Hey all, back again and writing this from Bangkok, Thailand!!!!We are now 10 months into the trip and have biked around 8000 km's all up. Nothing too great I know and we have met people travelling around doing bigger and better things than us but we are pretty happy with our efforts to date and its great to meet these other travellers and realise just what else is possible.

Have just left Cambodia about a week ago and spent about 6 weeks all up there. I last updated you just leaving Laos and heading into Cambodia so I am now a whole 7 weeks and one country behind!!! HA HA. Anyway here goes the run down on our Cambodia saga.

Unless you are flying out and in, at the Laos/Cambodian border probably 99% of tourists and probably about 90% of locals take the boat down the Mekong from the border to a town called 'Stung Treng' which is the first major town in Cambodia you come to after leaving Laos. There are both Cambodian and Laos border guards for exit and entry stamps on each side of the Mekong at the water border. You have to then hire a boat, charged out at ransom costs, to take you down to Stung Treng. The reason they can charge such pathetic prices is because once you stamp out of Laos you can't turn back and the only way down to Stung Treng from this point for the normal backpacker is by boat. There are no bus services or taxis to rent to go down highway 13 into Cambodia and actually there is not really any general traffic that take this road into Cambodia from Laos. Both the river border guards and the road border guards also charge you a cash fee of anything from US$1 - $20 to stamp exit or entry in your passport even though you have paid US$30-$50 for the visa back at their consulate and the consulate tells you there are no other fees to pay to enter or leave thier respective countries!!!!. It is all bloody beer money but there is nothing you can do but try to negotiate it down as low as you can. Every tourist seems to know about it and has their own amazing story and amount that they had to pay at this border. One thing you learn when you are travelling around these countries is that most of the crap hangs out around the borders or border towns of each country so its where you usually have to be at your sharpest. No matter how great the people of the country are as you travel through it, the first and last people you will meet on the way in and out are the low lifes at the border towns and crossings and you have to remind yourself not to let them be your impression of the country as you enter or leave.

Anyway we were going to be one of the very few to take the road across the border and down to Stung Treng, since we had our own transport with the bikes, and although we would get out of being held ransom by the boat drivers we had heard stories that the border guards at the road border hardly see any traffic, tourist or local, and because of this tend to up there beer money exit and entry fee to make up for it!!!!   So off we headed down highway 13 in Laos and instead of turning off to the mekong river border crossing, where the sealed road ends, we carried on straight dropping off the great sealed road and onto a dirt road that immediately goes into a forest. We biked down this forest track and straight away there was   no more road traffic but us!!! We must have biked for a couple of kms before we came across the Laos border guards. Two of them finally found the energy to get out of their hammocks and come to the little wooden shack at the road side to take our passports. We knew they were going to ask for some money and we had planned to put up a good fight not to pay any. Sure enough they asked for $1 each. For a start we were actually surprised that they started off with such a small amount after the stories we had heard but on principle we said we didn't know why we had to pay anything since the consulate had said that the visa in our passport was all we had to pay for. So on and on it went with them wanting some money and us not wanting to pay. We lasted about 30 minutes I guess and it got to the point that we were saying its bullshit and we know its just to buy their beer and smokes but they wouldn't bend. We couldn't even get them to settle on $1 for the both of us so in the end I paid a dollar, got my passport stamped and left Katherine still fighting on and telling them that I had left her without any money as I headed for the Cambodian side of the border. Soon though Katherine followed after also paying a dollar. We both had a bit of a laugh about it and decided this time that if it was a dollar each
 at the Cambodian border hut we would show our disapproval but pay up quickly because it wasn't worth wasting another 30 minutes when we had a hot, hard days biking ahead of us.
Well the Cambodian border guards were much friendlier to us but after filling out the forms it wasn't long before I was asked to go into one of the offices where the passports were being processed. It was quite funny actually because unlike the Laos border guards, who tried to bullshit us with the money being a foriegners fee, the head guard on the Cambodian side pretty much just smiled up at me and said would I be happy to pay him $5 for the two of us, not trying to hide the fact it was to pay for their beer and cigarettes. I said it was way too much and would only be willing to give him $2 and handed that over to him. Without even blinking he said okay, took the two dollars, stamped our passports and wished us a good trip in Cambodia!!!!! Quite the bloody expierence I tell ya!! HA HA It probably all sounds like we made hard work for ourselves over a few bucks, especially on the Laos side, but if you don't stand your ground over things like this, that you know are wrong, then you just make it harder for other travellers behind you and for yourself when you travel these areas again. For example, I know one couple were telling us that they got caught at the river border hut behind some other tourists. The border guard asked the tourists in front of them to pay $5 each and they paid straight away with out even contesting it!!!. This meant the couple behind them were stuffed!!!. They had to pretty much pay $5 each also even though they could have got it down lower had the people in front of them not made it so easy for the guard to keep asking for that amount. Its the same old story, the more they can get travellers to pay the more they expect everyone to be able to pay and the price will just keep rising for future travellers.
The other interesting thing at the border was about the only vehicles around were two trucks backed up to each other and the locals on them throwing boxes and boxes of Contraband cigarettes from the Cambodian truck to the Laos truck. Also off to the side there was one more vehicle which was a small truck. With out looking like I was looking I could see that a couple of the locals were removing the inside door linings to either put something in or take something out so obviously heaps of illegal shit goes on at this quiet little unused border in the middle of the forest and not wanting to stare too long we smiled at everyone working around the vehicles and carried on our way.

