Southern Cambodia - The Cardamon mountains

Nous longeons la côte vers l’ouest et remontons vers la chaine des Cardamones, massif montagneux recouvert de forêts tropicales encore bien préservées, en tout cas pour l’instant. Les petits villages de pêcheurs laissent peu à peu la place à un paysage verdoyant parsemés de quelques champs de canne à sucre.

A Chi Paat, un projet d’éco-tourisme propose de loger chez l’habitant suivant un système de rotations régulières. La maison dans laquelle nous restons est typique : une bâtisse sur pilotis qui abrite les chambres et qui offre un grand espace de vie au rez-de-chaussée, à l’ombre et à l’abri des pluies.

After two more days of riding we arrived in Chi Phat, a small village at the border of the Cardamom Mountains. Still off the beaten path at the moment, Chi Phat is a pioneering community-based ecotourism project. Visitors register at a central tourist center which then allocates each visitor to a homestay or guesthouse. The main idea behind this system is that the homestays rotate allowing the entire community to benefit from the tourism.

We stayed two nights with a local family in one of the traditional stilt houses. Raising the houses of the ground has several advantages. It protects them from possibly flooding during the heavy raining season and also creates an outdoor living area protected from the sun. During daytime, most of the family’s activities take place downstairs where there is an open kitchen and plenty of space for dinning, washing, sleeping in a hammock or gossip with the neighbours. The enclosed spaces on the first floor are mainly used for sleeping.

 

Suivant les conseils de deux touristes armés de leurs motocross, nous nous engouffrons dans la jungle pour une étape de deux jours. Le trajet est, selon eux, faisable voir difficile à vélo… Les premiers kilomètres sont en effet agréables à l’ombre d’une végétation dense, les cours d’eau se traversant encore par de petits ponts en bois

Puis la journée devient subitement cauchemardesque… La piste étant tellement défoncée, nous passons plus de la moitié du temps à monter les 500 mètres de dénivelés à pieds… en poussant les vélos chargés ou en montant d’abord les sacoches. Les ascensions sont d’autant plus pénibles que la chaleur étouffante ralentit nos moindres gestes. Arrivés au sommet, nous décidons de poursuivre, les réserves en eau étant insuffisantes pour camper. Nous atteignons péniblement le village d’Areng en début de soirée où les rangers du parc nous hébergent aimablement. La matinée du lendemain se résumera aux mêmes poussées interminables…

In Chi Phat we met some dirt road motor bikers who live in Cambodia and seem to know the region of the Cardamom Mountains really well. Following their advice, we decided to head to Koh Kong, our next destination via the dirt roads through the National Park of the Cardamom instead of heading back to the main road.

The journey started really well and with their detailed description we had no trouble of finding the right path. The path was very narrow but in a decent condition, we were frequently charged small passage fees by locals who had build some wooden bridges over some small streams.

Soon we left the civilization behind us, bridges started to be missing and we did not cross any other human beings. The road started to deteriorate increasingly and crossing the frequent streams slowed us down even further. Even when the path turned into rocks and we had to carry up our panniers in order to be able to push the bikes up the steep slope, we didn’t consider turning back. Surely the path had to get better if it had been so highly recommended to us?

By the time we made it to the peak of the mountain we were exhausted, we had hardly any water left and the heat of the sun was not improving our situation. Although it was already getting late we decided to continue our journey and made it to the small village of Areng just before it was getting dark. The kind rangers offered us a bed at their base and we gratefully accepted, happy that we didn’t have to set up pour tent after such a hard day.

The following day did not improve from the previous day when we realized that we had arrived in the most unfriendly village one could imagine: no restaurant would serve us any food, even though we could see they had huge portions of freshly cooked rice. Refusing to beg them, we tugged into our emergency muesli bar and fruits, getting ready for another tough day. Although the conditions were a little better than the previous day, we spent a lot of time pushing up our bikes in the heat. We were glad when we got to the small village of Thma Bang which even had a simple guesthouse!

Arrivés épuisés a Thma Bang, nous explorons à notre aise les environs de ce petit village perdu au milieu de la végétation. Ce sera l’occasion, lors de ces balades, de vérifier ce que craignent beaucoup : malgré son énorme potentiel naturel et touristique, la forêt aux alentours est secrètement rasée et le bois et les animaux exotiques, envoyés principalement vers la Chine. La corruption, ultra présente dans le pays, n’aide évidemment pas !

Après 4 jours, nous aurons cependant beaucoup de mal à quitter cet endroit, un de notre préféré au Cambodge, sans doute à cause de la sympathie des gens rencontrés, de l’absence totale de touristes ou encore des gaufres chaudes du matin…

 

We ended up staying three nights in Thma Bang, not only because we had to recover from those strenuous days but also because we really liked the village: its beautiful setting in the middle of the forest and the warm welcoming of the local people. It soon became obvious to us that they were not accustomed to having tourists in the village; the only people staying in the guesthouse were people working for local NGOs. We spent our time relaxing and eating waffles on the large balcony of the guesthouse and visiting the surrounding area on our bicycles.

The last day of the journey to Ko Kohng was much easier than the previous day of cycling. Although the dirt road was constantly going up and down we could actually cycle it rather than push it. What an improvement!

