The Cardamons Part I: Chi Phat to Thma Bang, 61km

"Roads? Where we 're going, we don't need roads."

After spending an uneventful night in Andung Tueg, I headed off to Chi Phat. A local had told me it's a beautiful place to visit and according to my map a road started there and headed towards the central Cardamons-an extra incentive to visit. The 17km to the village are pretty easy (the turn is 3km after the bridge in the main highway) but I got so lazy on the way that I didn't arrive before noon, plenty of spots on the way to doze off or read a book. Chi Phat is an interesting experiment considering the country's almost non-existent environmental policies. The area used to be heavy on lodging and poaching, then in 2002 the locals were encouraged by Wildlife Aliance to turn to ecotourism. There is a central administration, by which every tourist is requested to pass upon arrival and choose where he wants to stay. I opted for a homestay thinking that some families probably don't make as much as the guesthouses, forgetting that every Cambodian family has at least one 1-2 year old child, practically meaning no sleep for me for the next two nights. 

Waiting to get across...

Watching Khmer boxing with the locals, a noisy experience.

Srei Tia's house, as friendly and warm as it gets.

I bumped into James, an Australian cyclist I had briefly met in Sihanookville who wanted to go north as well. We were both told on different occasions that no such road existed, or that if it did it was in bad shape but were determined to try it. Lucky us, one of the guides who do treks in the area had all the info we needed-albeit some of it a bit vague, like “remember, you need to cross the river in Thmar Teoung”, “ok, what is that, a village? If not, is there something specific about it?”, “No, but you'll find it, it's Thmar Teoung.”.Rrright... 

It was decided we'd be leaving in two days.

Next day we did a 40km ride and managed to almost get lost deep in the jungle, the path was hard to find sometimes and we never got to do a roundtrip, nevertheless it was highly enjoyable. Finished the day having beer under a waterfall.

Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

Falling, not so graciously.

Where the hell is the way back??

Having a beer under the waterfall

Early next morning, after having breakfast and getting take-away lunch(rice, what else?) we were on the road, or better said, on the trail. Sometimes so narrow that our paniers would barely fit. The first 17 km upto the river crossing were fairly easy, but then we entered a world of pain. We knew we would be going uphill, but neither of us was prepared for what came, sometimes so steep that all we could do was push, and then push some more. After two quite high passes and a magnificent roller coaster descent we got into a dirt road so wide, flat and easy that seemed like a highway and did the few km to Areng, the first village of the day just in time for our second lunch, a soup that had what seemed like balls in it, no, not meatballs, the other balls. Tasty. Speaking of balls, I think I left one of mine back in that roller coaster descent, sometimes I was doing 35km/h, screaming both in ecstasy and pain, gripping the handlebar so hard I almost bent it. We both had a couple of falls, not too spectacular though. Apparently there is crocodiles in the nearby river, we used children as bait but still didn't find any.

Getting tighter...

...and steeper.

The highway to Areng.

Alright, where are the crocodiles?

 

The next 16km to Thma Bang, our destination for the day, were as hard as the previous ones. The trail started ascending again, leading to more pushing every now and then-only this time with a noodle and rice filled stomach.

It is bridges-galore all along the way, from the two-rolling-branches, to full-blown 10-pieces-nailed-together-forming-a-squeaking-cross-me-if-you-dare type. The trail was usually a maze of potholes or rocks and occasionally muddy. During the whole day we met no more than 5-6 locals, always on mopeds, carrying either overwhelmingly big sacks of rice or a passenger that would have to walk on the really steep parts, all of them laughing at the crazy foreigners pushing their bikes. One would think that a moped is a bad idea in such conditions, but seeing them maneuver it made perfect sense, lightweight and small, they will stop at nothing.

Conclusion? By far the best ride of my life. Tough as hell, but rewarding to the extreme. A jungle so thick that I felt it would swallow me in an instant. Apart from some beautiful birds flying in the horizon and reptiles crossing the path I didn't see much, but the sounds coming from either side of the trail were enough to know that this part of the jungle is alive and kicking.

A few facts for those interested:

It's 17km from Chi Phat to Thmar Teoung where you have to cross the river, another 28km to Areng, the first village and then 16km to Thma Bang. Get some take away from Chi Phat. Areng is a loong way, you'll be hungry before you get there. Carry lots of water. I had 5 litres, drank most of it. Wear shoes and helmet, the path is sometimes blocked by branches, bushes you name it, it's going to make your life easier and remember that a nasty fall going downhill without any of the above can mean bye-bye toenails at best. I also had some fake clear glass raybans that came in handy. Start early, it's a long day and worth doing breaks here and there. It took us 10 hours, out of which 4 was cycling and 2 pushing. Remember that when you think it's bad, it will only get worse, and enjoy the ride!

