We tied to wake up early due to not being certain whether we could catch a boat going north. After our arrival at the port we were put strait - no boats to Koh Khrong Island or Krang Koh Khrong town. Our only option was a five minute, private motorboat crossing to the nearby mainland. The village in the national park on the other side was simple and untouched by the modern world. These people were sure to get a shock when they finally see the results of the road being slowly constructed there by the Chinese. It’s inevitable that development will happen due to the hungriness of the rest of the world is for gems like theirs.
We cycled first on a dirt truck passing through some streams and clogging up our breaks with dirt. Pretty quickly we joined the new flatter road and cycling became slightly easier. For couple of hours we fought the hills, but suddenly I spotted Teresa on the back of a construction lorry. She shouted that the builders stopped to give her a lift and I was sucked in to the offer too, thus avoiding the escalating heat and frequency of hills!
We were dropped off few kilometres from the main road and we had to cross one further river. The temporary bridge was locked with a barrier and a padlock and barred to the general public? We had to back-track and take a 1 km detour to find a river crossing and waited for the dilapidated ferry (free of charge) but costing us at least half an hour loss of time grrrrrrrr.
It was not very nice to see the tarmac of the main road heading for Thailand. The road was a mega mountainous nightmare and we felt defeated by it. A few minutes later we were sitting in a shared minibus taxi heading for the border town of Krang Koh Khrong.
Having been completely out of water, we dropped out of the taxi station straight in to the café to drink for Britain. The town was very nice and despite its terrible write up in our guide book, it did not strike us as a smugglers and prostitutes paradise. It was more likely to be first stop for most tourists entering Cambodia from Bangkok and a pretty good base for exploring the nearby islands and the vast national park. Nevertheless we did not intend to stay overnight and soon as we’d had a spot of late lunch we wanted to head for the border (10km away from town). As we were about to head out of town, we were approached by a British (turned out to be Scottish) cyclist and who seemed pleased to chat. A few hours later we were sipping our last Cambodian beers chatting about iPad/iPhone GPS systems and the 7 cobras that he passed in the middle of the roads on his cycles in western Thailand.
Cycled estimated 30-35km , Taxied about 100.
We cycled first on a dirt truck passing through some streams and clogging up our breaks with dirt. Pretty quickly we joined the new flatter road and cycling became slightly easier. For couple of hours we fought the hills, but suddenly I spotted Teresa on the back of a construction lorry. She shouted that the builders stopped to give her a lift and I was sucked in to the offer too, thus avoiding the escalating heat and frequency of hills!
We were dropped off few kilometres from the main road and we had to cross one further river. The temporary bridge was locked with a barrier and a padlock and barred to the general public? We had to back-track and take a 1 km detour to find a river crossing and waited for the dilapidated ferry (free of charge) but costing us at least half an hour loss of time grrrrrrrr.
It was not very nice to see the tarmac of the main road heading for Thailand. The road was a mega mountainous nightmare and we felt defeated by it. A few minutes later we were sitting in a shared minibus taxi heading for the border town of Krang Koh Khrong.
Having been completely out of water, we dropped out of the taxi station straight in to the café to drink for Britain. The town was very nice and despite its terrible write up in our guide book, it did not strike us as a smugglers and prostitutes paradise. It was more likely to be first stop for most tourists entering Cambodia from Bangkok and a pretty good base for exploring the nearby islands and the vast national park. Nevertheless we did not intend to stay overnight and soon as we’d had a spot of late lunch we wanted to head for the border (10km away from town). As we were about to head out of town, we were approached by a British (turned out to be Scottish) cyclist and who seemed pleased to chat. A few hours later we were sipping our last Cambodian beers chatting about iPad/iPhone GPS systems and the 7 cobras that he passed in the middle of the roads on his cycles in western Thailand.
Cycled estimated 30-35km , Taxied about 100.