Our initial plans to cycle northwards trough the Cadamom mountains to Pursat (another recommendation of the Dirt bikers) were shattered when we failed to find some information about the conditions of the road in Koh Kong. Refusing to rely on our previous source of information, we reluctantly bought a bus ticket to Pursat via Phnom Penh. Ironically on the morning of our departure we met a guy who spoke good English and told us that the Dirt road was in a good condition. Although attempted for a moment to give it a go, we finally decided against it.... the previous few days were still too fresh in our minds!

Southern Cambodia - Phnom Penh / Kep / Kampot

Bienvenue au Cambodge, pays réputé pour sa population attachante et son histoire fascinante ! Pour diverses raisons administratives, nous débutons la visite du pays par sa capitale, Phnom Penh. Le trafic y est très dense et le cycliste a bien du mal a se sentir en sécurité et à y trouver sa place. A chaque carrefour, c’est la loi du plus fort, le premier qui ose passer… passe ! Nous nous faufilerons quand même à plusieurs reprises entre les tuk-tuk et les cyclopousses pour jeter un œil au marché central et sur les rives du Tonle Sap.

Welcome to Cambodia, also known as “the land of smiles”. Arriving in Phnom Penh, the capital city, we certainly did not feel that way. Compared to Laos, we were suddenly confronted with a lot of traffic and we were constantly being hassled by tuk-tuks offering us their service. Everything seemed to be very expensive and we felt that everybody was trying to rip us off, probably because there seemed to be tourists all over the place. Food wasn’t that delicious and the portions generally small for two cyclists.

But we soon got into the swing of things and started to like the city. Even crossing the busy roads on a bicycle became easier each day. Visiting some of the countless markets we got a feeling for the prices and found some local delicacies at the “Central market”. Although attempted, we gave the fried tarantulas a miss.The “Russian market” is great for clothes and souvenirs shopping. Once again I couldn’t resist the silky scarves and added a few more to my recently purchased colorful collection.

 

 

La visite du centre « S-21 » nous plonge directement dans l’un des plus périodes les plus atroces du pays, celle des Khmers rouge, entre 1975 et 1979. Cette école primaire a été transformée en prison ou plusieurs dizaine de milliers de prisonniers y ont été systématiquement numérotés, photographiés puis interrogés avant d’être envoyés à la mort. La balançoire utilisée comme engin de torture ou les classes subdivisées en minuscule cellule individuelle laissent sans voix.

Visiting the Tuol Sleng Museum we came face to face with the Khmer Rouges, the depressing history of Cambodia. Once a centre of learning, the High School was taken over by Pol Pot’s regime (1975-1979) and transformed into a high security prison (S-21), the largest incarceration centre in the country. The classrooms were turned into torture chambers and into tiny individual cells; some of the blood stains on the floor are still visible today. The Khmer Rouge leaders kept photographed records of all their prisoners, some of which were on display. The disturbing images were still haunting me long after we had left.

 

Nous nous empressons alors de rejoindre la côte sud du pays pour y trouver un peu de fraicheur. Le trajet est malheureusement peu intéressant et devient même vite monotone. Les routes, totalement planes, sont bordées de rizières asséchées à cette saison. Et le manque de végétation rend la chaleur étouffante, le thermomètre affichant généralement 35 degrés avant midi. Bien heureusement, on peut se désaltérer régulièrement avec un très rafraîchissant jus de canne à sucre, pressé un peu partout au bord des routes.

Nous atteignons avec soulagement la petite ville côtière de Kep. Si la plage n’invite pas vraiment à la baignade, la spécialité du coin, le crabe au poivre vert, est un vrai régal. Les hommes vont pêcher les crustacés la journée pendant que les femmes se battent au marché le matin pour vendre leurs plus belles pinces. Un vrai spectacle !

Leaving Phnom Penh we had some long cycling days ahead of us to get the coastal area in the south. Although the country is mainly pancake flat, riding isn’t that easy as it is very hot and the distances are very long (about 115km a day). Thankfully the local sugar cane juice served with ice is sold everywhere along the street and gave us a nice break from the heat. With the exception of some stretches, the roads are fairly pleasant to ride, but unfortunately the scenery is very repetitive.

Kep has been our first beach destination on our trip. Although the beach itself is not really worth mentioning, the seafood was exceptional and already made it worth the visit! The specialty in the area is crab with a sauce of green peppercorns. While the men go fishing during the day, the women battle over selling their goods at the daily crab market, a spectacle nice to watch.

 

Kampot est la première ville où nous trouvons enfin un peu de quiétude, à l’image de ses marées salines, grandes et calmes étendues d’eau de mer rejetant le sel après évaporation. Un peu plus loin, sur le vieux pont métallique les enfants lâchent un instant leur canne a pêche pour venir s’amuser devant notre objectif. Nous leur faisons en échange un tour de taxi-vélo à travers la ville.

Le marché central de la ville est lui très vivant et coloré. Les poissons les plus audacieux tentent parfois une ultime fugue en sautant des bassines. Les pyramides de fruits colorent les allées tandis que les canards, pattes liées, se débattent à coté de leurs confrères déjà déplumés.

The following day we rode the short distance to Kampot with a nice Suisse couple we had met at our guesthouse. Located along a river, Kampot is a charming little town with a lot of flair with its remaining French architecture. The four of us visited the salt flats near the city in the afternoon and treated ourselves to some more delicious seafood in the evening. Something I could definitely get used to!

In Kampot Olivier and I decided it was finally time to spend some time by ourselves in order to keep sane. In the morning I took some time visiting the HUGE local market and the city centre. In the afternoon I discovered some small villages along the river in the surrounding area.