We chose to take road 71 from Kompong Cham to Kompong Thorn, 40 kms before Kompong Thom. Easy names! Somewhere in the middle of rge 80 kms is a site with two hills that figure in a legend in which a woman outwitted a man and since then is indepent and free to choose what to do. Near the hills is a temple, but also a small killing filed. It”s the mass graves of the many victims of the Khmer rouge in this region that were taken here for excution. One can see a number o small monuents and a large area of higher and now fully overgrown ground, under which the mass graves are.

Before we set off we were not sure about the road conditions. Maps just show main roads.  On our way we were temporarily accompanied by a 73-year old man on a race bike. He had lived in the states for 25 years (obvious rerasons we suppose) and was now back for his retirement. He had told us there would be dirt road for 20 kms. It appeared to be only 10. But it was really bad, especially because of the loose rocks. Eveline walked whole stretches. We passed some villages and it’s so strange to see people live so remote. No facilities whatsoever, not to mention electricity. That is only provided in the more populated areas, even along good and busy main roads they don’t have it.

It is concentrated work, riding such dirt roads. It’s much more tiring than a normal road. Today we had an easy 40 kms only. We happened to pass a ”motorbike cleaner”, a guy in a shed with a waterhose and some buckets. For 3000 Riel (0,75 USD) he made our bikes clean and shining again. Felt good. I just added some oil on the chains and off we rolled again, smooth and easy.