Day 2: Koh Ker to Kompong Thom

Posted by Rashmi Tambe on Jan 25, 2013 in Cambodia, Motorcycling | 0 comments

The next morning, we set off for Kampong Thom. It would be a 200km ride with one detour to a temple. We did mostly asphalt roads for the first half of the day before switching to dirt. The dirt riding was a little challenging to me as it was riddled with potholes and very sandy. I spent a good bit of time going thunk into each pothole and bottoming out, which got very tiring very quickly. I was relieved when we stopped for a break near a river, the first real water body we had seen in the past two days. After the break, things seemed to come together pretty well. I learned how to weave around the pot holes and power through some of the more slippery bits. I was more able to enjoy the scenery as we passed through more villages with lines of houses and banana trees in their backyards. Lots of kids stood by the road and running with us and waving. It struck me that the red mud roads that were so challenging and new to me were just “roads” to them.

We ended in pavement about 20km from our destination. It was easy riding until we got the city where we had to negotiate some traffic that involved lots of bicycles, scooters, monks on mopeds, and gigantic buses and SUVs speeding down our left. We made it unscathed to the hotel where we celebrated with much needed beers!

This was our longest day, clocking in a total of 200km.