Well i arrived in
Phnom Penh by speedboat James Bond style(the only way to roll) on the 27th of July. I went to get some accommodation at the lake, a particularly touristy area. I got a room but planned to move on the next day and meet up with Frida whom I met in Phu Quoc.
That afternoon i had a walk around town to get my bearings and it was pretty good, walked to the tallest point in PP, being a whopping 27m high. After that highlight I decided to trek along the river to the national museum. This was a bit of a hoax really, there was not much there, the most impressive thing was the courtyard in the middle.
On day 2 I moved hotels, i would really recommend the OK Guesthouse $4USD, it went above my expectations of being just ok. That afternoon i went to the Killing fields and a place called s-21. This was a sobering day, going to the killing fields was pretty horrific but it did lack the human touch that you would experience going to say Dachau a Nazi Concentration camp. The place was amazing though, over 14000 people murdered and buried there. There were a series of deep holes where they had exhumed bodies and had some remains on display. Most of the bodies where bludgeoned to death, and you could see all the fractures in their skulls. S-21 was a museum where they had tortured and killed people during the time the Khmer Rouge were in power, in 1975-79. Most of the people that were tortured there ended up at the killing fields. I think this day would have had even more impact if i had seen the way they people had been treated first. It was quite a depressing way to spend the afternoon but something that had to be done.
That night it was Frida’s birthday so about 12 of us went out to dinner and then went to a great club called Heart of Darkness. It was a really good night!
Next day was more of a recovery, about four of us decided it would be fun to catch the 12 hour train to Battembang, so we could sit on the roof of the train. We woke on the 30th at 5:30am so we could get on the 6:20 train. Upon arrival at the station we were told there are no trains until Saturday. So I decided to head for the beach, and caught a great bus down to this place called Sihanoukville and found a room 25m to the water for $2.50 a night at ‘The Nap House’ it was absolute gold. You could have a beer in really comfy chairs on the sand with the water lapping at your feet. Cocktails $1.50, dinner $2.50 and the water is high 20’s!
Well after a wonderful few days on the island I decided to keep moving. I caught the ferry back and a bus to Chao Doc where I will go to Cambodia from tomorrow. There was one funny hassle story, when I was getting on the bus, again on the side of the road instead of the station my bike driver said it would be around 40000. The lady on the bus said 140000, so I politely in my most colourful Australian said I would pay 40000. after about 5 mins of arguing she stopped the bus and kicked me off. When I was walking away she kept yelling 140000, but I kept saying 40000. Then she said 100,000. Anyway about 15mins later with the whole bus still waiting I got back where I was for 40,000 after she wouldn’t let me go. I wish she was understanding what I was saying from the beginning.
When I arrived in Chao Doc I went for a walk and was caught in a massive thunder storm, this would have made Noah nervous. The amount of rain was insane. these two ladies in a fruit stall told me to come and wait with them, anyway we started eating fruit, and then all their friends were giving me samples of all this fruit I have never tried before. Some of it was great but more of it tasted very different to what we get.
Well today I just decided to chill out, spend all day doing nothing, eating, watching the day go bye etc. When I got breaky there was this guy bringing his cows down the beach quite funny really!
being woken to the sound of waves crashing against the shore is quite refreshing. It is something that you would really be able to get used to. We went next door for some breakfast then hit the road. We wanted to check out some cool waterfalls and some beaches at the very northern tip of the island.
The one thing that makes it hard is there are almost no signs and we were using a map that was pretty dodge. We went through town and the next thing I know Eddy came off his bike going about 30 dressed in shorts, thongs and a t-shirt. It wasn’t totally his fault a bus was coming the other way and decided to overtake a bike and swerved towards him. He scraped all his leg and was a little limp after that. There was a family across the road who gave him some stuff for the leg and bent the bike back into shape with a bar.
We didn’t want to let that stop us, we headed towards the waterfall we were looking for, it was pretty hard to find but we got there in the end. It was 2000 to get in, so we walked up and decided to have a swim. There were some girls in bikinies there, not sure whether that was part of the 2000 or they were just there. After this we decided to head for the beach. This was an absolute mission, it was dirt the whole way, sometimes we were wondering if we were on a track. We also had to cross about three wooden bridges which were pretty rickety, but it was awesome at the same time. We stopped along the way a few times and had a swim which was good.
When we finally reached out goal we got to this shack on the beach which was really funny. It was really overpriced, and there was an old guy singing which sounded really weird but it was entertainment. We had a few beers before we decided to head back, the problem was we left it a little late and about half way back it got dark, which is a pretty tough ride on dirt in the dark not really knowing where you are going. The closer we got to town, the more traffic there was so we just followed everyone else.
We were pretty tired by the time we reached home but definitely had a great ride and was well worth it. I went for a swim then hit the hey!
