Day 6 - Saturday (beginning to lose track though!)

Our first day of properly getting out there. We smashed the road miles up to Kratie, stopped for some food then aimed to follow the Mekong river north along dirt roads to Stoeng Treng. Our plan to avoid the main roads failed after about 2 hours of riding when the wide dirt road turned into a smaller dirt track, then a footpath, and ended up at a house. So we said hello, then turned round and back-tracked 2 hours toward Kratie for the night.

Great days riding though, started getting the hang of the bikes in some good rocky and sandy sections. Only to drive past a moped doing the same thing with 3 people on board. Damn Honda Waves.
We stopped to swim in the river near Sandon, but didn't spot any of the famous local freshwater river dolphins. We did get into a good water (us) and then mud slinging (them) fight with some local kids though.

Most of the comedy of today came from being the last of the 3 bikes and not being able to see your own front wheels, let alone the trail for the dust coming up off the other bikes. Most of all we learnt to accept the constant swerving to avoid dogs, pigs, cows and chickens running across the road, even worse than the local drivers and pedestrians! Got lots of waves and shouts of 'Hello' from the kids in the villages as we road through though, no begging, just happy to come and shout Hello at you, none of them could do 'Bye-Bye'.

Day 7 - Sunday + Day 8 - Monday

Slacking in the Diary keeping, and struggling to remember what happened in the last day! We left yesterday morning early before the sun came out to avoid the heat, anticipating many hours on rough unmade roads to Bang Lung. However almost all of the roads have now been tarmac'd to some degree so we smashed the journey averaging 90kph. All in, about 4 hours riding.
By far the most excitement came from the fact that you would ride 10 to 15 minutes on perfect smooth empty roads, day dreaming away or chatting at each other, then the road would just fall apart for 20 yards into two foot deep sand and rock sections with no pre-warning. Keeps the concentration up! It's like inserting the occasional off road section into the M25, wouldn't be so much fun at night.

All across Cambodia so far we'd been paying for fuel with either Dollars or Riel, however out of the way, so we pulled over here, had a laugh with the young girl filling up the bikes, waved at all the kids in the hut behind it, then tried to pay and she didn't want dollars. And we didn't have enough riel left.

We're not the sort to drive off and short change a young girl, and it all got a bit awkward. Then a random young guy on a scooter pulled up and said hello. No reason it would seem other than he saw our strange lot and wanted to say hello and practise his English. So with his help we managed to accept the girl to take dollars if we over-paid her a little bit and all ended well. Deus ex machina!

We stopped at a waterfall as we got towards Bang Lung and had a shower on the rocks at the bottom, then had to ride 3km of soft dusty tracks back to the road soaking wet after. Didn't end up much cleaner..,
Found a guesthouse on the side of a lake in the town, and befriended a French girl called Virginie (did I spell that right? From here-in to be known as V, as she was to us). We all headed up to a nearby lake on the bikes for a swim in the afternoon, A perfectly circular ex-volcanic crater it turned out.

Monday was spent in Bang Lung, myself and Tom explored the local market for the morning, then grabbed some lunch and we picked up Tony and V and headed back to the lake for a swim. Next up was an explore of nearby dirt tracks on the bikes, some proper hill climbing in loose soft sand. Once again to be shown up by a young lady on a scooter climbing the same track on her way home.

After which, we found another picture perfect waterfall we could swim in, then onto another smaller one for a beer and a relax.

Here's a tree frog we found in the bathroom

A good a day in the tropics as you could wish for.

Day 9 - Tuesday
Another day in paradise. Bang Lung is just great.
The morning was spent in the local market, buying fresh fruit for lunch. We loved the many little motorbikes and scooters just riding around the stools in the middle of a packed marketplace.

We rate £30 desert boots a lot, tough, comfy, really light and really quick drying.

And the locals in Bangkok kept trying to buy them from us. God knows why, they could probably move a family into mine.

We rate hammocks a lot too.

Tony reckon they're real, I'm more doubtful. But either way large Stihl saws with no hand guards.

The road warriors gain a new member

Oil change and lube up

First trick learnt, standing on the saddle one legged. Very 80's.

Then we had the bikes serviced on the roadside before heading off to a waterfall miles from anywhere. Our reception from the locals implied few westerners made it that far, lots of new friends who wanted to pose in pictures.

We thought he was washing his bike in the pools which made us laugh. But in hindsight, the waterfall was about 30km of dirt track from anywhere so that'd be pretty pointless. He might have been doing an oil change. eep.

Rubber Tree plantations are taking over the countryside, but in this situation took our breaths away as we rode round the corner to see their rows disappearing into the sun.

Thirsty

After washing, swimming and eating the fruits from the morning we hit the dirt road back, Stopped for a beer in a little village on the way through and there was a volleyball game going on round the corner so we grabbed our beers, and got invited to come in and watch. Made more friends with the locals kids, dogs and all the people trying to bully us into playing. We wimped out, they looked pretty good, V didn't and got involved. Impressed.
Learnt to officially jump a motorbike today as well, with a good pre-bounce you can almost bunnyhop these 250's, so with a bit of a lump in the ground they take off well. Started getting wheelies too but too cautious to get them up high.
Tomorrow, out into the wild proper, not even dirt roads, just the bush!