Phnom Penh and Mondulkiri

We have been extremely bad at keeping you properly updated on our Cambodian travels, there is no real excuse to this... However, there is an excuse for not posting pictures and that is that out camera card seems to have a cold or a virus and we (Peter) has not been really able to find the programmes he needs to fix it, but bear with us...
We spent excessive amount of time in Phnom Penh with our dear friend Keith, doing it the ex-pat way: with car, driver, excellent steaks, home made Amok fish (traditional Cambodian dish) and Singapore slings at Le Royal (arguably the best bar in town).
But so much for luxury, we set off to the mid-East Cambodian province Mondulkiri. It was all going so well! We left Phnom Penh early afternoon and planned to arrive around 19h, conservative estimate! Unfortunately we had not planned the crack in the radiator, the flat tire, the horrendous ditches in the road up from Snoul, and a fallen apart universal joint of the drive shaft (I hope you all know what that is ;) which eventually forced us to stop in the middle of the road, in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. It was another excellent opportunity to have a beer :) After some time the rescue service came (I was also surprised they actually have such things here ;) with a white Toyota that looked like it needs help itself. Well slowly but with our spirits still up we set of behind the white Toyota to cover next 30 klicks in about 2 hours. It turned out that the Toyota DID need help as it started overheating ... Eventually, we had to leave the car about 20 klicks from San Monorom (our final destination) and finished our epic journey with the Toyota taking us the final mile at about 2.30 am. And it was all going so well!
Mondulkiri has a population of about 2 people/km2, bad red roads, beautiful jungle, waterfalls and elephants. The people are mainly from different hill tribes. The capital, San Monorom is a small dusty village with one main paved road, a dirt air strip, a monument of mythical animals and, well that's about it. But it is really a very serene beautiful region with cool air, even more friendly and smiling people, laid back and relaxed atmosphere and very slow internet. They say it has a lot of potential but as far as we are concerned that road leading up to here is about the worst stretch of road we have seen in our trip so far, so as long as that is there... don't expect a large tourist influx.
We will be heading back to Phnom Penh hopefully tomorrow (if the car gets fixed...) and then of to Angkor.

P.s. Wolfgang, we did go up to Bokor Hill station, but you are officially recognised as crazy if you actually did that by bike ;)