Well the road from the border to Stung Treng is pretty much a ghost road, as we were told, and you just bike and bike this dirt road through the trees without seeing hardly anyone for the whole 70km. The perfect area to get mugged actually!!!! HA HA It was also bloody hot and even though we thought we had enough water it wasn't enough and there was no where to buy or get anymore really so we had to hang tough the last stretch of it. Won't let that happen again!!! Apart from the odd little family in a bamboo hut out there the only exciting living thing we got to see was a wild boar sprint out of the forest across the road straight in front of us and back into the forest on the other side!!. Don't know if we spooked him but he looked a bit pissed as he shot by and I know they are one animal that can do some damage if you threaten them enough!!  
This first road we biked in Cambodia also confirmed what we had heard about the country. That the people are great but the roads are total shit!!!!!! It has pretty much been the rule and not the exception the whole time we have been here. They are the total pits and are branded the worst in south east asia, of which is no exaggeration. It is definitly not the country to come to and start biking if you never have before. You would probably want to give up any thoughts of tour biking and pack it in within a week if you started here !!!!

I have read that Cambodia is considered the wild west of South East Asia and it really does fit the name. It is a very dusty, very poor, and very wild sought of place but the people are incredibly friendly and we have had some great experiences with them out in the country side. Actually in the countryside and the smaller towns we have also found them to be pretty honest with prices, more so than any other country we have visited in the south east so far, and we actually got to the point that we stopped asking the price of things because we were getting what seemed like the true price instead of the usual foriegners cost of three times the amount. Of course this all changed in the major towns and cities where bargaining is expected and welcomed but on the whole they are very genuine and friendly people and our experience there has been a great one.

Okay, we finally got to Stung Treng late afternoon, tired and thirsty, and had to get the little local water taxi across the Mekong over to the main town. We only stayed a night here because even though it is about 70km from the border it really is the first town on the Cambodian side and therefore a typical shitty type of border town setup. We did meet some of the other backpackers from Laos that we keep bumping into who had travelled down by boat and we all shared our border stories over a beer that night. They were all suppose to get a boat onwards from Stung Treng, south, down to Kratie that day, where the real Cambodia begins, but it had broken down and they were told it should be able to run the next morning.
Our destination from Stung Treng was to head out to Ban Lung which is the main town of Ratanakiri District. Ratanakiri District is in the North east of Cambodia and Ban Lung is about 150km north east of Stung Treng. Knowing the road was all dirt and wooden bridges the whole way and because we wanted to sleep in after our ride from the border we opted   to leave in the afternoon of the next day and just to bike 20km south of Stung Treng to the turn off intersection where some other cyclists we met in Laos said we could get a bed for the night. This way we would only have 130km ride the next day which would be a little more manageable given road conditions and temperatures.
Sure enough there were a couple of little restaurants there at the intersection to Ban Lung and Kratie and one of them had set up a little open structure with fold out cane beds and mosquito nets for passing truckers or the odd cyclist like us!!! HA HA The family who owned the restaurant were very friendly and after finding out what they could make us for dinner we ordered something. Because there was no electricity out there, apart from a few lights running off a generator, we pretty much hit the sack once it was dark. Got up early the next morning, ordered some breakfast, payed up for food and lodging and said goodbye. We hit the road about 7.30am and although it was dirt it was actually not too bad. Some of it was crappy in areas but after finishing up biking in Cambodia and looking back at the roads we came across there it would actually rate pretty good i.e. there wasn't too much traffic throwing dust in our face on it, we didn't have to get off the bike and push or carry it at any stage, we didn't have to constantly navigate huge potholes, and we didn't break any spokes!!!. The road was also mostly through the jungle which made it quite interesting.
Anyway got to Ban Lung just before dark and were not only tired from biking but also from waving and saying hello to all the kids that ran out to the road side to see us. Cambodia has been another one of those countries where everyone is so friendly that you are constantly waving and returning greetings all day as you bike past the village huts. The kids are very cool and full on with saying hello over and over again and if you don't return the hello they just say it louder and louder until you do!!!!! HA HA I must admit one day I was so tired and sick of dust being blown in my face from passing vehicles that I just couldn't say it anymore and just nodded my head at them all. I felt bloody guilty and a slacker but I just couldn't shout hello one more time that day. I also actually remember following Katherine one day and seeing the look on a kids face when she waved and yelled hello to Katherine biking past and Katherine didn't hear or see her to say it back. The kid looked devastated. I yelled out hello to her when I passed, which thankfully bought a big smile back to her face so thats the sort of pressure us cyclists are under over here!!! HA HA We have to not only navigate the roads,   put up with hot temperatures, hot drinking water and dust in our face but we also have to brave a smile and hellos 24/7 while we are on the bike no matter how pissed off or tired we are!!!!! HA HA I am sure I am getting buggar all sympathy with this problem from you guys back home working but felt I should tell you all some of the more unusual struggles of a tour cyclist anyway!!! HA HA. Other things the local kids and even the adults will yell are: bye bye, thank you, where you go?, whats your name. These can be yelled in any order or sometimes all of them one after each other. The whole village may only say 'bye bye' when you bike through, which is obviously what they were taught by some tourist, and even if you say hello they will continue to yell bye bye!!! You can sometimes see a group of them rehearsing what they are going
 to say before you bike past them and the other day I could see four muslim women doing just that before yelling "hello, where you go!!", all in perfect harmony!! HA HA It is all bloody hard case and you have to give these guys full points for effort. They are so proud of themselves out in the countryside when they say a hello and you acknowledge with one back confirming that they must have said it right. Another interesting thing I have found, although I don't do it very often, is if I look at a really young kid, as I am biking through the village, and pull any kind of face I can start them crying and send them racing into their house for safety even from 100ft-200ft away!!!. The adults usually start laughing as the kid races by them knowing I am just having a bit of fun. Cruel I know and I am probably scarring the kid for life on their impression of a white person on a bike but I have only done it once or twice and to be honest sometimes I don't have to do anything to make them start crying and running I am obviously that ugly and scary!!! HA HA They never seem to be frightened of Katherine. Must be my shaved head I think!! HA HA          

