The rainy season, aka muddy season, arrived here in the Cardamom Mountains National Park without warning, and so did a new wave of road improvements.

The Show Must Go On 🛺

     We went a few months with hardly a drop of rain and watched our little whitewater river turn into stagnant stream, and in the blink of an eye things changed dramatically. What is usually a sunny drive to the public school 24km away and down the mountain is now a muddy road ready for an international rally car race. Rain or shine though, I gotta make sure my daughters get an education even if it is from a very underserved area.

     The Thai border opens in a few days and I totally understand the need to improve the highway from the border to Pursat, the provincial capital at end of this highway, and where tourists will either choose to turn left for Angkor Wat or right for Phnom Penh. It's been known the Thai border crossing near our home will become an international one for almost two years, but only now has the government decided to start roadwork.

Clay + Water = Skiing ⛷️

     Our area of the country is clay mostly, so any kind of outdoor construction becomes very challenging when your slipping and sliding everywhere and 2 kilos of mud is stuck to each shoe. This mess that was once a highway is hardly ready for overloaded tour buses, so I am curious how much worse this will get when the border opens and traffic may increase exponentially.

     As for me, my trusty Piaggio Ape Auto DX and it's firebreathing 435cc diesel engine pushing around 8 ponies of power, I mostly just keep the wheels spinning in 3rd gear at full throttle while listening to a podcast like Timesuck or Lore. I can't control the weather or the road conditions, but I can control some of the sounds that enter my ear and how much fun I have while practically skiing in the tuk-tuk as I point the front wheel in the direction I'd like to eventually be at some point.

We'll Have A New Neighbor Soon 🤝

     After the gravel/mud section of the rally course is over we head to the tarmac/pothole portion and test the suspension capabilities of our three-wheeled family transport. It is nice to see the air quality this good and to know this puts an end to the soldiers illegally burning the forest of the Phnom Samkos Wildlife Sanctuary in order to seize more land for barely legal real estate.

     My friend has nearly closed the deal with the owner of the adjacent land plot, and soon we'll have an old friend as a new neighbor, so that's pretty exciting stuff. We would really like to purchase the additional plot behind our house, but we lack the funds at the moment. It would be very good to join these two pieces of land because it would increase the value of both and allow us space to host several tenants who would like to live a simple life like us. That's all for now folks.......

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