So I made it to Phnom Penh airport with no dramas. On the plane I'm sitting next to a lovely Cambodian lady who doesn't speak any English. She is very giggly and considering neither of us have any idea what the other person is saying, we manage to hold a conversation that consists mainly of giggling! I like this place already!
I get to the airport and change some dollars into Riel. Airports usually have bad rates, but it's already 6pm, and I want to get riding first thing in the morning, beat the heat, so I change some anyway.
Then it's time to find some transport to the backpackers I'm checked in at! No dramas there either. I find a man who has a 3 wheel motorbike thing (which they call Tuk-Tuks here- doesn't look anything like an African Tuk Tuk though!). Me and my bike manage to squeeze in ok. No dramas, just a little squishy. I get to the backpackers and unpack my bike - it travelled well. There's a few tears in the cardboard - as is the usual story with bikes in boxes on aeroplanes.
In the morning, the lady at the backpackers gives me a map of Phnom Penh so I can figure out how to get from there to National Highway 2 which should take me directly to the town of Takeo where I had been planning to stay the night - 80km away - a pleasant distance with the panniers!
I find the right highway ok. Somewhere I get to a big round about. There's no signposts so I assume that the highway must go straight ahead. I pedal along and the road becomes less and less highway like as I ride. I wonder if I'm on the right track and consider that it's time for a coke stop. I ask the lady (who doesn't speak English)
"Takeo?" pointing in the direction that I'm heading. She looks at me blankly.
"Kampot?" I try again saying the name of a bigger place that I'm spending the next night.
"Yes, yes Kampot" she agrees with me. And it sounds like she understands. It never ceases to amaze me how much you can understand from each other when you don't even speak the same language! She points down to my knees, and I realise that even though I'm wearing baggy shorts over the top of my lycra cycling shorts I must be exposing too much skin. Will have to ride with long pants on tomorrow.
I get to another big intersection and it's a road that looks a lot more like a highway than the one I have been riding along. I take a left like I'm pretty sure the coke lady told me too. Just in case I ask the policeman who i see near the intersection. He also agrees that Kampot is straight ahead.
And then I finally see the sign. National Highway 3. That was not part of the plan!!! I look at my map and it's actually a more direct route to Kampot than the way through Takeo. Because it's still early I think in my head that maybe I can do a super cycling day and get myself to Kampot! 9 hours later I had ridden the 170km from Phnom Penh to Kampot. I find a cheap hotel, flop on the bed, take a shower, then go for a wander in search of internet and food. The deep fried banana cooked by the lady on the side of the road is really yummy.
Because of all this I am a day ahead of schedule and have the whole day to explore Kampot!
I think I'm going to the markets, then to the waterfall not far out of town.
Tomorrows plan is 105km to Sihanoukville.
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Good job Claire! We have ridden that Nat'l Highway 2 several times. It's fun because you see so much! Like the wicker guy selling everything made of wicker, all loaded on the bike so you can barely see it's even a bike! And you'll see someone driving a Lexus SUV (they are everywhere there, eh?) with people riding up on top. I read somewhere that there are more Lexus SUV's in Cambodia than anywhere else in the world; it's a status thing. I hope you are riding with a mirror as the traffic can be bad when it comes to being on a bike. I know what you meant about Sihanoukville hotels being full. We had There are some great restaurants in S"ville, including an outstanding Mexican up on the hill, near the big roundabout off the beach.
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