Lucky to be alive after Road Biking to Sihanoukville

5 road accidents. That’s the number of incidents I saw during a mere 240 kilometres’ cycle over New Year’s. None of them were drink related. All of them were in broad daylight.

All I was trying to do was cycle my bike safely to Cambodia's coast and Sihanoukville...

Road accident #1: I set out from my home in Phnom Penh at 7am to start ride my bike to Sihanoukville via Kampot. It was a Saturday morning, so traffic was light from weekend office closures. That was, until I reached the airport, less than 30 minutes into my ride. Cars, tuk-tuks, motorbikes were squashed together in an uncharacteristic manner. After a few minutes of bike pushing, I saw the ambulance booting towards city centre. I then passed the broken glass and two very crushed motorbikes lying on the road side. I stopped together with a number of others to take a quick look and a surrupticious photo.

Road accident #2: So there I was, cycling along the road, when two dogs started sprinting towards me from the other side of the road.

A white dog was chasing a black dog, getting them off their property. The black dog reached the tarmac just as I yanked on my brakes in anticipation of hitting him. But before I could take him out, a sleek Lexus four wheel drive did the honours and rolled right over the animal. Plastic and metal hit hair and bone. The Lexus hit the gas and accelerated on. The last I saw of that dog was its twisted black back leg on a dog that was lucky to still be alive. But it is the squealing I can still hear even now, squealing of a dog that needed medical care. Unfortunately for him, canine vets don’t inhabite that part of Cambodia.

Smashed up motorbike from Road Accident #1

Nearly Road accident #3, but not quite, so doesn’t really count: The road began to narrow once I hit National Route 4. The lanes were wide enough for two cars to pass each other out. The verge was a dirt track, 10 centimetres drop off the tarmac thoroughfare. So when the beer trucks carrying bottles of Angkor to Sihanoukville overtook me out, I would stop pedalling so they’d whisker their way past me as quickly as possible. The worst however were the Lexus four wheel drives coming from the other direction, overtaking trucks in their way. They would aim straight at me and force me off the road. Tempted as I was to play chicken, each time I would succumb and throw myself in the ditch whilst cursing Cambodia’s rise of the Lexus four wheel drive.

Me looking very bemused, wondering how I can keep out of the way of all this road carnage.

Real Road accident #3: The next accident was as real as it gets. There I was, cycling along when I saw a motorbike parked on the road side. A man stood beside the bike. Another lay face down beside it. The man on the ground wasn’t moving. The guy standing up looked shell shocked.

For a spilt second, I considered stopping and lending a hand. But then, what could I do to assist? I don’t speak Khmer. I am not a doctor. I wasn’t from the area. Then I saw some locals running towards the scene. So I left them to work out if the man was alive or dead or simply resting, and to figure out how the motorbike and their passengers managed to take such a nasty spill.

Passing Cambodia's coastal Bokor Mountain, cycling from Kampot to Sihanoukville

Road accident #4: Lots of things wander along and across Cambodian roads. Water buffalo, dogs, children, snakes, and cows all move on and off the tarmac at random. So I wasn’t surprised when I passed a cow sacked out in the middle of the road. I slowed down to swerve around it. The cow had a neat set of tyre prints right across its neck. Blood coalesced around the indented, white furry tyre tracks. Just like road accident #3, the perpetrator was nowhere to be found. In Cambodia it’s obviously not the done thing to hand around.

A nicer part of the route - passing a fishing village on Cambodia's coast.

Road accident #5: The fifth and final accident of the trip had an element of bitter sweet revenge. It involved a Lexus again, though this time it was the victim, not the assailant. The driver had lost control and crashed off the road, most likely at high speed. The Lexus’ bumper was affixed to a tree trunk. The windscreen was slightly cracked. The driver had already been whisked away to safety, whilst the tree was still standing tall, having won the latest road rage battle.

One of the many Lexus SUVs that rule Cambodia's roads. Courtesy of Pat & Christian Gasnier.

And so, the morale of the story: Never cycle on National Route 4 in Cambodia, unless you want to see, or even partake, in some real road carnage.

7 thoughts on “Lucky to be alive after Road Biking to Sihanoukville

  1. I just cycled 30km one route 4 and survived but only just. Do they call this a life experience or a near death one?

    Reply
  2. Highway #4 is dangerous. I call it the “Death Highway To Hell.” The railroad was suppose to take the drunk/stoned truck drivers off the road, but the head of the port in Sihanoukville says they can’t because the paperwork hasn’t been done yet ($$$$). I stopped riving my motorcycle in Cambodia (after 54 years on bikes) and don’t drive my 6000lb truck on Hwy #4 anymore. I don’t have a death wish!

    Reply
  3. Enjoyed your blog. Having spent over 5 years around Asia, I would have to say that Vietnam and China are still worse. I just finished an article about all the accidents in Asia: traffic, drownings, mines, industrial, fireworks etc Check it out at http://www.teachorbeach.com/
    Jon

    Reply
  4. Like Ronan I’m a bit stunned that you cycle on that road – or an any public road in Cambodia *breaks out in a sweat at the memories* Maybe you have more control though with the pedal-bike than a motorcycle as they just go so fast, and have no chance against the 4-wheel drives.

    Reply
  5. I have spent a lot of time in countries including ones famous for bad driving, India, China, most of South America. But I have seen NOTHING as bad as the driving in Cambodia and Vietnam! Still ranks No. 1 on the OhJesusI’mGonnaDie scale! I would never have thought of CYCLING on the roads! Look after yourself!

    Reply
    1. Try driving in Kenya… they aim for you there 🙂

      Hope all well in Ireland Ronan, and best of luck in 2012.

      Reply

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