Anyway back to Ban Lung. We ended up staying there about 4 days I think. Ban Lung is quite a cool town but it is also the dustiest town I have ever been to!!!. Like the roads to this town there are no sealed roads in the town centre either and with the local traffic going up and down all day it is just a   constant dust ball. The sights of Ban Lung are actually out of the town a few kms in different directions. There are several water falls to visit, of which we spent one day visiting three of them by bike, there are the rubber tree plantations which we biked through to get to the waterfalls, the remote local villages scattered around and the volcanic lake. The volcanic lake was by far the highlight of this place for me. It is probably the best lake I have ever swam in. It isn't a big lake, maybe about 300m to 400m diameter, therefore you can see all the surrounding jungle growth very clearly from all sides and it gives you that very cozy intimate feeling. You can either swim or float in a tube to the middle and just relax amongst the natural scenery. The water is very very clear and a perfect temperature for the first three or four feet of depth. There are only two areas off the walking track around it to access the lake where the locals have built wooden platforms with steps for entering the water and sun bathing on. This means you see 99% jungle around you and the sky above making it an awesome setting and feeling. There are also not that many people out there at any one time, since Ban Lung is not really on the main tourist itinerary of Cambodia. If I could take one thing home from Cambodia it would be this little lake to put in my back yard!! HA. Bloody thing wouldn't fit though even if I could!! HA HA It was very very cool and I would bike to Ban Lung again just to swim in it.
The other thing we did while there was go out to one of the local villages and have an elephant ride for an hour. The village we went to mostly use their elephants for carrying wood and bamboo from out of the jungle but they also take us silly bloody tourists for a ride every now and then to earn some money on the side I guess. Anyway our guest house told us where to bike out to and that they would send someone out to meet us there to talk to the village locals and organise the ride. We found the village no worries but the guest house bloke ended up being about an hour late!! which didn't really matter since the elephants were also no where in sight when we got there!!! We didn't mind too much because it was very entertaining just sitting in the middle of the village watching the locals go about their day to day activities. They worked out we were there for an elephant ride and through hand signals told us that the elephant was on its way up from the river and would be a while.
At one end of the village there were about 15 adults getting totally wasted on their local home brew they drink out of a big ceramic bowl through long bamboo shoot straws. These guys weren't just drunk, they were wasted!!!! At the other end of the village some of the men were building parts of a house to be eventually put together. They were weaving walls together out of bamboo and hand cutting and planning big arse logs of wood into square beams. Very impressive and to do that stuff by hand without an electric tool in sight is probably what drives them to getting wasted on their home brew like the others were!!! HA HA The kids were also an interesting bunch and we actually watched two little girls, about 4 years old, playing with mice that they had obviously caught and stabbed on a stick like a skewer!!!!! They had one each and were just sort of casually pulling and pushing the mouse up and down the stick!!! There was blood and guts hanging out of the poor little buggars and they treated them like toys!!! We actually got them both to come right up to us and they were happy to hold their sticks out with the mice hanging off them and show us their catches!!! Quite wierd and we actually saw one of them put it up to her mouth but it was too far away to see if she actually put any of it in!!!! So, quite an interesting village all in all and we hadn't even seen an elephant yet!!!! HA HA Eventually a big old boy did enter into the village out of the jungle and it was very cool to see it in its natural village surroundings. The ride itself was pretty good but you couldn't really see the big boy properly and appreciate him from on top and the custom made seat for two that Katherine and I had to sit in on his back was less comfortable than my bloody bike seat if thats possible!!!. The owner had the more comfortable seat just straddling his neck and steering him with his feet behind the elephants ears. The view was good from up there however and it made you feel like tarzan of the jungle a little. We were on him for about
an hour, which was long enough, as they don't get too far too fast and you start feeling guilty after a while for making him have to walk you around instead of bathing in the river with his mates!!! Ha Ha.         

