Kep and Sihnoukville

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My most heartfelt apologies for my unexplained absence professor. I aware that i'm roughly 40 days behind in my blog and rather need to catch up tout suite. Ill endeavour to be more punctual in the future. But in my defense, if Asia has taught me one thing its that time has a different meaning when your on the road and a guilty pleasure such as this often gets over looked for other guilty pleasures, such as doing nothing but reading a book on the beach all day, sipping on drinks with little floating umbrellas.

So Vietnam came to an end. No biggie. I never REALLY wanted to go to Vietnam, it was always just another country on the list. Still, it would have been nice to go to some of the more popular, summer places but c'est la vie. Managed to find a fairly cheap bus ride into Cambodia, far cheaper than some of the other touts were offering anyway. With suprising promptness, a tout arrived at my travel agent right on time to guide me to the bus stop where the bus was due to pick us up. Unfortunately, the bus was lacking the punctualness of the tout, and arrived about 90 minutes late. Yet again another opportunity to catch up on my reading. If books were food I would be Santa Claus today. Firstly because I would be pretty fat but secondly, because I keep giving presents to people. Can't seem to get rid of the finished books quickly enough. Currently I must have about 6 kilos of books in my bag! But back to the story, my bus did arrive in the end and took us to the border. Suprisingly, there actually was thriving business life in the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. Ive never seen anything but deadmans land or occassional sales of apples and coke cans crossing the border, however this border crossing had 3 casinos. Just imagine, wanting to play some roulette or blackjack in between the 2 countries. "Ok dear, im just going to put 50 on red, ill meet up with you in Cambodia". Still, Asians love to gamble (that is not a stereotype, its an observation... and its true as well!) hence there were plenty of people walking in. Nothing eventual happened on the journey and we arrived in Phnom Penh nice and late at night. I should mention that I broke one of my own rules and got a tuk-tuk to my guesthouse here and the moron took an hour to take me to the exact opposite side of town to where I asked. Later, upon arriving it was I that was the moron because they closed the guesthouses (thankyou 2007 lonely planet) where I wanted to stay and still I paid the guy when he knew damn well what he was doing.

PP looked ok at a glance, but I was keen for some beaches and had heard about a tiny, isolated island in the south of Cambodia called Rabbit Island, off the coast of Kep. According to the newly untrustworthy lonely planet, there is only about 30 bungalows on the whole Island. After walking around PP, in 35 degree weather, with my backpack, for about 90 minutes, I found the bus terminal and got the bus to Kep. An infinately more qualified tuk-tuk driver took me to my guesthouse in Kep, free of charge! Turns out he makes his money through other channels including a commission on the guesthouse and on the ferry booking for the next day. I wish taxi drivers back home had a similiar scheme in place! After a goodnights sleep with the geckos and mosquitos at Kep treetop bungalows, my favourite driver took me to the ferry (once again free of charge) and away we were.

Isolated is the right word for Rabbit Island. It only takes about 90 minutes to circumnavigate the entire island by foot. There is about 6 establishments on the island with ramshackle bungalows about 20 meters from the water. Rats, chickens, dogs, cockroaches, mosquitos etc. pretty much rule the island, but with the exception of the dogs, the pretty much leave you alone. The bungalows were pretty crap but at $5 a night I wasnt complaining. It was right about now, on my first morning that I was looking forward to a little solitude for the first time in months, when I saw Issac and Veronique whom I had bumped into in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam already. So much for that idea! Fortunately, there is practically no nightlife to speak of on the Island, so I had no option but to behave myself. They had friended another French fella who had a unique dress sense. During the day he dressed like he was going to the nightclub (complete with a scarf), and when he went swimming he wore his undies! Come on! Buy some boardshorts will ya. After a couple of days, it turns out that his bank card no longer worked and he was about to run out of money. His bag and clothes were sitting out the front of my room (this being about 4 days later after Issac and Veronqiue has left and he went back to the mainland to sort it out) and I never saw him again. For all I know he is destitute in Kep and cant afford to get back to the Island lol. Still, Rabbit Island offered some excellent opportunities to hike around the island and go swimming, not to mention to food, which might have been the freshest Ive ever had. I ordered a chicken sandwich for lunch one day and the waiter came back to me saying it would be about 45 minutes until its ready. Apparently they hadnt killed the chicken yet! The crabs were meant to be fantastic, but after Cam's fiasco in Mui Ne, I wasnt up for it. To fill the non-food void, I went hiking every day and I even got the iPOD out to brush up on some French lessons with the view to begin learning Indonesian for later down the line. It is a strange phenomon that when one is busy, they make time to do things. Yet, when one has nothing but time, they never find the time to do the aforementioned things. I really need to look into that and finally start doing the Indonesian lessons lol

