After a few days of rest, Nicole and Ingrid have arrived in country nr. 24 : Cambodia.

Cambodia is not much bigger than Belgium, but it's seeded with millions of landmines. Last week though, things looked bad for our two friends. They were not sure if they could continue their worldtrip. Nicole was in a bad condition. She was really feeling miserable. "We talked about it with the hotelmanager at the border with Thailand. He drummed up a so-called 'sorceress'. Coming from the north, a young lady 'an acquaintance' came over to give me an old-fashioned Thais massage.....
She had learned it from her mother and her mother had it from her mother and so on. 

This pretty, young girl - pliant as a cat but very unhygienic unfortunately - knead me, touched me, even rolled me till I felt like a ball. She jumped on the bed, stepped all over me.

Ingrid couldn't bear it anymore, she couldn't stand my "suffering" and left the room. The massage lasted for over 3 hours !! This girl was steaming with sweat but I must admit : I felt no more pain. The day after I felt like being reborn, as good as new ! And that is when we decided to move on.

According to Ingrid, that night, I snored like a pig. I don't even know the girl's name. She didn't speak a word of English. What I do remember is that she even stuck her fingers in my nostrils. And that I took a long shower !
 

Today we are in Battambang, a small village, some 50 km inland Cambodia. Our 'welcome' in country 24 was anything but friendly. Policemen as well as customs did everything they could to pilfer money from us. "Do you have a vaccination card ? Where is your registration card of your bikes ? Do your bikes have serial numbers ? Any 'forbidden' products to declare ? Date of validity of your visum and so on. Very tricky ! They tried to punish us on not having the right document. But, we were well prepared and possessed any required document. So the only thing they could do was let us in !!

DUST MASK

We were sad and shocked when we arrived in Cambodia and had our first impression. What you absolutely need when you come over here are : a dust mask, a life insurance and a guardian angel, Nicole tells us.

Never leave a public road : you run a risk. Every day someone dies by stepping on a landmine. In Cambodia are 40.000 handicaped people, people who lost a limb by stepping on a landmine. Even the cattle is at risk. Farmers let their cattle graze on meadow-land but they're not sure whether it is a mine-free meadow or not.