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Published: June 28th 2007
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We didn't have much beach weather in Sihanoukville, so decided to head off on the 24th to Kampot. 2 hours later we arrived though there wasn't a huge amount of time left in the day so gorged ourselves on steaks in what we thought was a swanky restaurant, though we definately didn't look the part!
The next morning we wanted to hire a dirt-bike and make our way up the long, rocky track to the Bokor Hill Station.
There was a man hanging around in the reception of our guesthouse trying to get us onto a tour (well, a pick-up) that went up there. He was trying to put us off hiring a bike, telling us it would probably break down, get a puncture (though something we've become used to recently!) and that we wouldn't enjoy it on the bike.
But we only took this to mean that his bikes weren't very reliable, so headed elsewhere to find our bike.
In the morning we set off, full of petrol, bag wrapped in a trusty bin-liner and full of snacks! At the bottom of the mountain we met another English couple also on bike and
the 4 of us headed up the mountain together.
What a ride! Rocky as hell and and bit scary at times, definately the toughest road we've faced, but it was brilliant!
When we didn't have rocks to scramble over we had loads of puddles (more like lakes!) to get through. Ben was in his element!
Nearly half way up we met a broken down pickup, - the driver happened to be the same guy we spoke to before, warning us not to go by bike. We tried not to be too smug when we passed him.
It took us 3 hours to get to the top. When we finally did it was really foggy, gusty winds and we were all pretty wet and cold.
We all had a round of pot-noodle type of things from someone selling snacks at the top. Disgusting, but helped to stave off the frost-bite!
At the top of this mountain is a deserted village from the 1920s. A hotel, casino, Catholic Church, palace, hill station, - all designed as a holiday retreat for the French. Now all that remains is the skeleton of the buildings, and the
algae that grow on them.
Being so foggy when we arrived, it meant the whole town was really eerie. A lot of the time you couldn't see where the building started and finished, it was such thick fog. Filming was going on in one of the buildings (probably a horror film with that fog!).
There was one point where we were looking out at the "view" of sheer fog when it suddenly cleared and you could see for miles and miles. Gradually the fog lifted whilst we were there, and for about half an hour we had sunshine!
We had a look around for 2 and a half hours, exploring the huge buildings before heading down to a huge waterfall nearby.
Our journey back was much quicker with the weather had cleared allowing us to finally see past our hand! -but our sore backsides meant we were stopping much more often to "admire the view".
When we arrived in Kampot found everyone very upset and worried. A tourist plane had crashed in the nearby mountains on a flight from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville, though they had no idea where it had gone down. Massive downer
on our otherwise brilliant day.
The next day we didn't do very much as it poured relentlessly, all day.
On the 27th we explored a few roads and made our way to nearby Kep for the rest of the day. There wasn't a huge amount to do there except relax. We planned our border crossing into Vietnam in a really nice lodge overlooking the sea before heading down to the beach for lunch. Unfortunately for Hannah it's pretty much seafood or seafood.
We sat down in a free hut, with nearly every one of the locals looking at us to see what we'd do. Food sellers then walk up and down selling you seafood.
Ben had the most amazing plate of crab with Kampot pepper, before lazing in a hammock.
We explored Kep a bit more after lunch, but most of what we found amounted to few buildings riddled with bullet holes, (presumably during the Khmer Rouge era).
Back in Kampot we saw that the local sports field had been turned into a heli-pad with 7-8 helicopters taking it in turns to head up into the mountains to look for
the missing plane. Lots of military and police everywhere. One of the buildings in town was heavily guarded where the Prime Minister Hun Sen (ex Khmer Rouge) was making a public address that we watched on a local tv, though we could hardly understand his translator's English.
Today (28th), - we made our way to Vietnam. A border crossing really close to Kep opened within the last month making travel to Phu Quoc island much easier for us.
We're planning on catching a boat out to the islands tomorrow, but it very much depends on the weather if we can or not.
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al
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loving the blog
Guys just quick one to say the blog is awsome, best bit of the week when the latest instalment arrives. All good this end, raining (its wimbledon off course) henman out today.... Ahhhh! Anyway, sooo jelous of everything as always. Take care. Al