Cambodia, Friday 26th November 2004 06:00
I'm hanging out at the beach again after another fun-filled trip on a bike. I visited the town of Kampot with a girl called Dany who works at one of the beach bars. The road started off okay but by the end it was gravel, pot holes and dodgy bridges - all good fun. The trip was long but we made it. Kampot is a small town with not much happening but is nice as there is a river running through it and the sunset was great with the sky all red and orange.
The next day we went to the local waterfall which turned out to be a long area of rapids. We had a snack and a walk in the cold water. We went back to the Little Garden guest house, which has a rooftop bar with seating. We grabbed our bags and headed off to Bokor national park. On our arrival it started to rain hard so we got a little wet, but we waited to see if the rain stopped before going up the hill to the town. We chatted to some workers there who said it would take nearly two hours to get to the top but we could stay at the ranger station there and come back tomorrow.
So we set off up the track with lots of potholes, rocks and gravel. It was a bit of hard work with two people on the bike. We had been going for about 25 minutes with a few hairy moments but not too bad when we went round a hairpin bend and the back started to steer. I knew we were in trouble and it turned out to be a puncture in the rear tyre. We had to turn back and had a long walk as I did not want to damage the rear wheel and tyre. The walk took about 1 hour 20 minutes. It was awkward pushing the bike but at least it was downhill. The ranger station at the bottom directed us to a local down the road who could fix the tyre. We found the guy and he came out with tyre leavers and a foot pump. He had fun taking off the tyre to get to the inner tube but he found the hole and fixed it. It was hard work and took three of us to get the tyre back on. We found a nail in the tyre so it was not a rock that caused the hole. We headed back to the beach at Sihanoukville and on the way back we were passed by about 12 old classic bikes ridden by a group of Germans. They waved and said hello as they passed by.
I'm having a good time going around with Dany who is a local and knows all the good places and short cuts. She is very nice; shy but sweet. She likes to dance a lot and loves my CD player and CDs as she is really into western music. The other night a big group of us went out - a mixture of locals and travellers. We first went to a disco called Bluestone but this was empty as it was nearly midnight. The next place was way out of town and through the red light district. It was called the Be Bar and was a mix of club, karaoke bar and brothel all in one. The male travellers were given two menus - one for drinks and one for girls so it was instantly obvious what type of place we were in. We had a few drinks and a dance too with the young ladies singing karaoke. We left about 1.30pm and returned through the red light district with lots of girls calling out for the guys to stay and spend their money on them. We did not want to stop as it is a bad area and some of the girls looked very young. It was a fun night with places I would not have gone to if I had not known the locals at the beach bar.
The beach has lots of bars and restaurants so you do not have to leave all day and night except to sleep. All the places are made of wood and have massive ice boxes to keep the beers cold. People come round to deliver massive blocks of ice for the boxes. They cook on barbeques and small burners attached to gas bottles. The food they cook is amazing and better than you would ever think they could do on the beach. There is a dish called Amok which comes with either fish or meat and is served with rice. It has a coconut / nutty taste and is my favourite.
I have only 10 days left until my flight from Phnom Penh to Bangkok and then to Aus. I will miss this place, the friends I have made and Dany the most as we have had such a good time together. She is such fun. I will be coming back to this place so I can see everyone again, and also it is such a chilled place.