As the sun set we reached Thma Bang and met Peter, a Belgian cyclist coming from Koh Kong. James would be going that way the next morning whereas I wanted to keep going north. Peter was a bit indecisive, but it took me only a while to convince him to join me. My reasoning was simple: All our maps were different and generally untrustworthy, the Cardamons seemed to be filled with trails and roads going everywhere and leading nowhere, if you asked two locals about a place you'd usually get two different directions, the names of some villages seemed to change every other day, it would be hard, hot and humid, what else do you need?

Lunch-break up in the mountain

Disclaimer: James was kind enough to let me use some of his photos. Well, he doesn't know yet, but he will be kind enough when he finds out!

National what?

Instead of taking the highway to Koh Kong-and then find a way to cross the Cardamons-I opted for a boat to Thma Sar, a village in the south-east corner of the Boutum Sakor peninsula. According to my map there were only few patches of dirt road here and there but I felt confident I would find some way to head north. It took me several days to find if such a boat existed, thankfully a girl in Ana Travel(across Monkey Republic, the best place to find info about anything) called a relative who lives there and found out that there is a speedboat that departs everyday at 10 sharp for Thma Sar. Time is relative over here, so the speedboat carrying me, my bike, 6 locals and what seemed like more than 1.000 eggs that miraculously survived the bumpy ride, didn't leave before noon.

We arrived in Thma Sar in lunch/nap time, so it was relatively quiet. Dozens of fishing boats were lined up across the floating houses, I wonder if the catch is sold in Sihanookville to feed the armadas of tourists arriving everyday. Leaving the village behind me, I realised that my expectations regarding the road couldn't be further from the truth. There is a dirt road alright, that goes both north and west. For the next two days I covered most of it, first day going west, I have a feeling I got really close to the port opposite Kaoh Samit , at least that's the impression I got after asking around. By then it was dark so I backtracked a bit and spent the night in Ta Nuon, didn't find any guesthouses but a woman was kind enough to let me stay above her store. She has one of the few generators in the village so after a while her store was packed with teenagers that covered the plugs with their cellphone chargers, then bombarded me with questions about European football and after realising I know jack shit, they started teaching me khmer. Next day I headed back to Thma Sar and took the road north towards Andung Tueg. It was a long day, the road is bad in most of its part, a couple of times I had to push as well. People here are not exposed to tourism at all, no one speaks English or French, but they are always curious and I soon got used to being stared at. Sometimes they avoided me as well, especially the women. Most of the people I met wanted to know everything about me and my bicycle and I soon found myself lying about its actual cost, telling someone it's five years worth of his income doesn't sound right to me. I wish I had learned some khmer while in Otres apart from the very basics, at least my vocabulary increased tenfold here and Im sure I'll learn more along the way. I also realised that maps are almost irrelevant, you need to constantly ask around. Sometimes you get good directions sometimes you don't, one thing is certain, distances will always be wrong. When you're told that something is 2-3 km away, expect it to be at least 10 or more...

 

 The majority of the peninsula is part of the Boutum Sakor national park, so one would expect that it is well protected, but this is Cambodia. 30 per cent of it is sold to a chinese company with resorts planned for the near future. Once again, the locals that used to live there were relocated, I believe some of them were sent to houses built across the southern part of the peninsula, and the rest to the port opposite Kaoh Samit. Over there there is a hotel that has exclusive rights(!) to the sea so that customers can enjoy snorkeling, therefore the villagers-fishermen that were kicked out of their own land-are not allowed to fish in the area.

 

It's a great ride and a better alternative to the Sihanookville-Koh Rong highway. You'll be passing by thick chunks of rainforest, a couple of beautiful villages, a monastery with friendly monks, a couple of lakes and rivers. I'm sure there's some excellent trekking to be had in the rainforest in the middle of the peninsula, but the only place to get the necessary info is in Andung Tueng. With all this back and forth I didn't calculate the exact distances, by approximation only I'd say it's 60km from Thma Sar to the port in the west, another 65km if you take the east road to Andung Tueg.I've got a feeling the place will change drastically very soon, a taste of what will come are the last 15km up north, where the road suddenly gets scarily wide, enough to fit 6-7 cars next to each other.

Waiting for the temperature to drop...

We made a pact. I would feed him...

...and he would comb my hair.

Repairing a flat tire, first but surely not last of the trip.

