Cambodia or Bust!

We decided to leave Saigon, Vietnam on the Chinese New Year.

The hotel manager asked us to leave at 7 a.m., because he had to take his family to the place where he was born to celebrate (a Vietnamise custom). We weren't too excited to get on the bikes that early in the morning.

Whe we went to check out, the hotel manager pulled out three shot glasses and a bottle of hard alcohol. We didn't want to be rude so, we raised our glasses while shouting " to Vietnam," took the shots and drove through the city of Siagon toward the Cambodian boarder.

By the time Andy and I reached the Cambodian border, we were covered in sweat and sunscreen that had been burning our eyes.

Before the border, we got some fuel. A man came up to us and said he was our friend and that we can trust him ... I told him we were not registered to vote in this country. Then he stared at us and we stared back for a while.

He proceded to tell us that the Cambodian government would not let us take our motorbikes across the Vietnam/Cambodian boarder. We had to leave our bikes and have him drive us to Phnom Penh for a very good price - he even told us where we needed to leave our bikes.

He really seemed like a straight shooter, but we decided to try our luck and try to get the bikes over anyway.

We began to walk our bikes to the boarder crossing while our friend shook his head at us in a disoproving manner. We filled out some paper work, gave them $25 USD, they took my temperature to make sure I wasn't sick, stamped our passports and gave us visas to the Kingdom of Cambodia and let us through. Andy then asked the guard, "Can we bring our bikes too?" Then he shrugged his shoulders and said "Yeah, sure".

We were so excited that we got the bikes through the border, we drove and drove, weaving between horses, cows, chickens and cars while being blown away by the beautiful open fields. We then realized that the sun was setting. We figured we could make it to Phnom Penh before it was dark.

Then Andy's tires blew out again. We were in the middle of the countryside and there was  little light. We found a man on the side of the road who fixed the tire. When he finished it was pitch black. No street lights, no moon, just the sound of passing buses and animals rustling in the back ground.

We were a bit frightened but decided if we kept it around 45 kph, we would be fine .... Then the light fell out of my bike and I couldn't see anything. I had to drive close to Andy so I could see anything at all. It seemed like time was going so slow while I was driving in the darkness, trying to use Andy's light to guide me and being pelted by bugs flying at night (some of them didn't taste too bad). It didn't help that, randomly, people were shooting off leftover fireworks from the Chinese New Year over the roads from their farmhouses.

I love to get into sketchy situations, but this was a bit much for me.

We drove through some water and it splashed of Andy's back tire, hitting me in the neck. Then his break light came on- I was following him too close. I hit the breaks, my tire locked up and I was sliding sideways down the road. I almost hit some large object which turned out to be a horse pulling what looked like a small car.

When I screached to a stop, I was facing the horse. I don't know if I was out of my mind from riding all day, but something in that horse's eye's made me feel calm . I petted his nose. I looked at Andy, and he said "Did you seen that?"

I replied, "Yes".

I then followed Andy's bike to the river where we had to stop for the night, thankfully there was a hotel there for us.

The next day we took the ferry to the other side - it was packed.

Andys was forced to the back gate with his back tire on the edge of the boat. The gate lifted and Andy rode on it at a 30-degree angle, shoulder to shoulder with other motorbikes. If anything went wrong or someone barely pushed him just a little bit, he would have been in the water and his bike would be at the bottom of the chocolate milk-looking river. 

We got off and drove (in the daylight!) and finally made it to Phnom Penh, an absolutley beautiful city. We haven't done much in Cambodia yet, so far just amazed by the beauty.

We met up with my friend Anna's (from Tacoma) mom who works in Phnom Penh. Later today we are going to skate with her and a group of her work friends who are interested in skateboarding.

Not sure how long we will be here, but I really want a break from that death trap of a motorcycle I own (nothing electrical works on it anymore - horn, light, speedometer or blinkers. Our brakes are shotty at best, too).

Thank God I found a Tacoma Mom to talk to or I would have been crying myself to sleep.