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Published: April 22nd 2010
Helllooo!! Well sorry we are really really late with this final entry, we have been back 3 weeks today, feels like 3 months.......!! Busy , busy, busy, non stop but finally we have got around to sending this out......nice to be not sweating but its a bit chilly in blighty!! This is our blog from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville then on to Bangkok for our flight home.
20th March - 31st march 2010
Up early again for the 0630 pick up - waited until 0715 when we were shuttled around town in a cramped and sweaty “town bus” for 40 minutes. Spat out at a chaotic bus station where we were told our booking was not valid as we only had a receipt and not a ticket. (make sure you don't ever accept anything other than a printed ticket). There ensued a fierce battle of wills: our bags were in the hold, Anna had claimed seats and I was trapped outside the bus arguing with the conductor. He made telephone calls, said, “No ticket, no seat, no money for me” I couldnt believe we were just one journey away from succesfully completing our mission that was hatched weeks
Seafood delight
a very happy Anna with a nicely cooked friendbefore in Hanoi, only to be foiled at the last hurdle. Anna refused to leave the bus, I refused to take my foot from the door, the conductor refused to let me pass. I considered a bribe as the whole thing looked as if it would turn nasty, “Take bags off” yelled the conductor, “bus leaving now”. Fists shaking towards the heavens I was just about to accept defeat when the conductors phone rang and I was allowed to get on. Unbelievable!!!
The journey was awful from start to finish even though Anna managed to claim the front seats which meant legroom; the driver seemed hell bent on killing us all, going flat out with just his horn blasting to warn others that he was coming through. I know that there are those who say, “See Ankhor Wat and die” but I really was not ready to expire this close to our mission's end!
It took 6 and a half long hours to get to PP where we stopped in a a busy street and a mad clammer began to reclaim our bags. 30 or so people were waiting on the pavement and in the Paramount office and nobody
bbq anyone?
a full "beef" was sold 6 nights a week knew what the hell was going on. Taxi drivers and tuk tuk drivers competed with the baggage boys who simply dragged bags off and threw them in a heap that no-one could get to without production of a ticket stub. More chaos and arguing ensued before we could reclaim our bags.
After fighting her way through while I guarded the bags and fought of taxi and tuk tuk drivers, Anna obtained tickets for our S'ville leg and found out we had an hour and a half to wait for our bus. Thankfully there was a bar across the road where I gulped down a few cold beers and calmed down. Although I knew there would be no toilet on the bus and usually fasted and drunk minimal fluid, I was passed caring!
PP - S'ville: 6 more hours of discomfort and kareoke blaring out at full volume. Even with wax ear plugs or my ipod on full volume I could not over ride the dreadful screeching racket. Combine this with cramped seats, no a/c and a woman across the aisle who insisted on removing her shoes to rub Tiger balm on her already disgustingly smelly feet and you'll get
the picture - thought I'd died and gone to hell! Maybe I'm just too old and intolerant for this now!!
Sihanoukville - Mission accomplished !!!!!
Our plan to arrive here on 20th march has against all odds been succesful!!
Arriving in the dark, I cared not about my surroundings wanting only to check into the hotel and find a bar in time to watch England v France in the 6 Nations. The Orcchidee guest house picked us up (well, a representative tuk tuk driver, obviously not the guest house itself!!) and we were soon checked in ($22 - $28 dependant on room size and type).
An excellent seafood bbq $3-5 each, beers for 50cents cheered us both up but Anna soon retired to bed leaving me at the bar watching rugby and gulping beer until 5am. A good start apart from England losing!!
I'll leave Anna to describe things in detail, I'll just say that at the end of a long haul, this was just what I needed. A couple of nice beach days, lazy hours by the pool (damn those american kids!!) and many hours knocking back ice cold cheap beers talking Bull S**T with Gabriel, Albert
You fat ********D!
dave doing a very bad James Bond impression...............looks like all that Asian lager has gone south Dave!! and Paddy in the Paradise Sports bar and Paddys in the Golden Lion Plaza. Even though there was a breeze coming from the sea, I was frequently found cowering in the A/C back in our room with a cold G&T!!
