Day 31: Anlong Veng - Krong Samraong - Frankie goes to.....Indochina

January 24, 2018

Day 31: Anlong Veng - Krong Samraong

Routing: Connecting road between Hways 67 and 68

Yesterday I didn´t even have a clue Krong Samraong does exist but I have explained to you why I did change my route. I still don´t understand why they don´t even consider selling tickets in Banteay Srei which is basically the northern entrance of the Angkor Park. Well that´s the way it is and although neither todays route nor destination were on my list I enjoyed it because it was so unknown territory again. And that´s "half of the rent" for a pleasant day as we say in German. The first 35 km were actually about the best I had in Cambodia so far and the less attractive afternoon was realistically not that bad either. Just a bit on the odd side as the two days of cycling before had been.

Back to that morning session. Difficult to put into words why I liked it so much and I hope the photos can do some of the job. The crazy Anlong Veng morning traffic eased as soon as I had gone straight through the roundabout and once I veered off to the west from Hway 67 it got really nice. I am not even sure whether that road connecting the two Hways 67 and 68 has got its own name. It hasn´t on google maps and the km stones didn´t have the number written on their side either. Who cares, if the result is such little traffic - fine with me. Surprisingly enough the only concern should have been the columns of Thai trucks collecting the cassava chips in Cambodia to take them back to some Thai factory. But they are Thai and despite dozens if not hundreds of them going the same way as I did not one of them came closer than 2 m to me. Apart from them just a lot o local motorbikes and cyclists but you will see later on they did rather add than bother.

Coming closer to my destination I was quite keen to see what that Hway 68 going down from the Thai border towards Siem Reap would look like as I will spend all day tomorrow on it. Outcome: As if the day wouldn´t have been nice enough already the 20 km into Krong Samraong did have a continuous shoulder! Must have been built with Thai money as it looks exactly like the standard roads on the other side of the border. Give me the same thing tomorrow and I will almost be tempted to say: I am glad they don´t sell tickets in Banteay Srei and made me come over here!

As I said above I never heard of Krong Samraong (google maps spelling again) before and since today I do understand why. It´s been set up around a man made lake and it is almost impossible to identify a town center. I am staying in the Chhoeun Prak Kar Hotel south of the permanently-under-construction-lake. I found the hotel on google maps but only in Khmer script. I wouldn´t necessarily recommend it, looks really flash from the outside but the fan rooms (8 $) do not only miss fly sheets but a decent clean up in particular. What I can recommend is the restaurant attached to it, I was quite impressed with the quality of my food.

Why can´t the country have more of this?

Unfortunately it still has got plenty of this.....

....resulting in this. When I checked out in the evening I was really surprised to read: "Although 50% of Cambodia’s minefields have now been cleared Cambodia is still one of the most landmine impacted countries in the world with over 64,000 casualties recorded since 1979 and over 25,000 amputees - the highest ratio per capita in the world."

Whereas the Chhoeun Prak Kar Hotel did only look nice....

.....the food in the attached restaurant was! My turf and surf meal: spicy beef with vegetables and helicopter catfish (wallago attu). I only got it because of its name but it was yummy!

When I walked round the lake I found that interesting atmosphere. There were restaurants....

..... and stalls but all in very little light.

Even the scooter track for the kids was hardly lluminated.

Today's ride: 76 km (47 miles)
Total: 2,469 km (1,533 miles)

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