Moto madness

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We were crazy. I don’t know what we were thinking. We took motos (think Vespa but the Honda version) on 4WD roads meant for dirt bikes. In the most heavily land-mined province in Cambodia. Seriously, on the sides of the road there were red signs with skull and crossbones that said “Danger Landmines.” It was quite an adventure.

Anne, Jeack, and I took a taxi to Kampong Thom, about halfway between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, pretty much in the middle of Cambodia. We were embarking on a visit to Preah Khan, an ancient Cambodian temple that used to be the palace of a king or two. It is still largely overtaken by the forest, and we’d heard it was a cool spot, so away we went. Early in the morning we set off on rented motos up a pot-holed gravelly red-dirt road. About an hour in Anne and I had to pee. Jeack picked a likely looking place, and we pulled off the road. But there was a red and white flag hanging from a bush, which means, “You can come here but be careful because there may be landmines.” Jeack assured us it was fine to walk into the vegetation a little ways but we decided to pee right off the side of road. Like they say in the guidebooks, just swallow your pride and do it- it’s not worth losing a leg!

Shortly thereafter we turned off onto a much narrower dirt road that wound off into the forest. Now, mind you, what you call forest here is what we think of as jungle back home- huge trees and thick vines and impenetrable undergrowth. Here there be tigers. The road began to get narrower and wetter almost immediately, and the vegetation grew over and around us. There were deep tire ruts from other bikes, which the rains had filled with water; when we couldn’t slog through them we had to slog around them. We were forced to ride at a snail’s pace to avoid the rocks, vegetation, and deep water, and because if we rode too fast we would have mired ourselves in the mud or the deep sand which would occasionally take the mud’s place. At one point we had to get the motos through a river that was about 3 feet deep- enough to leave the engines sputtering and dead. We thought we’d lost them but somehow Jeack got them started again. The whole ride was a constant battle of wills with the handlebars; they wanted to go one way and I had to wrench them the other way to avoid the one foot drop-offs into a buffalo-sized puddle.

Big moto stud going through small stream....srool-easy!

Jeack helping me out of a tough spot...

Again...

It was hot sweaty hard work. Did I mention it was only the second time I’d ever ridden a moto?!

We rode like this for hours. Many hard hours. We didn’t have a map. I asked about one but Jeack insisted that “the mouth is the map” in Cambodia. I imagine a map wouldn’t have helped much, really, with all the small detours and road branches. But then the villagers we happened to run into didn’t help much either!! They seemed to have no real concept of time or distance, which isn’t very surprising considering they probably rarely to never travel more than a few miles from home. The villagers we ran into had small farms or herds of cattle, and their homes were very few and very far between. It was actually quite exciting when we saw a villager, because we were convinced we were lost the whole time and it was a relief to see someone nod and point in the direction we were already going. And thank god for Jeack, I don’t know what we would have done if we hadn’t had a native Khmer speaker with us.

Stopping to talk to a local...again..

House out in the middle of the forest...

Village school...

Somehow, miraculously, we made it to the village just outside the temple ruins grounds. I was beat. The bones in my hands hurt, my butt hurt, my arms hurt, my back hurt, my body was one big pain. It had taken us about four hours longer than we expected to get out there, and while we were already looking at having to spend some time driving through the jungle at night, it would have been ridiculous to go all that way and not drive the final few miles to the temple. So we did. It was beautiful and peaceful. I wish there’d been more time to enjoy it.

So exhausted but relieved to finally be there....

Really old bridge....

Walking an ancient road...

I like to call it "rubbling"

More temple shots ...

Cool faces...

Evidence of looting- digging under the towers looking for valuables...

Victory!!! Now we're ready for the ride back!!

And then we were back on the road. The locals had pointed out another road that was supposed to be much easier, if a little longer of a drive. I personally didn’t really care how long the drive was, I just didn’t want to be in the jungle at night!! About an hour in, as the sun was setting, we somehow turned off the decent dirt road and ended up passing by a house, where the man of the house pointed us to a road back into the jungle. I absolutely refused! There was a good road, where did it go? As long as there was a decent road I wasn’t going back in the jungle. A couple of guys in military greens drove up on their motos and when Jeack asked where they were going, they offered to lead us back to their village on a good road, and then there’d be a good road back to town. As we started to follow the men, the light fading quickly, it occurred to me that this wasn’t the safest situation. But what else can you do when you’re lost in the forest in the middle of Cambodia? In the meantime, Jeack and Anne were having this conversation on their bike—

Anne (flippantly): Gosh, those guys sure do look like Khmer Rouge, don’t they, with their military clothes and patches?

Jeack: They are.

Anne: What?!

Jeack: They are Khmer Rouge.

Anne: What?!

Jeack: They left the Khmer Rouge area several years ago and now they live here.

Anne: What?!

SO there’s that. The KR were kidnapping foreigners not so long ago, so I imagine we were pretty lucky in our timing. Or something. Jeez, I don’t know, but it gave me quite a start when Anne relayed this information after we’d passed the men’s village. I can’t believe we were escorted out of the forest by Khmer Rouge guys. Damn!

Anyway, they put us on the right road back to Kompong Thom. It was still a long drive, and it again occurred to me that driving at night on back roads is exactly what you’re NOT supposed to do in Cambodia. But you know, it really fit with the atmosphere of adventure for the day. We finally made it back to town around 10:30, exhausted, hungry, dehydrated, and sore. But you know what, it was worth it- it was one hell of a day.