The National Highway 6 is one of the main highways in Cambodia that connect major locations in the country. Many of the highways connect the capital city of Phnom Penh either with major cities/towns in the country (e.g., Siem Reap, Sihanoukville, Battambang), or with the borders to the neighboring countries (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam). National Highway 6 specifically is one of the busiest highways as it connects two of the largest cities in Cambodia, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.

Since we decided to travel overland from Phnom Penh to Cambodia, this was the route that we took. Driving through this highway reminded me of driving through the intercity highways in some regions in Indonesia. The highway is not a divided, high-speed highway like what you find in many countries. It was more a regional, undivided highway that passes through towns and villages, and though it’s paved all the way, there were areas where the road condition was not as good and our passenger van would have to navigate around that. We also shared the road with people using other means of transportation (motorcycle, bicycle, ox cart, pedestrian on foot), so the horn was an important equipment on the passenger van as our driver would simply honk the horn to warn others on the road that we’re about to pass them, and we wouldn’t slow down much. It made the trip somewhat interesting to observe what’s in front of us.

The photo below was taken from my passenger seat just behind the driver. You can see we’re about to pass a bicycle, there is an incoming vehicle coming on the other side of the road, and a little bit in front of us there is an ox cart, pedestrian, and motorcycle.