Advertisement
Published: September 27th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Sihanoukville
Georgie and Ricko decide to shower for the first time in days On the bus down from PP we met a lovely couple, Nat and Georgie - recently married honeymooners (congrats guys) - one from Australia and the other from UK who suggested that we stay at this place called Cool Bananas which had only been open 3 months and was pretty cheap at $3 a night. Hell yeah sounds good.
We arrived in Sihanookville about 5pm, just in time to see the sun from the tenth straight day of glorious weather (so we were told) fade on the horizon. Bring on the sun and beach...
Checking in at a place called Cool Bananas, you guessed it - run by an Aussie bloke called Paul (40-50), and his very young Cambodian fiance Amoi (20), we were greeted by the drunken owner who insisted that we indulge in some complimentary beers, with Nat and Georgie on our respective verandahs that happened to be next door to one another (naturally ours was adjacent to the rooster enclosure on the other side).
Nat was from Cammeray in Sydney and no doubt we would have some common ground, it was then discovered that she went to Ravenswood - hey you must know my sister
Sihanoukville
Ricko shoulders the responsibility of children. KJ? Sure enough she turned out to be the sister of one of KJ's friends during high school Serena, and so we were able to exchange some humorous stories about our respective sisters including the fact that they both seemed to be getting married on the same day (ha - how's that!!).
Georgie was also good value and I even offered to give him a motorbike lesson that night, on none other than the owner of the bungalow's bike (the owner had passed out by this stage - after acting like a complete dickhead towards his staff, and the seemingly oppressed employees were happy to offer up his bike for the experience). Despite a lengthy explanation of where the brakes were and how to ease on the throttle, Georgie proceeded to drive about 3 metres before crashing it into one of the tables out the front of the bungalows. No one was hurt, no major damage, everyone was amused -all good. (Geez I'd seen that somewhere before...)
Waking up the next day we were told that there had been a murder overnight - a German man had been killed and his body had been found washed up on
Sihanoukville
Ricko and Nunny bathe in the rapids with their fan club the local beach. The body stayed there all morning and (unlike some others) we resisted the temptation to view the deceased "as he was found". Initial rumours had it that he was a local paedophile that had received his justice, by the end of the day it had emerged that he was a journalist who was part of a contract killing, apparently the second half of the equation had been assasinated in Phnom Penh at the same time. Who really knows? All we knew was to watch our backs...
By this stage the heavens had opened and Michelle and I had began to come down with the sickness that had no doubt afflicted Monty (thanks mate) so the next few days were spent clutching our stomachs not straying too far from the bathroom, watching alot of cable telly and not doing too much at all, including eating.
Suffice to say we did rent a motorbike and explored the surrounding area including a very muddy ride down to Otres beach for a late lunch and reconnaissance, which saw me lose the back of the bike at one stage and was only inches from landing both of us both in
Sihanoukville
Is Nunny drowning that kid? a very muddy puddle and destroying the last of our clean clothes. Much to Georgie and Nat's amusement, who had miraculously stayed upright despite only learning to ride that morning.
The next day we met back up with Christophe who had made it back to Sihanoukville from Kampot and Bokor Hill Station - he was now pursuing a very young and attractive high profile US lawyer and had very little time for us. Instead he opted for long strolls along the beach with his new found aquaintence and a subtle comparison of shoe sizes with his previous Dutch and Swedish conquests. Fortunately he squeezed us in to his schedule for dinner, but with supressed appetites and frequent trips to the facilities, I guess we were'nt the best company, so we left him at the bar, as he proceeded to sidle up to some single Norwegian girls... Is there no stopping the man?
We also combined forces to visit the Snake Bar and Restaurant, which was a Russian Mafia run establishment complete with a tererium (snakes in glass enclosures) and a crocodile in a pond in the corner about 2m from the nearest table! Luckily for us he was
Sihanoukville
Lunch sur les chutes on a chain, unlucky for it though. Stories were recounted by the bar staff of him snatching a dog from a nearby chair and drunken patrons climbing into the enclosure to play Crocodile Hunter with it. Hmm... Crikey! The bar was definately unique - a cockatoo and King Parrot screeched in cages in the corner and the picture was completed by a Hummer parked out the front amidst some sleek black stretch Mercedes and other indulgent vehicles. Hmm... where does all this money come from? With three of us on the bike on the way home there was much giggling and excitement, a paltry effort compared to the Cambodian's five per bike (I know) but hey Christophe has very broad shoulders!
We took another day out to visit the local waterfalls which were pretty neat, and proceeded to recline in some rapids with the locals after a picnic lunch of Brie and Tuna sandwiches (Nunny had been craving cheese for ages but was unable to eat on this occasion 😞. The local kids were great clambering all over us and practising their well rehearsed wrestling moves gleaned from a saturated diet of WWF. "Undertaker" they'd yell as three of
Sihanoukville
There were three on the bike and the little one said... them pinned me down with a unique Cambodian version of stacks on, one trying to drown me, while the other grabbed my leg and hoisted it in the air victoriously with a "one, two, three" countdown. This was followed by some splashing fights and dragging them up and down the rapids while they giggled with delight.
Back on the bikes we popped into the local beach where after a brief power nap, Georgie and I went swimming with some more local kids, who were game enough to stand on our shoulders and jump off into the water, surf on our backs on the small waves into shore and were swung about like Superman before being released in a random direction - a couple of times landing on their tolerant sister's head.
The next few days were a blur, but we saw Georgie, Nat and Christophe off at the bus station ably assisted by their favourite falang moto driver (you still owe me five bucks!! 😉 Once the others had left for their next destinations we ran into a nice couple from Canada - Leanne and Justin who were keen to join us on a tour of the nearby
Sihanoukville
The Hummer - courtesy of the Russian Mafia, can you tell Christophe has done this before? Ream National Park.
Heading out to the NP about 25km away, we arrived at a little hut and were ushered by the rangers to a nearby river where we boarded a rustic boat to cruise down to the river delta, a passage fringed by mangroves on both sides and completed with eagles soaring overhead, occasionally diving into the river for their fish dinner. Pulling over at a jetty we then completed a short walk through the rain forest to the beach on the otherside of the headland. Marvelling at some large spiders who had strung their webs across the path, and even catching a fleeting glimpse of some monkeys in the trees overhead on our way back through.
Back on the boat, we arrived at the jetty just before the sun was due to set and lo and behold our bike had a flat tyre (no doubt due to the multitude of nails protruding from the jetty on the way in). Wheeling the bike to the nearest puncture repairer - a bloke in a wheelchair with a drip and what lloked like a bad case of TB. Everyone had a go at trying to get the tyre off,
before the puncture professional returned from his other duties to seal it up and get us back on the road.
Arriving back in Sihanoukville we went out for our final meal at the Bamboo Light cafe a delightful little Sri Lankan run restaurant which was home to some great curries. Suitably stuffed full of food we retired early to bed with Vietnamese Visas, Kampot and Kep in our sights the next day...
PS. Thanks to Georgie and Nat for some of the photos (used without permission - sorry guys!)
Advertisement
Tot: 0.045s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 10; qc: 19; dbt: 0.0235s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Christopher, the REAL skip
non-member comment
It's all not true ... at least not then
Oh you must be joking! I would never abandon you! Never! But I felt lonely in Phnom Penh once you were gone...