As the most iconic national highway in Cambodia, Route 6 is destined to be significantly different from the highways I have traveled before.
From Highway One to Five, both sides of the road are empty and open, but after coming to Route 6, it is an endless rainforest area, which is very surprising.
In this green jungle, there are a large number of Cambodian residents living on both sides of the road, riding on this road, you can see locals washing and cooking and even bathing and playing, the living conditions of Cambodians here are completely exposed to passers-by, there is no privacy at all.
Of course, maybe this has become accustomed to them and has not taken care of them, but it is still quite fresh for cyclists like me, and it also makes me know more about the real life of the locals.
There is also a very strange phenomenon on Highway 6, although there are a large number of villages and houses on both sides of the road, but the houses here are mostly surrounded by water, and even some houses have no way to go around, and local people have to wade in the water when they go out.
Let's not talk about whether it is convenient to talk about the topic, after all, such an environment is actually very easy to breed mosquitoes, spread diseases, no wonder dengue fever can be so rampant in Cambodia, cycling such a circle seems to be able to go all the way safely has been very difficult, I dare to talk about any other luxury.
At noon, I did not eat and rode all the way, and soon the time came to noon, the inherent high temperature weather in Southeast Asia began to scorch Highway Six, and the sweltering weather caused my riding speed to drop a lot compared to when I set off in the early morning, and the whole person's mental state was also groggy and began to sleep.
I have tried to speed up many times, but I always feel that my body is a little weak, so I can only slow down the rhythm, after all, safety is the first priority.
But when a small tricycle carrying wood overtook me behind me, I was suddenly refreshed, and when riding in China, I could often follow this kind of vehicle with a speed of about forty miles, because this not only riding fast but also saving physical strength, there is a movie "Breaking the Wind" about this principle.
So when the tricycle surpassed me, I immediately followed up with the force, instantly trailed behind the car, and called the bus idiot with the girl on the bus, then I should be called a three-wheeled idiot, the old driver understands.
However, the Cambodian driver was obviously reluctant to give me a helping hand, and the tricycle was moving fast and fast in front of me, with the obvious intention of getting rid of me as a fart.
I didn't grow up as a vegetarian, and I always followed the tricycle no matter what speed, after all, it was much easier than riding my own, there were fewer cars along the way, and there was no shop in this village.
However, after all, the tricycle burned diesel, and I burned bone oil, and after more than ten kilometers of traveling together, I finally had to watch him leave because of lack of physical strength.
At that moment, I seemed to see the contemptuous smile thrown by the driver, and so it was, thanking him for the grace of escorting him all the way.
On the road with the car, many sections of the road have been used by local residents as their own rice drying ground, the original road is not half occupied after it is more narrow, fortunately there are not many vehicles, so the traffic is not unaffected.
Although the locals are somewhat less friendly to passing drivers, the grain must be dried in the sun after harvest before it can be loaded, so this is also a helpless move for locals living near Mizusawa.
Not to mention the Cambodians, just in the country and even in our local area, such a practice is also everywhere, everyone is actually not easy to do.
But on Highway 6, I was intrigued by two small local specialties from roadside stalls, both of which were made from rice and reprocessed by local villagers to sell food to passers-by.
One is to make gluten from rice, and the other is bamboo rice cooked with rice, these two things concentrate Cambodia's original terroir diet, just looking at it is very interesting.
Just like gluten, which is a kind of cereal-like specialty food, there are many stalls selling this kind of thing along the way, and it is all processed on the spot, so out of curiosity I simply stopped in front of a small stall to observe the production process.
Although the gluten is only made of rice crushing and decomposition, because it uses manual tools, it actually requires the cooperation of many people to complete the production of this thing, and this small stall is a family of old and young people, the scene is lively and warm.
In the division of labor in the team, one woman is responsible for cooking the rice in a hot pot, the other woman is responsible for putting the fried rice into a homemade wooden utensil for stir-frying and pounding, and a group of children work together to control the rhythm of wood pounding, which seems to be a simple task that requires a high degree of tacit cooperation, otherwise the women who stir-fry the grain are easily hit by the mallet.
Seeing that I was so curious, the man standing by the side chopping wood took the initiative to grab a handful of freshly out of the pot of bran for me to taste, and after tasting it, my taste buds gave the evaluation that the taste was somewhat similar to the mixture of cereal and pot, which was neither delicious nor unpalatable.
Looking at the family's expectant eyes, I extended my thumb to give them a thumbs up, the man saw that he was very happy, and even nodded his head, but I was embarrassed, I didn't want to buy it to eat, I didn't like it.
In the end, I was embarrassed to like it, but I was embarrassed to leave the stall, but the men were not unhappy because of my behavior, and I could see that my foreigner's appreciation was the greatest affirmation of their food.
For another specialty food, bamboo tube rice, I am too familiar with it, because I grew up cooking bamboo tube rice when I was a child, and it is very convenient to use bamboo forest behind the front door house in rural Sichuan, so the production of bamboo tube rice is also quite simple.
Although I have not made it for twenty years, making bamboo rice is still an unforgettable memory of mine, just cut a small hole in the bamboo tube, and then put in a certain amount of rice and water and throw it in the fire to bake, the fragrance of bamboo soaked in the rice, the tempting taste is still hard to forget.
Of course, Cambodia's bamboo tube rice is also much the same, this kind of food because of the convenience is also liked by many passing drivers, often see drivers stop to buy a few to eat, such a simple food is a source of income for many farmers on Highway Six.
As I drifted away on Route 6 and Siem Reap got closer, I looked forward to it more and more.
(The cycling story has continuity, more wonderful, please continue to pay attention, see how I rode a vegetable cart to Southeast Asia, please pay attention to the column "Cambodia under the wheels, Khmer Kingdom Cycling")