Moto tour Cambodia - notes of a motorcyclist
Day three. Right after breakfast we are going to the road. We left all unnecessary things (bags, souvenirs, shoes) at the hotel and went to meet the jungle. Along the route, we were waiting for 290 km along an asphalt road and spending the night in the second largest city - Battambang. We didn't drive fast and often stopped for a smoke. Firstly, so that “newcomers” can get used to the road, secondly, so that there is an opportunity to consider something around, and thirdly, so that God forbid they run into someone. And there was someone to run into. Cows, completely unpredictable in their movements, children running out onto the road to greet a white man, local Schumachers on mopeds, who only half-heard about the rules of the road. One of the stops was made at the pagoda - a large courtyard with scattered buildings - a school, a temple, stupas, surrounded by a fence.
Children ran out to the noise (probably we disrupted the lesson), crowded around us and silently watched how we took pictures. For some reason, I remembered a cartoon about the lion Boniface. We also tried the local ice cream. What it is made of remains a mystery, but obviously not from milk. What is strange - given the huge number of cows absolutely everywhere - local residents do not consume milk or dairy products. But rice can be found even in the poorest village. It is very tasty and not at all like our usual one.
We made it to the Mekong that day! For dinner. We even had lunch while waiting for the ferry. The Mekong is similar to our Volga - just as wide. Somewhere in the middle of the river, the border of muddy and clear water is clearly visible. We had to buy spare parts in Ston Treng - we had to stay for a while. Everyone took out their mobile phones - the network was already there, and began to call their relatives - having received SMS from Moscow. Each was sent something like this: “Are you alive at all? ".
Behind the houses there is a river with a sandy bottom and even a beach - water goes to everything - food, washing, washing. Around are palm trees. If they were not there, but everything was very reminiscent of Seliger. We slept, washed, agreed with the locals on the removal of our bikes from the forest on an incomprehensible unit that vaguely resembled a mobile vehicle.
It turned out funny with washing - Max diligently washed and dried his jeans in order to find out 2 things in the morning - that they were not dry, and that the jeans were not his. Motorcycles were repaired for half a day, and the same amount was washed from dirt. We decided that we would not go anywhere, although there were about 60 (? ) km to the Mekong - we spent the whole day lying on the beach. By dinner, a pig was slaughtered, explaining that she was sick and would have died anyway. On this occasion, in the evening, the locals arranged a party - they got banana moonshine from the stocks.
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