Am pleased to say that I celebrated my 47th birthday floating around lovely islands on a lovely boat, sitting at a lovely bar drinking lovely beer with lovely people with lovely clean pants on. This is in stark contrast to my 46th which I spent hurtling down grade 5 rapids in peru trying to keep the traveller's trotts in my wet suit!! Happy birthday to me!!
Travel note : Anyone who has chance to take the “Sun boat” tour should in my opinion do so. It may seem steep at $25, but compared to many trips and tours which may seem cheaper, this is great value. The boat is spacious, comfortable and well equipped; 3 decks including the sun deck and bar make for a great day out. The owner, Robert is not only responsible for designing and building the boat, he is the captain, the MC, DJ, tour guide, landlord and party animal. He takes you on a
Here's to us!
Toasting a succesful mission crazy wade through tropical mangroves, picks up rubbish left by the fishermen and is an all round good egg. Checkout his website, on the w's.suntours-cambodia.com. You'll see adverts for his trips at most agents in S'ville.
Anna: Sihnoukville is like Goa was 10 years ago; Cheap as chips, the people are lovely, friendly, smiley and very polite. The roads are wide and there is very little traffic.
On awakening the first day our priority was to make sure that the place we were staying in was the best option for the following 8 nights so after breakfast we went on a search of the area. Occhituel Beach was only 5 minutes down the road and we have to say it was dissapointing. If you had not been on the beaches of Thailand and had maybe only experienced European shores then maybe it would have seemed quite nice. The beach was dirty, lots of plastic and rubbish both on the sand and floating in the water. The northern end has many beach shacks all serving im sure lovely food, but sunbeds were many and placed very close together. Further north it becomes named Serendipity Beach and becomes a little
Cheers!
With Jose and Vicky in Paddy's Bar rocky and here you can find fantastic beach huts rising up into the cliffs..but these will set you back about 30-40 dollars a night. We didn't spend one day on this beach having been spoilt over the years, but all people complained of far too many beach sellers,( not a moments peace) and being bitten by sandflys. We continued our exploration and looked at several hotels and realised that actually we had the best hotel for the money in a quiet location so opted for a larger room for the remainder of our stay.
The next day we rented a motorbike, 5 dollars a day (you can get cheaper but the company keeps your passport so we opted for the bike company within our hotel). We headed south for 10 mins to Otres Beach and here we found paradise. Perfectly squeaky clean sand, clear water that was so warm and a handful of beach shacks selling cheap local food. Heaven. We roasted ourselves for the best part of the day, and also bumped into our friends Vicky and Jose who had followed us down the coast. Vicky had an unfortunate accident while swimming, she came out of the sea
Oh my gawd!
Dave and Jose get the bill!! squinting and unable to open her eye, something had stung her while she swam with her eyes open. A Jellyfish!!! Due to the change in the weather and some strong winds recently the tide had blown in many jellyfish, some were stranded on the sand and there were several swimming about us. This incident highlighted one major drawback of Sihanoukville, the lack of health service. Vicky and Jose left to find a doctor and after driving around enquiring into 4 different practices they could find not one doctor who spoke English. She had her eye washed out for 20 mins and was given cream and the next day all was well, however this mini procedure set her back 30 dollars. All foreigners are advised to leave Cambodia and go to Bangkok if they experience anything worse than a common cold or diahorrea!
The nightlife in Sihanoukville is a bit disjointed and was not very busy at this late stage in the season although we stayed mainly around the hotel area and cannot comment on Victory Hill and other touristy areas. The beach is an obvious choice for dinner and beach shacks stay open for late drinks but is more
The "Sun Boat"
Dave's floating birthday party for the younger scene with rumtumbumtum playing, not our thing. Along side our hotel, we found 6 local restaurants in a line all serving amazing fresh seafood and local dishes. These were more eating places than drinking joints but there is nothing to stop you staying all evening to enjoy draught beer for 50cents or spirits and mixers for $1. Just around the corner was Paradise sports bar, and the Golden Lion Plaza where bars that stay open until the last man leaves. Here you can play pool, watch sport and chew the cud with the expats most of whom are happy to share their local knowledge with newcomers. So there is enough to keep you occupied but this is not Ibiza, thank the lord! We found the whole atmosphere at “our end” very welcoming and good fun. There is a lot of talk of bars being closed due to “Girlie Bar” activities but I don't think that this is the place to discuss such things. Most bars have female staff in varying numbers who treated all customers in a friendly way whether they were male or female, single or otherwise.
