Osaom has always been our final destination for Cambodia, and after being stranded abroad for three years we had plenty of time to plan our return.
While stranded (thanks to COVID visa problems) in Suriname for three years, we had more than enough time to research areas of interest in Cambodia where we could resettle once it was legally possible to do so as a united family. I shared my research about this place in a previous post, and it's nice to finally manifest this desire so many months later.
The drive from Pramaoy to Osaom was only 35km, but it took more than 2 hours due to some major construction, no paved roads, and a mountain pass complete with a surprise torrential rainstorm and currents running across the road. Pov later admitted to me that she thought she was going to die, and Srey-Yuu also admitted to being terrified during the storm.
I grew up racing ATVs and riding motos, and I've also spent many years living among 4,000m mountains while attending a wilderness guiding school, so the journey over the mountain pass to Osaom wasn't too intimidating for me. My family has very little experience with mountain weather and steep road grades, so I totally understand why they were fearful.
The journey over the pass required my full attention, so I wasn't able to document it while managing the handlebars of a constantly slipping and sliding tuk-tuk. It kept raining all the way to Osaom, so after arriving I decided to explore some backroads away from the reservoir for a potential picnic stop, and that's how we ended up at this random location.
My wife is a passenger with two free hands and a smartphone on these journeys, so it's really better to follow her blog for the beautiful scenery not part of pitstops. I'm a full-time driver on the road and part-time content creator only when the engine isn't running, so I didn't even get one shot of the reservoir and the even more stunning landscape there than where we dined on larb tofu.
You'll see in the video if you watch, but I love how the family often ignores the camera after I've been filming for over a minute, and that is when the good content comes out, often hilarious. Monkey-B started talking about her poop hike while I was filming, and even asked me to delete the footage while I was making this post, but it's much too funny to not share.
Of course our picnic was delicious, but I felt rushed because I had planned to return to Pramaoy in the evening to catch up on work, plus we didn't have enough time to pack for a proper camping trip. It was also the weekend, and the next morning all the Sunday traffic would be headed back over the wet pass, leaving me some very deep ruts to manage with my 10-inch wheels.
Pov made the decision easy by saying she wouldn't go over the pass at night, so we stayed a night in the only guesthouse with a vacancy in all of Osaom, and I pondered how in the world I was going to manage driving my tuk-tuk on a muddy road destroyed by 4x4s in a hurry to return to Phnom Penh.
I hope this is a suspenseful enough buildup to keep you tuned in for part 2 of this very unprofessional travel content.....
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