Returning to the mainland several days later, I got picked up again by my good mate, the tuk-tuk driver. By this stage I hadnt decided whether to go straight to Sihanoukville or spend a night in Kep. I asked my driver to take me to the bus terminal but he insisted on hanging around until I made up my mind. I sat down to lunch and he followed me into the restaurant and sat down at my table...hmmm... "go away" crossed my mind, but he was too nice and I dont like being that rude if I can avoid it. Deciding upon leaving the next day he booked my bus ticket for me with the lady at the restaurant (for which he got a juicy cut) and drove me back to the guesthouse. I thought this would be the end of our friendship, however he invited me to his brothers wedding that night! Looking back now, I probably should have gone but I couldnt shake the feeling he was trying to get some more money out of me, so I made some excuse about meeting friends and rudely got out of it. A nice little tip kept him happy though, so I was now free to go about my own business. Kep has been referred to as the the Cambodian San Tropez. Looks much more like a little fishing village to me though. Strangely enough though, some of the local accomodations charge accordingly. Serisously, places were charging over $100 a night, with facilities that would demand closer to $15 a night. How/Why people would pay such prices is not something I can understand. The only noticeable difference was that the expensive places had a pool. I managed to see the whole town in about 90 minutes and it was nice enough with a little history. The place got hammered my the Khmer Rouge back in the '70s/80s and most of the place has been rebuilt since. The locals take great pride in their pepper (which is the best in the world apparently) and their crabs, but thats not really enough to keep me there more than a day, so onto Sihanoukville.

The van picked me up early the next day at my guesthouse and I was the second on board. By the time we had left Kep it was capacity plus one. When we reached the next town, Battambang, the driver tried to pack another 2 people on. Now if these were locals they might not mind, but every passenger was foreign and were having none of it. You have to feel for the poor girls that tried to get on at Battambang. It was them that said they will wait for the next one (the next day) but the company should be pretty ashamed of themselves. Before we left Kep, our driver stopped and talked to another driver, who gave him some money. Looks like they had enough passengers to half-fill 2 vans or enough for 1 van plus 3 people. Instead of wasting the petrol, they decided to pack as many in as humanly possible. We paid for a seat, not 75%!o(MISSING)f a seat. Dumb, greedy bastards. A mildly-discomfortable 4 hours later we got to Sihanoukville. Now this is what I had been waiting for.

I liked Sihanoukville. I stayed near Independence beach, at a place called "The Big Chill", for about 9 days. My tab was close to $200 when I left (trust me, thats a bit) but it was worth it. This place had the beaches, it had the restaurants, the babes in bikinis, casinos (I did go this time), shopping, supermarkets, massages, rental motorbikes. This is what all SE-Asian beach towns should aspire to. Food was top quality and cheap. Nightclubs were open all night. A bottle of Jamesons Whisky in the supermarket was about $9. Good bungalows were about $10. The big chill was run by an Aussie called Jonny. Love him or hate him, he was good value. Upon bumming another smoke off me he proclaims "Byron get out there, you seen all the talent in here". "No need mate, just watch". Much like planting a flag on top of a mountain to show my intentions, I sat at the bar and about 45 seconds later some lovely ladies would come up and sit down next to me. Ive seen it happen in movies when people get hit on sitting at the bar but not too often in real life. Awesome! And whats better is the ladies were usually leaving the next day. Love it.