We left Ban Lung back down the same road we had come and once again stayed at the restauraunt at the Kratie/ Ban Lung intersection 20 km south of Stung Treng. I have to confess that I arsed up on the way back from Ban Lung. I was biking along fine and just trying to bike out of a big, but shallow, rut when the bike just went sideways on me!!! I was eating dirt before I knew what had happened and luckily I just ripped the sleeve of my shirt and lost some skin off my elbow and arm. I looked back quickly hoping Katherine wasn't close enough to see it but sure enough she was so I also lost a bit of my pride to boot!!! HA HA
Our next destination was Kratie which is about 140km south of the intersection. I would say that nearly all tourists and most locals take the boat from Stung Treng down the Mekong to Kratie for this leg also because the road is one of the worst, if not the worst in Cambodia!! We were also planning to do this but after talking to expats and locals about the road and hearing them say its total crap, but can be done, for some stupid reason curiosity got the better of us and we decided to go for it and see just how bad it was!!!. We were actually nervous the night before and wondering just how nuts we had become, ignoring peoples advice and deciding to make life miserable for ourselves just to satisfy our curiosity!!! HA HA.
Well, the next morning at about 7.30am we took off and sure enough it turned out to be a bloody shocker!!!! After about the first 20km of the 150km leg it just went from bad to bloody worse and stayed that way from there on in!! And this is suppose to be the main highway from Stung Treng to Kratie!!!! It is very easy to see why everyone takes boats down this leg instead of the road. At least on a bike we could dodge some of the huge holes and ruts but in a car or bus it would be a bloody nightmare!!! Most of it was a combination of broken up and patchy ashphalt from years gone by, big dirt and gravel potholes and sand so deep in places that you had to walk your bike through it because it was pretty much impossible to ride through and stay on!!!! It was a bloody beauty I tell ya and, to put it nicely, a very 'character building!!' experience HA HA. I think after doing that road and the big mountain passes of Sichuan, China we now have the mental arsenal to tackle any and all future roads and know exactly what we are up against in terms of difficulty!! HA HA The only good thing about the road was the lack of traffic, obviously due to the road condition. Actually I think we only saw a handful of locals on motorbikes the whole 150km as they all take themselves and their motorbikes down on the boats as well!!!
Anyway finally did get to Kratie around 7pm, in the dark!!, making it about a 12 hour day for us and, once finding a guest house, hit the beds and crashed!!!! Kratie is a pretty cool town, on the Mekong river again, and is famous for the 'irrawwady dolphins'. I think they are the only dolphin breed to live in the river rather than the sea and have a flat nose and smaller fin to most sea dolphins. I think they are only found in three places on the Mekong river throughout South East Asia and just out of Kratie a few Kms is one of these places. We took a local boat out to see them and it was quite a fun hour. We were the only ones out there at the time and there were plenty of dolphins swimming around us and coming up for air. They don't come too close to the boat and don't jump out of the water very high to breathe, making it a hell of a challenge to get a photo of them!!, but we got a pretty good showing from them just the same and it was good just to be out on the river with them.
After Kratie we headed further south about 30 -40km along side the Mekong to a town called 'Chhlong', where we stayed a night, and then followed the Mekong on down to Kompong Cham. This leg is usually also done by boat and although the road was once again total crap the villages and people we came across on our bikes were unbelievable!!! The road was pretty much all a mixture of dirt and sand and quite a few times we had to take public ferry boats across rivers that either had no bridges or were currently under construction. We only saw about 2 other westerners on rented trail bikes on this leg due to the limited access. Actually sometimes the road ended up more of a single lane trail and weaved its way through villages and even through village houses in some areas!!!. Once or twice we didn't know where the road had disappeared to until a local would point to a trail running beside or behind his house and sure enough it would eventually come back out to somewhat of a road. There always seems to be a better quicker way for the locals and their motorbikes, which is what 99% of Cambodians use for transport, and of course us on our bicycles. Then there is a longer more difficult way, which is probably impossible in the rainy season, for the few trucks and cars that travel out in the countryside. Pretty much the whole leg between Kratie and Chhlong and most of the leg from Chhlong and Kompong Cham was biking through these amazing tightly knitted villages just one after another. It really was like the wild west out there. Stacks of hay and timber being transported on old wooden carts with big wooden wheels pulled along by hump neck bullocks everywhere. Old wooden and bamboo huts on stilts with straw walls and roofs. Heaps of high mud buildings used to dry tobacco leaves for the eventual manufacturing of cigarettes. We actually stopped at one for a rest and sat with the workers who were happy to let us look inside. They stoke a fire in a big clay pipe on the outside that continues into the mud structure and heats up the
 inside. It does a pretty good job too because it was bloody hot when we went in to see the tobacco leaves drying and the seat we had going from biking was increased '10 fold' in there!! HA. It was just like going back in time out there in these villages and we were treated like royalty when ever we stopped to buy something, ask questions or just stopped to take in the views. As normal the kids, and even some of the adults, were out everywhere waving and saying hello, or bye bye, depending on what they had mastered the best . There were also quite a few muslim villages on this leg and at one of them we stopped to have a bite to eat and as usual ended up with the whole village around us. They were all very friendly and curious about our bikes and I offered one of them, who looked to be the elder of the village, a ride on my bike. He was a little unsure for a start but eventually hopped on and went for a spin. It was bloody hardcase to watch and the rest of the village were getting alot of entertainment value out of it also. I think he found it a little hard with the seat being up so high and the fact he was wearing a traditional wrap around skirt instead of pants didn't help either!!!. I also think I had left it in a very low gear, which they are not use to, so he was pedalling 50 million miles an hour and finding it hard to stay in the seat!!!!. So all in all the local sights and people we came across on this leg more than made up for the shitty roads we had to bike on to see them.

