry about landmines in Cambodia, where you constantly meet one-legged people.
We travelled 120km from Pormoui to Pursat over dusty sand-roads, having much more confidence on the bike. Pursat is not the place where you can do much that’s why we didn’t spend much time there and kept going the day after on the Highway. Going with the bikes down this road was an intensive experience. Cars passing you, no matter what. Trucks and Busses are the biggest therefor the strongest on the road and you can be sure that they won’t break. The horn is an interesting tool. To hunk once means that you will pass, to hunk twice means move I don’t have much space and to hunk constantly mean I don’t care I will pass and I will not stop whatever comes in front of me.

You see all sorts of vehicles. Motor bikes with 4 or 5 people, one hand riding women with her kid in the other, carry a pig or all sort of dead animals, a assumable 9 year old boy passing you twice your speed how is just able to reach clutch and break, two 7 year old driving them self’s home from school, minibuses with so much stuff that people sit on the roof and outside from the trunk where they build separate extensions to fit more stuff, little trackers for the fields carry undescribable things, trucks which are overloaded (as every other vehicle as well), and many other unimaginable transportation systems.

Arriving save back in Battmanbag we checked in and did some proper washing. Our self and cloths, everything was covered in red dust. We waited for the sunset to return the bikes in the dark because it was a big mess. I know it’s a terrible thing to do and we do feel bad about it but that was the reason to have a long night out and to get drunk at the Christmas party from the Australian bar.