Mandy: 8th December
It was the longest road journey we’ve taken in Asia, eight and a half hours door to door. Although long, it was a good journey as far as I was concerned because it was totally flat (as is a lot of Cambodia it would seem) and although the road (I use the term loosely) left something to be desired there wasn’t any steep twisting hairpin bends or any 300m drops. (Smile) Therefore the hours passed easily and as we looked out of the window it was like watching a documentary about Cambodian country life. Even though I was tired towards the end I couldn’t close my eyes because there was so much to see, showing such a different way of life to us.
So far Cambodia gives the impression that the world is flat!
You wouldn’t think this was the main road from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap!
The soil seemed very dry and the roads were very dusty considering there were rice padi fields and expanses of water as far as the eye could see in every direction during the journey. At one point all the buses and cars sped up going down a wide dirt track which seemed to be the main road, and it put me in mind of pictures I have seen of the Dakar rally. I know we were not driving through a desert but it definitely seemed like an off road endurance race at times! On other occasions we looked out of the front window and couldn’t see a thing in what was like driving through red fog! I hoped the bus had good breaks if the driver suddenly caught up with another bus! I wish I had taken a photo now but it was the only time during the journey that I was thinking we might not survive to write a blog and therefore wouldn’t need a photo!!
Looking out at the wooden huts on stilts and the bushes all along the side of the road which were covered in the red dust it looked like a sepia photo. These photos didn’t come out very well. Non dusty photo below further along the road during our journey.
I have so far refrained from mentioning the male dogs in Asia. However, I now feel It is the right time. Basically I realise that I have taken for granted Canine castration in the UK. For the past two months I have watched as Dogs have been running along, and It’s difficult to concentrate on the countryside or the temples sometimes. I can’t help but think how uncomfortable it must be, all that swinging and slapping! Like I said I have been holding back from saying anything for two months but on an eight hour journey through rural Cambodia you see a lot of swinging and slapping! (Chuckle) Those photos would probably be illegal! (Chuckle)
We saw a lot of different vehicles, as we have in each country. This one Is a modern version of the ones we saw in Myanmar, seemly a type of glorified lawn mower engine with handles instead of truck engine!
Even the seemingly normal minivans driving towards us would look different as we watched them pass being so ridiculously overloaded. The Minivans were carrying local people inside with their cases and bags spilling out the back of the van held In with ropes and then a motorbike, or sometimes two strapped to the back of that! How the minivans kept their front wheels on the ground I’ll never know. I wasn’t quick enough to get a photo of one of them as they looked like normal minivans from the front and passed by before I realised.
Something else I haven’t mentioned…. Chickens here are not the fat brown feathered ones we see at home and in children’s books, they are thin, long legged, short feathered and look more like the shape of a ‘Raptor’ from the Jurassic park film.
Most houses along the road had rice drying in the sun laid out on sheets of tarpaulin. Glen read that sixty percent of the people in Cambodia are involved in agriculture for a living and the majority are subsistence farmers, producing just enough to feed themselves and their families with little left over to sell. Just as well as there were birds eating it, cows wandering by it and when they raked it they were standing on it!
We can’t wait to explore Siem Reap but most of all visit Angkor Wat!
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