Finally we got to Kompong Cham. We stayed one night here before heading about 45km west on highway 7 to a town called 'Skoun' and then turning off north up highway 6 to a town called 'Kompong Thom' on our way to Siem Reap and the famous Angkor Temples. The stretch of road from Kompong Cham to Kompong Thom had to date been one of the few decent, continually sealed, stretches of road we had come across   since being in Cambodia and it was also without any road works and machinery most of the way so it was xmas for us and, with the help of a tail wind, we had a great days riding. Skoun, the town we turned off at on the way to Kompong Thom, is famous for its roasted spiders and after hunting around and asking someone we finally found where to look for them. Or they found us more like it!!!!. It was quite freaky when I first saw a lady with this platter of roasted spiders start walking up to us. The platter must have been piled about 8 inches high with these big old taranchular   (have no idea how to spell it!!) type spiders!!! They were as big, black and hairy as they look on those National Geographic documentories and at first I wasn't too keen to try one. In the end however I decided to give it a go. I bought one, started with the legs and then eventually got to the head and body of it and in all honesty I actually managed to eat the whole thing and decided it was pretty bloody tasty!!! It tasted alot like seafood I reckon and the meat of the body looked and had the texture of prawns. The sauce it had been roasted in was pretty good to which helped I think. Apparently they farm these huge hairy things by the hundreds so I don't think they are of the poisonous type, at least I was hoping they weren't at the time!!!
Anyway we eventually got to Siem Reap after staying one night at Kompong Thom and this stretch of the road was once again totally shitty with some parts being under construction and dusty pretty much the whole way until about 15km out of Siem Reap.
We stayed in Siem Reap for about a week all up and spent the first 2 days relaxing and doing some washing and bike maintenance. We also had a look around the city and the first thing we noticed is the local beggars, some with limbs missing from UXO's I guess, and the constant hounding by these beggars, the moto drivers and street vendors for the tourist dollar which they have now come to totally rely on. Even though you can easily see that the whole country is in poverty the people here were in sharp contrast to the rest of what we had seen in Cambodia to date and you could see it was the tourist dollar that had made it that way. Because Siem Reap and Phnom Phen are the biggest concentrated areas of tourists it would be such a huge misrepresentation of the Cambodian people if you just visited these two popular cities and their attractions and then flew out, which seems to be common for alot of the organised tour groups. From what I have seen the general population of the 12 million odd Cambodians, although very poor, are incredibly happy, friendly, helpful and hardworking people despite them being the poorest country of south east asia. That makes them all the more amazing and inspiring knowing the wars and genocide they have been through along with the corrupt government and major poverty they are still living with today.   

