Clarification: I am already more than three weeks in Laos, but this is the last story from Cambodia. I did not have access to internet beforehand.
After leaving Prasat Vihear me and Lisu headed in direction to Laos, East, with the aim to first cross the Mekong and then a border to Laos. The order of this action metered a lot since the official border crossing is on the other side of the Mekong. I tried very much to get the best Cambodian map available, but I was not too lucky. There was no publishing date on my map but it had to be old. Half of the time I was biking on the roads that were not marked on my map... I tried to follow the advices that I received from local people, but it was challenging. In Cambodia people were completely not used to maps and they knew they neighborhood only in the radius of 40 km. They usually also did not know till which city or town the road is leading, they only knew to which province is going. And the province were not marked on my map. Luckily I navigated quite a bit with my small pocket compass – I knew the direction East.
The most challenging part of the day was the evening. Here the border between day and night is very rapid and it is becoming rapidly dark after the sunset. Sometimes it was very difficult to figure out when I should stop and look for the shelter for the night. I knew that in North-East part of Cambodia I should have not expected too many guesthouses, but finally I did not find any on my way. Initially, I was counting to come across a Buddhist monastery and to sleep with monks, but in Cambodian I did not find any monastery on my way. In the evening I had to count on the help and hospitality of local people.
The first night after I left Prasat Vihear, the night started when I was already close to Cambodian-Laos border, next to one of the border police unit, but there were still many kilometers to the official border crossing. The Cambodia and Laos do not have any border tensions, so the border police is very relaxed in comparison to Cambodia-Thai border – no tanks, no automatic weapon.
Border guards were very surprised when I showed up at their unit just after sun set. None of them spoke any English, we used body language to communicate and they agreed that I would have staied overnight at their unit. In the evening I joined them for simple but delicious dinner consisting of rice and soup and they prepared for me a hammock (hanging bed) with pre-attached mosquito net!!! – great invention. After dinner they offered me smuggled Lao's spirit made from rice, which was very taste, and I draw to them the world map and I explained from where I was coming from.
I slept very tightly in my hammock.
And in the morning we hit the road again with Lisu. We biked and reached Mekong. Initially I thought I would be able to cross Mekong close to the border, but I did not succeed and I ended up biking 45km South to StoengTreng. 20 km before I reached the place where I could cross Mekong and probably find a guesthouse, the darkness arrived. There was no village in the neighborhood but there was a road builders' camp. 20 km of the road ahead was still not completed, so it would be very difficult for me to bike there in the dark, so I asked the road builders if I could sleep in theirs' camp. They were a bit surprised but very happy to host me. I again received the hammock with the mosquito net and I was offered some rice and the one of the most delicious fish grilled over the bonfire I ever had. Spectacular. They did not have electricity in their camp, so when I was taking a “shower” round the corner.... they turn on the lights from the huge digger! In the evening again we drew and used body language to explain different things. They also offered me the rice vodka, this time from Vietnam. In the bottle there was a huge spider and snake.... but I cannot say that I would have tasted any difference.
Let me explain you how “shower” works here. There is not too much privacy, so one wraps around the wrist a cloth and you get a big bucket of water and a small one. The small one you use to poor water on yourself. I have to say very economical way of washing. One uses very little water, and it is great fun.
The work of the road builders in Cambodia is more dangerous than in other countries. Quite often they are coming across the land mines.
After leaving the road builders I met two young monks walking in the opposite direction. They were walking home and they planned that the journey will take them three days. One of the traveler that I met on the way told me the story about "New Age Pilgrim" that he met on the way. He planned to walk for next three years. No particular reason, no particular destination that he wanted to reach, he just wanted to walk. Nowadays we do not think that walking might be used as the way of transport from one place to another. It might be slow, but it allows to notice and appreciated things that even from the bike one would not manage.
I finally manage to cross Mekong and reach border crossing.
Always in the morning before I left, I compensated the expanses to my hosts, but I was never asked for the money for shelter, food or drinks. And I really had opportunity to interact with local people.
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