‘The long and bumpy (dirty, dusty) road…’
Yesterday was a VERY long, hot, and tiring day. It was over 40C (that’s 105F) and the road was unpaved for the entire day. It was impossible to get any speed with all the loose rock and dust on the road.
We left Kompong Kdey early (7:30am) and did not arrive here in Kompong Thom until sunset nearly at 6pm. We had to take a lot of breaks to just get a rest from the oppresive heat. When we stopped for lunch at the 40 km mark I was feeling nauseous, weak, and exhausted from the heat. The thought of doing another 50 km was daunting. Peter got me motivated to keep going by tempting me with a day off today though and it seemed to work because after a good rest and some food I felt much better. It was also tempting to keep going because we knew if we could get here then the worst of the road conditions would be behind us. Good road (ie paved) is meant to be from here to Phnom Phen - another 165 km. It felt so good to get here last night! We showered all the many layers of dust and dirt off, then ate and slept (well actually not so much sleep for me - I’ve been having problems with the MSG in the food giving me insomnia, but that’s another story).
So today we stayed in Kompong Thom and hired 2 motorbike drivers to take us to some temples about 30 km north of town. There are over 100 temples up that way (in the forest) and it was nice to walk around and enjoy them without the crowds of tourists like at Angkor Wat (we only saw one other tourists there). The afternoon was spent cleaning bike chains, tightening loose screws, etc, etc, preparing the diva for more riding tomorrow. We hope to get in 90 km and with an early start and better road I am hoping for a good day.
Miles Biked: 53.39 (89 km)
Time: 5 hours 49 minutes
The sign for Kompong Thom - what a welcomed site after such a long day!
The sun setting just as we arrived in town
More temple touring on our rest day
Add comment February 27th, 2002