Most of you probably know that the main tourist attraction in Cambodia is the Angkor Temples just on the out skirts of Siem Reap that were built between the 6th and 12th century. The area that all these temples and associated structures are in is pretty bloody wide spread and covers a fair bit of ground. We bought a three day pass and biked out and around the different temples and areas each day and found that three days was just right to see everything properly and without buzzing around like a chicken with its head cut off!!! You can buy a one day or the three day, like we did, or a one week pass. The downer is they make you use the days one after the other and you can't take a day off in between which would be alot better. It is quite hot and tiring hanging out in the sun all day at the temples for three days in a row and a day off to stay in the shade with a beer in between would work much better I reckon. I did try and look for the comments box around the temples to make the suggestion but couldn't find one anywhere??? NOT!!! HA HA
Anyway it was great and we were pretty much out there for all  three days from morning to evening getting around everything. There just seemed to be temples all over the place and Angkor Wat and Bayon, the two main attractions, are pretty bloody awesome. They certainly had real craftsmen back in those days who did some amazing stuff on stone with their simple hand tools and it would be incredible to have seen it when it was first all built and still a bustling kingdom and city.
Also some of the ruins have been completely engulfed by the roots of huge mature trees growing on top and out of them which is very cool and just adds to the whole ancient picture. Throw in the fact that it is all situated amongst a thick jungle setting, which is also quite pleasent to bike through as you go from ruin to ruin, and you've got yourself a pretty good way to kill three days. You do however have to try and make yourself immune to all the roadside vendors and walking postcard and nic nac sellers hounding you constantly as you make your way around but if you were expecting not to see that stuff here then you might want to stick to a cruise ship type of holiday!!! HA HA.
Actually if it isn't the women and kids trying to sell you this stuff out at the temples during the day, during the evenings back in town its all the moto drivers trying to sell you a ride, drugs or a lady to take care of you for the night!!! and they still offer the last service even if I am walking with Katherine beside me!! HA HA
After staying in Siem Reap about a week we decided it was definitly time to get off our comfortable arses and back on our uncomfortable bike seats. Although we did decide we would take the boat from Siem Reap across the head of lake 'Tonle Sap' and on through the 'Stung Chas' river to the city of 'Battambang', which is pretty much directly across from Siem Reap, and continue biking from there.
From Battambang we were then going to head back down south east on the other side of the lake and into the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Phen. The problem we had however was the boat was leaving very very early and for some reason we didn't hear the alarm and missed the bloody thing!!!!!! Once again everyone usually takes this boat from Siem Reap to Battambang, not only because of road conditions up this way but also because it is suppose to be a really scenic trip and that was why we had decided to do it also. However!!!, not wanting to stay another night in Siem Reap and deciding it was our own fault for not getting up to catch the bloody thing we opted to bike around the northern head of the lake to Battambang instead. This however took two days for us to get to Battambang, having to head north west about 100km and stay a night in Sisophon, before coming back down about 80km towards Battambang. The road was also in the usual crappy condition we had now come accustomed to here in Cambodia and the dust was as ever present also when a vehicle passed us. I think we probably spent this whole leg from Siem Reap to Battambang biking along saying under our breath, " should have got up earlier and made the bloody boat", but we didn't so that was that and there was nothing to do really but pedal and look at the 'not so scenic' countryside on our unexpected road trip!! Ha Ha      

We stayed in Battambang for two nights before heading on south east down highway 5 for about 110km to a town called Pursat. Once again the road was in bad shape however. One thing about Cambodia is all of the country is pretty flat which is one plus for biking and if they ever do get around to fixing these shitty roads over here properly then it would be a great bike ride for any and all types. The other thing you notice is instead of billboards advertising Coca Cola and the likes the bill boards are displaying the dangers and signs of UXO's (unexploded objects) left over from the vietnam war and still a very dangerous threat to the locals out in the countryside. Also saw a couple of areas along the road side that are signed 'no go' areas due to them obviuosly still being riddled with UXO's and although alot of the country has been cleared by teams of local mine clearing companies   working over here there is still alot of warning signs around to remind you to stick to the beaten track so to speak. All the three legged water buffalo hopping around were also friendly reminders of UXO's............... Just kidding!!!
Anyway got to Pursat no problem, slept one night and then onto 'Kompong Chhnang' another 100km down highway 5 where we slept one night before finally getting into the Capital of Cambodia, Phnom Phen.

