Advertisement
Dawgs
Hard life
Jason & Kirstyn O After almost 3 months we finally got to see the ocean again, very refreshing site after being landlocked in Laos for the previous month. Sihanoukville is another tourist mecca (by Cambodian standards), with many beautiful white sandy beaches, turqouise water and a million touts selling bracelets ("You buy bracelet, maybe later okay?"). We spent our first day roasting in the sun on deck chairs on Serendipity beach, hence we both looked much like our lunch time lobster meal by days end. A bottle of moisturising cream later, we wisely stayed out of the sun the following day, sitting in the shade and reading books, very relaxing.
Next day we were still very sun wary so hired motorbikes and ventured further afield to some of the many other beaches. We were left with the comforting advice of our guesthouse whom we rented the bikes off: "Whatever you do, don't stop for the police, just ignore them and drive on by!". Never-the-less we drove around panicking at the site of anybody in anything remotely resembling a uniform (the police are all corrupt and stop you just to make money via a dubious fine or an expected bribe).
Visited a bizarre
You buy lobster? $2 for 10
Kirstyn looked very much like this after day one... place called the Snake House which as the name suggests houses many snakes in displays (as well as a crocodile on a leash), a selection of large birds, the weird thing being they are all surrounding their restaurant. Each table has a glass top with a snake inside each table. The last day we ventured back to the beach (lathered in sunscreen, keeping to the shade) and spent the day reading and swimming. Every night we had a feast of really cheap seafood, usually cooked on open charcoal BBQ's by one of the many bamboo restaurants which line the beach. Lovely place to sit back in comfy couches on the sand and drink 50c beers or $1.50 cocktails!
From Sihanoukville caught a bus east to Kampot, a small provincial town just off the south coast. It was around this area that Pol Pot was born and the Khmer Rouge had a strong presence here until the mid 90s....they still are here but have been quiet since. Visited a National Park called Bokor Hill. The park was declared in the late 90s and now relies on funding from foreign aid to employ rangers to protect the forest. They had display
Aaah-ooooo
Full moon on the beach. boards up showing the training that rangers go through....a little different to rangers back home as their training involves using machine guns to capture poachers!
Edured the bumpiest, arse shattering ride of our life seated on a wooden plank in the back of a ute to get to the top of Bokor Hill. The road up here has to be one of the most atrocious we have ever seen....if you could call it a road. In fact it used to be covered in bitumen the whole way but now just has remnants of bitumen clinging on in places with huge holes everywhere else. Had very quickly worked out our escape route should we roll off the track down the hill (Jason was going out scuba diving style, Kirstyn out the end). Needless to say we didn't need to use our emergency procedure but our trusty ute broke down often and left a little pool of deisel on the road at every stop. Got stiff necks from ducking under branches and Jason is now even sporting two nice bruises on his arse!
We finally made it to the top where we could explore the ruins of an old resort...built
Mekong whisky
At the outrageous price of 90c our bottle of coke cost more than the whisky...yummy too! back in the 20s by the French when they had control of the country. They built a huge five story Casino up on top of the hill with views over the ocean below. Each guest room had a gambling table inside and there was also a large main gambling area in the middle. Now it is just a run down old building which sits amongst the mist at the top of the hill (Bokor Hill is about 10 degrees cooler than at the base) covered in moss and bearing scars of years of civil war and abandonment. Very eery and weird place.
If we thought the ride up was bad, then I'm sure the Khmer rouge used going down as a form of torture. Needless to say the Korean tourist beside us started cheering when the bitumen road came into sight. Finished the day off with a lovely boat ride (although not truly appreciated due to the wooden benches) before dinner along the river and an early night. Off early to Phnom Pehn in the morning.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.089s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 8; qc: 26; dbt: 0.0496s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
