Early morning at the Thai Embassy in Phnom Penh we met a nice couple, Chantal and Patrick, who are riding with some interruptions for 17 years around the world on their bicycles – very impressive!!! Accidently we met again in a pub at the evening so we had a good reason to celebrate our visa application together with some beers.

Unfortunately nobody was able to serve us with a back tire. Only a street tire and one size to small was available. Anyhow, we felt better taking this one as it was cheap instead of worrying all the way what could happen… at least it will bring us to Bangkok.

To gain insight the sad history of Cambodia we went to the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. They built up a big Stupa full of skulls and bones of the victims; a large number of people were killed and buried in mass graves by the Khmer Rouge regime during 1975 to 1979. It was very depressing walking along the mass graves where still bones, teeth and clothes get washed out with the rain again and again. It is worth to take an audio guide getting known more details and background.

As soon as we got the visa for Thailand we head south direction to the sea. Shortly after Kampot we did a loop up a mountain nature reserve, Bokor, where jungle and some ruins from the French colonist times were supposed to be. We recognized a brand new big street going up the hill. After about 25km we stopped at a new build roundabout in front of a big hall. Inside is a huge model of the planned project for this area: a high class villa city including a casino, a 36 hole golf course, resorts, mountain lift… for about 40 000 people! Remember, we are in Cambodia!!! We could not really believe what we see and that it is supposed to be reality very soon. When we continued with a refreshing rain shower we passed the casino, nearly ready and many other buildings under construction. At the very top we reached the ruins and the church bonded in clouds and we could imagine how peaceful magic this place was in the past.

In the end we finally reached the sea in Sihanouk Ville. We drove south, the road turned gravel and sand until we reached the very end of the Otres Beach. We settled in a nice little open bamboo place on the beach with sunset view to the sea with a fresh breeze. Smelling, hearing, seeing and feeling the SEA!!! Ooooh, now we realized how much we missed it ;-) This was the right place with a chilling atmosphere, white fine sand and nice people to relax! We met another guy, Harry, riding his BMW around and the third day our “old friends” Chantal and Patrick arrived on their velos. We spend a lovely time together and that did not make it easier for us leaving the place after four days.

Along the coast road with the Cardamom Mountains on the right hand side we head direction Koh Kong, border to Thailand. No issues again to cross, except we could not convince the Thai Customs to give us two month permit for our motorbike as we do have for ourselves… so we will have to prolong it somewhere on the road.

In Trat we had a stop for the night in a Thai Boxing School with a snooker bar – where could you feel more save. Night market in Thailand again! FOOD!!! Lovely sea food for a little money – oooh, we ENJOYED! Following the coast road we had one more stop on the way to Bangkok in Ban Phen, opposite Ko Samet where they had a music festival. People were more interested in food gambling and watching the snake charmer than in the music and again we gormandized while having a taste here and there… Phat Thai, spicy sausage with salad, fruits and sweet sticky rice with beans and nuts which is cooked and served in a big “bamboo pipe” – all together for about 2,50 €.

Two days ago we reached Bangkok again – to be honest, it felt a bit like coming home. As we do not pass places more than once that often we liked to come back to place we know already. Our Guesthouse was like waiting for us the lady around the corner prepared an extra-large portion of Phat Thai with sea food when she recognized us from the last time, yummy!

Yesterday we got managed a lot already. We applied for our Indonesian Visa which we can pick up on Monday; we found a nice knowledgeable place where we got a new back tire for a fair price including the balancing of both tires and accepting our “old” (the street tire which we used for 600km) tire partially as payment; we got a new oil filter and oil, so we could make the oil change ourselves. Not so bad taking in account driving through Bangkok costs always a LOT of time!

Like you can see, today is our “office day” Working on the up-date, collecting information about our upcoming destinations and border crossings… cleaning and sorting things. The weekend in Bangkok is waiting for us and for sure we will not get bored here! And if our friends, Chantal and Patrick, hurry up perhaps we can meet them here again – at least for another good bye beer.

Soon we will meet another old friend of ours in his new home. Excited about that we are, my little Jedi! ;)

It would be nice to get some feedback from all of you out there. I can see that a lot of people are actually reading what we write but we get only little comments, or feedback. Feedback is always good even if it is “bad” feedback ;( It can be in any Language.) Any idea how to make the blog more interesting for our readers is highly appreciated. Something like: “Your photos are boring”, “We want to know more about the bike”, “Forget the blogging and travel more”, “More Photos”, “Less Photos”, “Better Photos”, “Sascha should not have always this crazy smile in his face”… anything you like.

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Hope you are all fine out there – see you on the road somewhere!