If getting to Sihanoukville was slightly less an ordeal,
Happy birthday to me
Dave wonders where his friends are! A lovely island somewhere off Sihanoukville I'm sure it would be a regular haunt for us.
S'ville - Bangkok 29th March
The last leg!! What can I say? Should I have expected any different? The VIP VIRAK - BUNTHAM EXPRESS IS NOT WHAT IT SHOWS OR SUGGESTS ON THE ADS OR TICKETS!!!!
For $27 each we were assured this was the best option, “new bus with bathroom, take you all the way to bkk in 10 maybe 12 hours etc etc etc” Utter rubbish! Bus was old, decrepid, hot and overcrowded with no toilet. It took from 0730 until 1400 to reach the border and from there we never saw a coach again! Our bags were dragged off and thrown on barrows before we could get off and when we pursued them we were told that this was bus company staff and all was well. After walking through border control we were told to pay extra for this “Service” - many did, I refused, took my bags and walked away.
2 horribly cramped minibus rides later we arrived in Bkk at just after 9pm where our driver ceremoniously dumped all our luggage in a filthy wet pool of god knows what on
anna in her element
Probably one of the most untouched beaches we've seen for a while a dark street somewhere off Koh San Rd. Diabolical - do not fall for this, there must be better ways, even if you hire taxi's and share costs. It must also be mentioned here that the safety of the vehicle and passengers did not seem high on our drivers priority list. We were driven at high speed in what can only be described as dangerous conditions and on more than one occasion went into a skid where the minibus ended up with all wheels locked up, swirving towards a busy junction. This resulted in protests from other cattle as well as myself but of course, made no difference.
The whole thing is designed to get as many people as possible to pay as much as possible at every stage and provide only the bare bones of what should be a simple and easy service. I may sound scathing and I probably am, but even in Laos where they have worse roads and no modern buses we were never treated in such a shoddy and dehumanising fashion.
Anna: It was a nightmare....and I'm pretty much a midget, my legs were pushed up against the window for about 4 hours. Well
it was a relief to arrive back at The Atlanta Hotel, and especially to find that our mates Vicky and Tete were there. We went straight out for a few beers, balked at the £2.00 price for a small bottle of beer and went to see a great local band.
The next morning we spent lounging around the pool and the evening I set out on a shopping spree with Vicky and Tete leaving Dave to his own devices. Well i have to say it was the most disappointing shopping spree ever......the stallholders were so hostile, if you look at something for over a minute without buying it they tell you to go away!!!!! Unbelievable!! We couldnt spend our money, not enjoyable and came away with very little. Really gutted actually as i had a pocketfull of baht and lots i wanted to buy but where we went they didn't have it or weren't interested in selling to us. That night we decided to have another look at Nana Plaza which was only one street down from ours, the main area of 'fun in Bangkok', yes lady boys and whatever else takes your fancy!! We ended up watching a
upto our necks in it!
a walk thru the mangroves lady boy show which involved a revolving stage, with parading 'females' in red bikinis all numbered, strutting their stuff to music.....not really a show but entertaining nevertheless. You just cannot believe that these girls were boys,,,,, it was confirmed by our waitressman that they all had 'tackle' it was just tucked away neatly!! A few beers and a kebab later we were back at home, no AC so sweating like mad. This was my last chance to partake in eating bugs, cockroaches etc and I have to say, rather embarrassingly, I chickened out!!
The trip to the airport went smoothly, no big trouble in Bangkok and before we knew it were on our way back to blighty!! Three fantastic months gone in the blink of an eye.......
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