Day 61, Takeo to Kampot

Sunrise over the lake :-)

We got up as the sun was rising over the lake and had breakfast with a beautiful view on the balcony. There were 90km to cover today and it would be a lie to say that either of us was particularly motivated. The novelty of cycling has definitely worn off slightly. This general feeling was compounded by the fact that the first 15km out of town were on a terrible road. Yesterday’s bumps had been nothing compared to this. It was not fun. Luckily, a cafe with hammocks and fresh coconuts was waiting for us when we rejoined the major road which did serve to lift our spirits a little...

Nothing like a coconut
to cheer you up

We were lucky with the weather, there were enough clouds to prevent the full force of the sun being unleashed upon us, but the road was long and straight, with longer gaps in between villages than the day before. We rode fast, but our muscles were suffering. We stopped at a town called Chhuk at half past nine for a second breakfast, having already done 50km. Nico was tired enough to enjoy watching the wrestling that was on the television and I just sat there in a tired stupor until we were ready to force ourselves onwards.

Just before it started to rain...

We watched enviously as several open moto-bus contraptions drove past us and argued about whether to flag one down, but we continued to pedal. However, at 70km, with the clouds now gathering ominously above us, we passed one that was half-empty and stopped in the road. It was too much like it was waiting for us. We got on. Whilst I was in the middle of debating whether this was “cheating” and we should have punished ourselves a bit more for the sake of it, the heavens opened and it began to rain, thus erasing any trace of regret I might have felt about the decision. It rained steadily until we reached our destination, the riverside town of Kampot.

Takeo's jigsaw bridge

We found a street of accommodation and settled on “Orchid Guesthouse” (I say settled, it was the first one we looked at but it was nice). The restaurant served us some excellent tofu red curry. Kampot is another lovely little town and the views down by the river are beautiful. The crumbling French architecture reminds us a bit of Savannakhet. The rest of the day was perfect and consisted of a $4 massage, beer at sunset and dinner in a restaurant built on stilts out in the river.