Stung Treng to Kratie

Tues 14/01/14, 144km

Long day today so up on the road for 7 after breakfast and stocking up on carrot cake and banana muffins at the local bakers (om and nom). It's getting a bit toasty by lunchtime so the more I can get done in the cool the better.

The first section of road to the border of Kratie province was in fine form and I had a tail wind to boat which meant I was smugly sailing along thinking in terms of doing today's run in less than six hours.

However, as soon as I entered Kratie province the road got bad. At first it was a case of asphalt broken every few hundred meters with sections that had been badly filled in with rock and dirt. I assumed that these were the result of corruption insofar as the winner of a tender for repairs would give a kick back to the awarder of the contract, do a substandard job and pocket a large profit (a local later confirmed this was indeed the case). Must have been 40 or 50km of this and it was frustrating: with the tail wind I'd be whizzing along at 30kph then drop to a jarring 5 to 10 as I carefully wove my way past axle breakers and soft sand.

The nature of the road changed after that to sections where there was no surface for a few km at a time. All in all the bad sections continued for about 80km until I turned off onto a minor road that ran along the Mekong.

Bad road notwithstanding the early start and tail wind meant I got to Kratie for 2pm. Grabbed a posh place for $7 (plus a dollar for a hot shower) then had a stroll around town. Seem to get quite a few tourists and there were some good food options (had a great Khmer curry with tofu at Tokae).

Quality repairs: most of them stretched fully across the road

And now no surface. Actually better than the rock repairs

I assume this sign means road goes to shit

Ice cold beer and peanuts? Oh yes