A small note. I'm trying to find a way to embed a google map, together with the route I do everytime. Anyone knows how to do it? I'm also having experiencing difficulties with blogger's editor, I find it buggy and restricting. Care to recommend a good offline editor that's compatible?

The Beach

Coming back from Kaoh Rong, I went straight to Otres beach, the last one in a series of beaches in Sihanookville and by far-in my not so humble opinion-the best. Most of the people stay there for a long time and I was no exception, planning to stay for a few days in the beginning and getting stuck for more than a month. The water is not as crystal clear as Kaoh Rong, there's hardly any coconut trees and the sand is brown instead of white, but in the other hand it's a place as vibrant as you want it to be,everyday there is a party going on somewhere but the beach is long enough for it not to be noticed if you're not in the mood. 

I bumped into one the first night I got there, and after having drunk enough mai tais to kill an elephant I ended up
arm-wrestling with five Khmers in a row,of course losing every single time. 

Trying to save face I challenged the only woman behind the bar,but once again I got humiliated. Apparently the only surviving photo of my downfall is as blurry as the night itself.

I stayed at LimHour guesthouse, an almost peaceful place, I say almost because apart from the fact that mr. Lim Hour, the owner, is the biggest party animal of all times throwing parties 3 times a week, there was also the tendency of putting bad quality dance music every day after 3-4 pm, which of course didnt matter much because a) I was hardly ever in my room and b) I had the one in the far end, where the music was hardly audible. What was audible though, was the generator right next to it that would kick in whenever there was a power cut!

Continuing my losing streak I started playing chess with Kem, the owner of Sunshine cafe, a hang-out both day and night. This guy is pretty hard to beat, though, to my defense, I hadn't played for 10 years or so, and after a few weeks I would beat him in every 5^th game or so. I don't know of many other people that laugh as much as he does, nor that do it in such a contagious way. He's also got some killer moves, especially when he's wearing his pimp-like outfit, I love the guy.

  If you want to learn how to properly do business, Otres is the place and Srei Niang is the go-to-girl. Every day after school she will walk down the beaches of Sihanookville and sell her merchandise. You will find a bracelet you like, she will start high, you'll haggle a bit and finally settle on a price, say 2 dollars. After you wear it, as you are about to pay, she will put her very serious face and ask for 3. You'll say, but didn't we settle on 2? Yeah, but 3 is not much, it's cheap,

same-same for you. Ahh, what do you do, do you take it off, 

pay and forget about it, or what? She will accept 2 in the end, and her joyful smile will return. So will you. 

I bought at least 3(that I lost shortly after) and had her 

make 2 for my bicycle.

Looking behind the curtain, not all is peachy. Pieces of land across the beach have been sold to corporations and there's at least 2 luxury resorts planned. The original owners were simply kicked out and relocated a couple of years ago to a nearby dirt road that connects the beach to Sihanookville, and will be relocated again when the resorts are finished and the road paved. Most of the men are alcoholics and though I had my fair share of rice wine with some of them-and an excellent time at it-it's a sad consequence of poverty hitting people that at least had some land to cultivate before and now they have nothing. It's a common fact that ownership titles mean nothing here, Otres is considered prime estate and your land can be snatched at any time.

Three times a week I would spend my afternoons training the kids in the football field across the settlement together with a couple of ex-pats. I might not be that good at football, but I do know how to kick a ball, teach discipline(!), but most importantly make the kids laugh with my buffoonery and occasional clumsiness. It's quite impressive watching

them dribble barefoot in an uneven field full of rocks, amidst cows, chasing a ball sometimes half their size. 

Most of all everyone was happy, the kids, their parents, us 

and looked forward for the next meet up.

Weed is way cheaper here, but not nearly as funny as this sign!

At some point it was decided we would have a friendly match with the Sihanookville team. We managed to gather enough players, got to the field, and the minute we saw them practicing in their uniforms and everything, we smelled trouble. These guys were relentless, a proper team, or better said a well oiled machine, working in unison, running non stop for 70 minutes, against, well, us. A bunch of chain-smoking, chain-drinking misfits trying to survive with the least amount of injuries, fighting for breath and hoping for the best. We lost to a very respectable 0-2. Two weeks later we were a bit better, managed to score one even though they got four...

Don't get too excited, I screwed up shortly after...

 The more one stays in a place the more difficult it is to go. Friendships start forming, the land, the air and the sea become too familiar, or same-same but different as they say here, days and weeks drift leaving a constant smile in the face. As heart breaking as it was to leave, I knew that it was now or never. And the mountains were calling me. But more on that later.