The skies of Cambodia

The good people

May 8

I meet a Frenchman who had it even more difficult than me, and I think the Apocalypse has arrived in Cambodia!

View of the Mekong River from the roof of the hotel in Stoeng Treng, northern Cambodia.

When we compare ...

Aldo is from Perpignan, France. He grew up in the Pyrenees, a few steps from the Mediterranean and Spain. And even in this paradise, the urge to travel by bike took him, and he left to discover the world!

We meet a few hundred meters from the Laos-Cambodia border. I invite him to eat with the Laotian money I have left. And like every time two traveling cyclists meet on the road, we share our war adventures.

I left England in March, Aldo from France in April. I went through the stans from Central Asia after Turkey, while my new boyfriend branched out to Iran, Oman, then India for two months.

" Oh yes ! And what was India like? », Which I ask him.

I was so weak and sick. I found myself in front of a very dirty Turkish toilet, and I lost consciousness. As I fell on the toilet, I opened my upper lip, but didn't realize it until several hours later when I woke up in my blood ...

Aldo was a paramedic in France before leaving to open his lips around the world. But you don't have to be a healthcare professional to know you need stitches. He managed to find a rural Indian doctor who performed this operation for him. Exhausted by these two months of driving in the subcontinent, he then decided to take a small flight to the neighboring country, Burma. “And I found it super developed compared to India! ".

Aldo leaves me, telling me to pitch my tent in Cambodia. “Mine broke because of thunderstorms”.

Hm, okay ?

The storm

The capital letter is required. I had never seen such fury unleashed by nature. As I was reading in my tent (well pitched!), I suddenly felt like I was in broad daylight again. I put my head outside and see that lightning strikes the sky literally every two seconds. But in addition, the storm is so low that we can see the stars above the clouds. I have no choice, a photo session is essential.

Feet and tripod in the mud, legs full of insects, I am now fully awake and trying to capture the electric intensity of the moment. As I have the great happiness to be published by the excellent magazine Vélo Mag, you can also see another version of this photo in the May-June edition.

I'm hot ... again!

By entering Cambodia, I also reach another interesting border: the passage of my 15th kilometer since the start! It seems that the more I advance, the faster it goes ...!

By riding every day, I continue to sweat all day long. But with the wind at my speed, it's relatively endurable. However, as soon as I stop, I feel my pores swell and start coughing up more water. So I alternate a few travel towels to wipe my skin, always leaving one to dry on the back of my bike.

The worst is when I settle into my tent. At 32 degrees even at night, it's like a sauna but with no exit door. By the time I finish wiping my body with my already wet towel, I already have to start over! I abandon the project and try to sleep in a star!

Another night of camping to pitch my tent while looking at the sky.

It's an understatement to say that people don't own a lot here. In the countryside, few people even have running water. But one thing they can be envied for is their ability to survive this heat. I am always ashamed to speak to them with my face dripping and shining with sweat!

In fact, it's been several months - since Burma last November - that I tell myself that I will get used to the heat. It's still a failure but I remain optimistic ... maybe tomorrow is my day!