When you are traveling, usually the first question that one gets: "Where are you from?". Majority of people are satisfied with the answer: "I come from Poland." But next to the main temple in Koh Ker I met Josephine, American women that was not satisfied with this answer. She asked from which city I come from. "I come from Łódź" - I answered. And if someone is not a film freak (in Łódź there is famous film school), one never heard this name before. But Josephine instead smiled and said unexpected that she loved this city!!! She said that it was one of her favorite cities around the world and that her dream was to retire in Łódź. I was astonished to hear it in the middle of Cambodia.
Josephine is an English teacher and journalist and she usually stays one year in one country and than she moves to other place. She stayed one year in Tarnów (not very far from Łódź) and spent almost every weekend in her beloved Łódź. Apparently one of her favorite place in Łódź is Dętka, underground water tank that was recently transform into exhibition hall. I have to admit that I have not been there yet, but I promise that I will use first opportunity to go there.
Josephine was traveling on moto with the Cambodian Easy Riders. Initially we thought that we would have spent one evening together since she was planning to visit an temple on the Cambodia-Thailand border, and I planned to go in direction to Laos border.... but I was misdirected on one of the crucial crossroad. I came to the crossroad T-like crossroad from West and according to my map I should have biked straight to East... but there was one road going North and the other going South. So I asked two local people about the direction and they both said that I should have gone North. So I went. I realized after 15km of biking and speaking with another local person that on that crossing I should have turned South. But North, next to border, there was apparently a new road, at least in part, in direction of Laos, which was not featuring on my map. I decided not to go back and keep on moving on.
It was still early but the challenge was that the next 65 km there were no human settlements on any side of the road. There was a very good dirt road and every 15 minutes the moto was passing and every hour there was a car coming in one or the other direction. Initially I was a bit afraid that there might have been some predators in the jungle but then I was reminding myself that most of the predators were killed in the wars. In this area I should have been more concerned about the Land Mines and whatever happens I should have not walked out from the well marked paths. This 65 km road was the first real test for me and Lisu, which we passed excellent since we reached our destination city just before the sun set. I am sorry but... can not figure out the name of the city. It is not featuring on my map and I can not easily find it on the internet. This city, as not featuring on my Cambodian map, was surprisingly big with quite a few guest houses. I was tired after the whole day of biking so I have chosen the first guest house close to the city center where I met..... Josephine and her Cambodian Easy Riders. They have arrived there few hours earlier than me and Lisu and they have seen already the temple but they liked the place so much that they decided to stay one day longer and see it again the following day. I also decided to stay one day and see this temple and it was really worth... I will write about this in the next story.
I promised my Cambodian Easy Riders that I would make a small advertisement. If you are ever in Siem Reap and need a very nice Tut-Tuk, Moto or car drivers with the English on communicative level, you can contact one of The Cambodian Easy Riders:
Thouen (855-12-529739) or Tang Sengren (855-17476786)
Lovely to see this reminder of Woodge. Cambodia misses you.
ReplyDelete