Veal Veng – April 10th, 2017
Jul 5th, 2017 by rallyadmin
Last night we stopped in Battarbang at the north end of the largest lake in Asia, the Tonle Sap. We’ve been riding up the northeast side of the lake to Siem Reap and Angkor. In order to round the upper end of the lake, we continue northwest to the end of the lake and a bit farther to Battarbang.
Battarbang is not on anyone’s bucket list. Unless, of course, the bucket list includes “leaving Battarbang.” The road is hot, dusty and heavy with traffic. There are no dramas, hard as that is to believe. Battarbang is more or less a frontier town, crowded with buses, lorries and motorbikes. It is the last large city before leaving Cambodia for Thailand.
The next morning we leave for Veal Veng, the last redoubt of the Khmer Rouge as they were chased down by the Vietnamese army. There are two routes to Veal Veng. The one that I’m taking is down the main road toward Phnom Penh and the a right up toward the mountains.
The other route which the rest of the mob is taking is down the main road toward Phnom Penh but they take an earlier right and head into the mountains on a rough jungle track. The route looks like it may be quite rough and it appears to be over a100 miles
I’ve decided that I probably shouldn’t try the jungle route. My ribs are still hurting from my crash coming into Phnom Penh and my road rash has finally started to heal. I don’t need to tempt fate at the moment.
The run front the main road up to Veal Veng starts as a narrow but paved road through the farm land. Every few kms, a small hamlet. Not much traffic. A pleasant ride.
At about 20 kms, the road crosses a river and another 2 kms later the pavement ends and the road turns seriously rutted and potholed. At first I’m wondering if I made a mistake. If the road is like this all the way to VV, I might as well have gone with the rest of the group.
But after a few kms, the pavement returns. And then another few kms and it disappears again. The good news is that there’s very little traffic and the gravel sections are actually quite good. In some places, the gravel is much easier to ride than the paved sections.
It’s beautiful day and the scenery is just beautiful with the mountains looming on the horizon. It’s over 100 miles to VV and towards the end of the ride, I’m ready to stop. I come to a crossroads and realize that I’m in the center of Veal Veng. No parvement. No sidewalks. Just a very primitive mountain town. With only one guest house.
I find the guest house and check in. A quick nap to cool off from the ride up here. Within and hour Guv arrives and checks in and since he doesn’t need to nap (or sleep, apparently), we head off to find some food while we wait for the rest of the route to arrive.
Just at the crossroads in the center of downtown Veal Veng, we get some barbeque and beer. We’re halfway through our meal and the first boys on the jungle track arrive. We aim them at the guest house and with an hour we’re all back together.
The jungle track wasn’t as rough as it was originally thought to be but it did have a couple of impressive water crossings. But if the road I took was as rough as the jungle route during the late ‘70s, it’s no wonder why Pol Pot and his small surviving army decide on this place for their last stand.
In the end, Pol Pot and his remaining band of followers didn’t make a last stand. No martyrs these evil purists. Surrounded and very low on supplies and ammunition, they were simply isolated by the Vietnamese. And, unlike their victims, most lived out their lives hidng near Veal Veng on the border with Thailand.
We spend the night getting some food and drinking beer. In a frontier town near the Thailand border. Some people just know how to live.
Obi-wan
