Cambodia. Poipet - Sisophon - Siem Reap

From Bangkok we took the train to Aranyaprathet, which is near the Cambodian border and started cycling towards the border. Once we got over the many hurdles we were faced with, we were thrown into the wild west of Cambodia at Poipet. There was a lot to take in and our first day felt like a week. The difference a few hundred meters can make! The roads are dusty as they are not concreted any more, the traffic is (even more) chaotic, with scooters being the most popular form of transport. A scooter can transport up to 5 people, live pigs, chickens, you name it. Babies usually act as an airbag, sitting in the drivers seat in front of their parents. We felt extremely welcome as everyone was shouting hello, laughing, smiling and waving at us as we were going around potholes and over bumps. The road is pretty good to cycle (as long as it's dry) and not as bad as we had imagined. We were only faced with the real challenge on our second day after it had rained all night. We confidently took off from Sisophon at 6:00 am towards Kralanh but we didn't make it any further than 10 km because the cement-like mud completely seized up our wheels and gears. Defeated we had to take a pick up truck back to Sisophon and another one straight to Siem Reap. The pick up truck from Sisophon to Siem Reap was quite an experience as the driver jammed as many people on the back as he could and once it was completely packed dumped a full size freezer in as well, which took up half of the space. As a consequence kiki had to sit on top of the freezer (with 5 other people) with nothing to hold on to. The driver was a nutter who knocked a moped over within the first 5 minutes and almost took out numerous other road users and try to rip off every passanger (not only us dumb tourists), giving out the wrong change, leaving a woman in the middle of the road screaming to get her money. It was a long 100km and having forgotten about the mud we found ourselves wishing we had waited and tried by bike again. But hey, we made it somehow and are enjoying Siem Reap for now.