We ended up staying in Phnom Phen alot longer than we wanted due to me getting the classic travellers stomach ache. Or at least thats what I hope it was. Went to the doctor who did the usual tests and told me to take this and do that etc etc, all the while probably whispering under his breath to 'harden up you whimp!!!!', and then he sent me on my way. By the way, this was way before this new Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) came out over here in asia and my symptons were nothing like that anyway so happy days there. We stayed in Phnom Phen about 8 days I think which was way too long. The city itself is so so and the one thing I am finding as we travel around is the big cities and what they have to offer don't really appeal to me that much compared to the countryside. Not long after I am glad to finally reach one, rest a little and find a little western food for a change I'd soon find myself wanting to get out of there and back on my bike again to the countryside and the people out there!!!
While in Phnom Phen, along with getting our visa's extended, we did go to the usual attractions including the killing feilds and S-21 prison, now the 'Toul Sleng Museum' from the infamous Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge days. Between 1975 and 1978 about 17,000 men, women and children were detained and tortured at this prison, formally a school before this. After this they were transported to an extermination camp of 'Choeung Elk', also known as the killing feilds, where they were then executed and buried in 129 communal graves.   The remains of 8985 of those executed were exhumed in 1980 and a memorial containing 8000 of the skulls and other bones, stacked in groups of age and sex,  was erected at the site to remind the people and the rest of the world of what happened. All very intense stuff that you want to believe couldn't possibly have happened but the evidence is all there in front of your eyes on show. And this is only a small dose of what happened during that era. There were mass graves all over the country and somewhere between 1 million and two million Cambodians were killed under the polices of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, keeping in mind that the population today is only 12 million!!!!   He was quite the bloody monster.
Actually when we were in Cambodia the UN had just sent over a team to work with the local government in bringing some of these Khmer Leaders, now hiding out in the remote areas, in front of a War Crimes Tribunal.  

Anyway, whimpy me finally felt well enough to leave Phnom Phen and from here we set off south down highway 3  to the southern coastal town of Kampot. This was a another big day for us of about 160km on the bikes and for once the road most of the way was actually in pretty good shape, as far as Cambodia goes anyway!!   Actually to give you an example of how cool the locals in the countryside have been, on our way to Kampot we stopped on the side of the road to have some lunch. Before we could even get our bananas and bread out of the bags the quiet area I had found soon started to have children appear out of nowhere to come and see us. Then the mothers and grandmothers followed not far behind. There was one old lady, of about 70 or 80, in particular who was pointing for us to come and eat at her house. We politely declined. So next she tried to make sure we at least sat in the shade of one of their trees. Then she sent some of the kids away and soon they were back with two big woven mats for us to sit on. All the women sat down with us while the kids all stood around us in a circle. We took out our food and offered it around but everyone declined, knowing I think that it was our lunch and we only had enough for the two of us. We spent about an hour with them I guess and although we couldn't really talk to each other it didn't seemed to matter and the hand signals and expressions were enough to sort of small talk and have some jokes with each other. The old lady of 70 or 80 was the funniest and she kept slapping our thighs and calves in reference to biking around her country, and thinking we were crazy I think!!! HA HA
She was slapping them so hard that I actually ended up with red hand marks left on them for a while but straight after slapping our legs and pulling all sorts of faces she would then grab one of us in a big hug and rub our backs or using her scarf rub the sweat of our faces. She would also pull my leg hairs and arm hairs, and even checked to see if Katherine had any!!! Hair on body limbs is very unusual to most asian folk, especially if they live out in the countryside and have seen few   westerners, as they are all smooth skinned themselves, including the men.  Also gave them a demo of the bike helmets, which always amuses them. When it was finally time to leave we got photos of us all hugged up on the mats with the kids in the back ground. Then it was BIGGGGG!!! lip smackers with the old ladies on the roadside before we rode away, followed by big waves from everyone as we carried on our way to Kampot. It was great and both them and us got big laughs out of it all. You ride away from these chance experiences just going 'wow!!' and it makes the sore arse from your bike seat all worth it. Its definitely a big plus of biking and I think it is so much harder to get these experiences going from town to town and city to city by bus and boat. I also think they don't treat you so much as a tourist when you travel by bike like this. They are much more open to meeting you and showing you into their homes and lives. I am also pretty sure they think we are crazy and feel sorry for us silly buggars but, what ever the case, its all good!!!!!
Actually it became all pretty familiar and a bit of a laugh when stopping to eat on the roadside. I would usually be a little ahead of Katherine and would find somewhere, I thought looked quiet, on the side of the road to stop but by the time Katherine got to me there would be a crowd of kids and adults around me!!! Katherine would know where I had stopped by looking for the crowd up ahead. When she would get to me I would say " I promise you, there was no one in sight when I sat down" !!!   We would even have people on motor bikes passing by stop to watch us eat sometimes. Everyone is always very friendly though and eventually an adult tells all the kids to leave after about 5 minutes if they feel they are bothering us. The other common thing is to have locals on motorbikes, up to three people on the same motorbike!!!, drive along beside us as we are biking and have a conversation with us to practise their english and find out where we are from, where we are going, what we think of their country, etc etc. They may ride along beside you for up to 1/4 an hour before finally running out of things to ask you and the funny thing is, when they finally say goodbye, you find they actually have to make a u-turn and go off the opposite direction!!!!! Meaning they either pass you on the other side of the road and decide to turn around and chase you for a chat or they just follow you out from some town you have just passed through, have their chat with you and then have to turn back round to go back home!!! Bloody hardcase I tell ya.   
Anyway we got to Kampot just after dark and found a place to stay pretty quickly. It was here in Kampot the next morning, when we got up to have breakfast, that the owner of the guest house came out and informed us that the war had just started!!!!!! Although we had been following the pre-war events as best we could by TV and internet and sort of felt it was going to go ahead no matter what   it was still quite a shock and strange feeling to hear that it had officially started!!.

