danger | Chaos roaming the world

Dragged ourselves out in our “sleeping” cotton shirts 🙂

We had planned to go on a little ride-out to find a lookout and hill station in the Bokor National Park. But once we had taken our breakfast at our still lovely guesthouse (we had decided to stay one more day, by the way) did the stomach demon strike. And that was it, pretty much.

We dragged ourselves out two more times to get food – Lunch at the Epic Arts (no experiments) and dinner at a more forgettable expat pizza joint in town, but that is it. A lot of sleeping, a lot of watching youtube.

No – honestly, that is it. So why don’t I use this to give an update on our more recent thoughts on the route from here on out and on our changing plans?

Why?

We had no illusions that all big plans we might have come up with in New Zealand had to have a level of flexibility when it comes to execution. Over the last two months, this has evolved and grown a bit beyond minor details. So, what are the issues? Why change?

First, because frankly, we have run out of money. Even though we have received incredible support to keep us going, we felt that we should at least consider cutting it a bit shorter to reduce our future outstanding obligations.

Further, we have felt an increasing pull to “come home” – to a single place for a good long while. Not so strong that we want to pull the plug entirely, but strong enough. We are both pretty sure that this will be a once in a lifetime trip and we would cut future adventures down to 1-3 months maximum.

Most importantly and urgently requiring a change of plan though was the fact that we realised that we do not want to go to Pakistan. Most importantly through Baluchistan. After a lot of talk it boils down to this: We do not want to risk our lives and more importantly the lives of some poor soldiers just to draw a line on a map. We, for now, have no pull towards Pakistan and would only be there to get to Iran.

There are other, minor bits: Nepal, our other big highlight, is in crisis right now with no clear end in sight. Myanmar required an expensive guide and can be well done some other time on smaller bikes. India is a mixed bag, but the long list of horror stories from the road (including fatalities) are playing into it as well.

The Plan 2.0

Right. So our new plan is to complete the Cambodia – Laos – Northern Thailand loop, then do Bangkok and fly either from there or from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai. Then we would do a little loop through Oman to visit Nina’s best friend and her lovely husband and come back to Dubai to take the ferry into Iran. Persia is, after Laos, the big “want to go there” item on our list.

After that, we would travel on to Istanbul, as a sort of unofficial end point and dash, broke as we are, back home across Eastern Europe.

All of this will probably cut two months out of our trip, making a perfect early summer return date. If all goes according to plan … 😉

planning …

This was an easy riding day today. Only 175 km on a mostly deserted highway from Siem Reap to Battambang. The reason to stop so soon was two fold. For one, so that we have a good launching point for the remainder to Phnom Penh, but secondly to stop early enough to have some time to explore Battambang.

We found some colonial architecture but were mostly impressed by the chillaxed atmosphere of the town

The city is the capital of the province by the same name. In recent history, it was occupied a couple of times by the Thai. It has some cool French colonial architecture left standing and is a way to experience a little bit of what “normal” Cambodian cities would look like.

We took our time, started after a late breakfast and made good progress. The road is smooth, the traffic manageable – with the exception of the overtaking by some of the cars. There is a clear but annoying hierarchy in Cambodia: Cars don’t see oncoming motorbikes as a valid reason not to overtake. After all, they can always move to the shoulder. Unfortunately, this extends to us – but I will surely not go off the tarmac into sand at 80 km/h, so it takes a bit of focus and liberal use of the horn to explain the error of their ways to the kamikaze cars every 10 km or so. Overall, it is still quite manageable though.

Our first lunch outside the tourist area of Siem Reap: BBQ Chicken and Papaya salad for US$2.75

Lunch was taken at a roadside BBQ joint that stood out by its spotless seating area. It has become harder to find passable places to eat – Indonesia was a highlight in that regard. This time we were lucky though – and even got a veggie salad for Nina. The owners were charming, the BBQ chicken delicious and all of it ridiculously cheap at $2.75 US.

Sadly, the recommended cute little backpacker place would only take two day plus reservations, so by the time we arrived, they were booked out. We went with Agoda once more and found this comparatively luxurious hotel, just a little bit out but still within walking distance for $8 US per night. Once more we unloaded, got a shower and got ready to hit the town. The afternoon was just right for it. It had cooled down a little and the light was gorgeous again.

Flo found a “trimm dich pfad” (workout stations) at the riverside and had to try it

After a loop to take in the river and architecture (and some fooling around at the monkey bars) it was time to feed Nina’s inner chocolate monster. What better place than the Choco L’Art – a gallery / cafe run by a French / Khmer couple.

Since we were keen to get to bed and ready for a long day of riding tomorrow, we decided to go straight from tea to dinner. Once more picking a “dining for a cause” restaurant, we treated ourselves to delicious Khmer food in the most cozy of places. We are still blown away by the harsh contrasts between the Cambodian reality outside, especially during the dusty dry months, and the spic and span places set for westerners to leave their hard dollars.