I came back home early one night to use the bathroom (about 1am) before heading to Utopia across the road. It suddenly occured to me that there was quite a bit of noise outside my door, which in itself isnt too strange but the tone of voice caught my attention. Deliberately eavesdropping, I noticed a diaglouge across the way that sounded a little like this

"Let me in"

"No"

"Go on, why not?"

"Go away"

"Let me come in"

"Go away"

This continued for about another 60 seconds before

"let me in. You want me to fuck you"

"haha, no"

"Why? I want to fuck you"

"Your scaring me"

"No im not..."

IT was about now that I decided that I should do something. I hate being that guy that messes with other peoples booty calls etc. but the lady was sounding a little scared now. Going out side, I sat on my chair and lit a cigarette

"I think the lady has been pretty clear mate"

"Huh, who said that"

The guy walks over. Russian, smelling of beer, stumbling down her and up my porch stairs

"What did you say?"

"She isnt going to let you in mate. Might be a good time to stop"
"Your a good guy. Got a cigarette?"

The guy was super drunk and probably could have been rightfully arrested but instead I just took him to the nearest bar and let him buy me a drink. Probably wasnt harmless but was no threat to anyone in public. I found out later from the girl across from me, that she had never met him before but he followed her back to her bungalow at which point I started hearing things.

Went on a booze cruise with a couple of randoms from the guesthouse the next day, which was pretty messy. You had to pay for most drinks, but they were constantly bringing around free shots of whisky, vodka, tequila etc. We stopped to go swimming and people were doing backflips etc. off the side of the boat. Staff would throw unopened beers into the water and watch as people frantically raced to claim them. I actually cut my foot on an oyster on the side of the boat and the wound is still open today (a good 30 days later). Not suprisingly the tiny dance floor was heaving by midday. People were covered in sweat, drinks and sea water (and other unexplained liquids) but no-one cared. 8 hours later we made it back to shore and it was time to hit the clubs in town but through a combination of sun and drinking had taken myself out of the equation. I was out again with the randoms, including Tobias (Sweedish) and a kiwi girl, who added me on facebook but I forget her name. Ive been wanting to use this line for years but have never got the chance. Upon returning to the Big Chill in the AM, Tobias had mysteriously lost his room key and reception was closed. What is an impressionable young girl to do? You cant sleep outside, come back to my room. Definately going to use that one at some point. I went on a "date" with a canadian bird to a greek restaurant followed by the casino one night which was pretty nice (she left the next day lol I have that effect on people I guess). Turns out the Canadians from Saigon had arrived in Sihanoukville as well (the ones that snobbed me before they left Saigon. Turns out it wasnt a snobbing, they were hastily following their tout to the bus), as well as Johnny Lotto from Chiang Mai, so it was nice to party with some familiar faces again. Johnny was now dating a spanish chick and had advanced to moving to Australia with her... following facebook they broke up about a week after arriving in Australia... Wasn't to be I guess. Speaking of the Canadians, you might recall I mentioned that one of them (Carly) had her bag stolen in Saigon and there was an attempt on the other one (Crystal). Well Crystals camera was stolen in Sihanoukville. Some type of fate playing games on her here. With all the daily and nightly fun I couldnt bring myself to leave Sihanoukville. I only planned to stay for about 4/5 nights but when you find a good thing, stick with it. It was about now that I decided it was time to go to India, but to do that I would need to go to Bangkok to get my visa. I had planned to miss Anchor Wat all together, but all the buses to Bangkok were fully booked for the next 2 days so fate was going out of its way not to help me. Despite my best efforts, I was going to visit another temple. But not just any temple, the mother of all temples.

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