>From Kampot, after breakfast, we headed south east about 25km to a cool quiet little beach town called 'Kep' and stayed here the night. It had been along time since we had seen the sea and the smell and sights were very refreshing I tell ya!! There was also plenty of fresh sea food on offer down at the beach side stalls which is always a good thing!!! HA HA The other great thing, it was the middle of the week so the place was nice and quiet since it apparently gets very crowded with locals and expats during the weekends.
We actually stayed in a guest house of an expat from France who was a very interesting bloke to talk to. Had lived in Cambodia for 9 years and used to be the CEO of the biggest insurance company in Cambodia, I think he said they did about 90% of the insurances in the country!!! Anyway, I guess he had had enough of the long hours and living in Phnom Phen so he quit with a fortune in the bank and now seems to own and manage about 5 guest houses in Kep and Kampot and even owns one of the small islands just off the coast of Kep!!!! He has a Cambodian wife and a little daughter and, with such big investments in the country, is very involved in the politics of Cambodia so was telling us some very interesting stories about the corruption that goes on in the government there. Also told us how much the country has changed over the last 9 years he has been there, and how much quicker it is changing now, so if you want to see some of the old wild west type Cambodia you better not leave it too late to get over here guys if it is on your list of destinations!!. We also got some good information off him on the road conditions and lodging services available for travelling west up the coast into Thailand at the Koh Kong/Hat Lek border where we planned to cross so it was great to have met him.
We spent most of the next day in Kep just relaxing and then in the afternoon eventually biked back to Kampot to stay another night before heading towards the border. This time we stayed in one of the French expats Kampot guest houses he had told us about while in Kep.
From Kampot we biked about 60km west to a town called 'Veal Rinh' for a night over before heading up a fairly new dirt road towards Koh Kong, the border town and exit point of Cambodia.
This road is not only quite new but is carved through the jungle and a great scenic way to go into Thailand. For the first time in Cambodia we also finally hit some hills on this road!! They weren't that big but were quite steep and the heat made them seem all the steeper!!! HA HA   The climbs were mostly worth it though because we got some great views of the jungle coverage from the tops. Actually at the top of one of them we met an English guy who was travelling the world in an old ex-army landrover ambulance with a trailer on the back and a german man on a huge BMW touring motorbike. We all took a photo of oueselves and our different modes of transport together up there and spent about an hour spinning travel yarns to each other before all carrying on our way again.  
We also had to take three ferry crossings over some big old rivers along the way. 
From Veal Rinh to Koh Kong is about 200km so we knew we weren't going to make it in one day but the french expat bloke we had met in Kep drives this road into Thailand about twice a month and was confident the little village by the second river crossing would put us up some where and that was good enough for us!!
Well we got to the second river crossing village just before dark and sure enough when we asked if there was somewhere to sleep a lady at one of the food stalls just pointed to a sort of wooden lecture room or school building behind her. A man then took us up into it, put two big tables together and that was to be our bed for the night!!! We still had our mats and mosquito net with us so we set them up and we were in business and very thankful that we had somewhere to sleep. The bloke then took us out to the fields behind the huts to show us the fresh water well dug in the ground where we could wash all the days grime of us. After doing that we then hit the only restaurant in town for dinner and then hit the table tops for some sleep. Actually that night, starting during dinner, it poured down with rain for the first time since I can remember. It rained bloody hard pretty much all night, with thunder and lightning to boot, so we were even more thankful for a simple roof over our head that night when we didn't really know if we were going to luck out or not!!!! Ahhhh, the budda gods of asia have been kind to us to date!! HA HA
Next day the rain had gone as quick as it had come and the typical hot hummid sun was out. After thanking and saying goodbye to our host family for the nights accommodation we got the ferry across the river and carried on our way to Koh Kong which we eventually reached about 2pm that day.
We stayed in Koh Kong for two days, one to rest and get some descent sleep after our night on the tables and the other to do some much needed washing and bike cleaning before heading over the border into Thailand.

We had biked almost 2000km in Cambodia and 80% of that was on some of the worst, dustiest roads you could possibly hope to find but the people we met, sights we saw and experiences we had had made it all worth while.
It is still quite a raw country and I don't know what sort of experience you would get if you back packed by bus and boat or did a tour package but it was good to us on the bikes and given the chance I would bike it again, bad roads and all.

Okay guys, Bangkok is a huge city so I better get out there and start seeing some of it.

Take care all,
Andrew