Ko Kong

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Time came for Kristen to head back to the US, and I to Cambodia where I am now.I had decided to take the southern route into the country near Trat and was hoping that the border guards would not charge me too much for the 1-month visa available on entry. That border had only opened up in the last few years and there were some stories of corruption from there. I met an American women who was a bartender from New Orleans on the boat from Ko Chang to the mainland and we got a songthew (Thai shared taxi like a pickup with 2 rows of seats in the back and a roof) together to Trat from Laom Gop. In Trat we found the place to catch the minivans to Cambodia without any problems and there was one leaving within the hour. The American was just going to the border to renew her Thai Visa which had already expired by about 20 days and she would be fined about $4 a day for that at a minimum. She was then going back to the guy she had met on the beach and to get the rest of her rather extensive and colorful tattoo done. She said that there was an amazing body artist on Ko Chang. Anyhow, back to me: I had an idea that when I got through the border I would maybe catch a bus straight on to Phnom Penh that day - which is the Capital of Cambodia and heavily featured in a quite amusing book I read on the beach in Ko Chang - "Off the rails in Phnom Penh" - thanks to Tamara and Ben for lending me that one.
The bus to the border was uneventful, with a nice road etc. When I got to the border the guard in charge was at lunch so I filled in my forms and started chatting to an English dude from Yorkshire. He pointed me in the right direction of getting to the local town in Cambodia - Ko Kong and told me what prices were etc which was very helpful since I had decided to do Cambodia without a guidebook - just for fun. We got our visas and my fears about corruption was unfounded - the price was just $2 more than at the other border at about $30. I knew now that the price to Ko Kong was much less than the guy told me who met me at the border, so I got a good price and jumped on the back on a motorbike (they call the motorbike taxis cyclos in Cambodia) to get a ride into town. The driver took me to his guesthouse, which was very nice, and there I bumped into the guy from Yorkshire again. I found out that the bus to Phnom Penh left only in the mornings so I would have to get a room in Ko Kong for the night. It seemed like a friendly place. The rooms at the place I had been brought to were a little luxurious for my tastes so I made plans to meet the yorkshireman for lunch at Cheap Charlie痴 where I thought I would be staying. I got there and got a room and had a nice chat over lunch. He told me quite a bit about his life and how he ended up living in Thailand on his medical pension from the UK which was very interesting.
After lunch I decided to take a walk. It probably would have been a better idea to rent a motorbike. I started walking around town and there wasn't much going on. I saw a couple of tourists in a restaurant and began to walk towards the Muslim village I had been told about over lunch. Apparently there was an arcade with lost of old computer games that people played there. This was one of the more interesting things going on... I don't know how close I got, but after walking for a while in the heat I decided to head back to town and sat by the bridge over the river for a while. A local came up to me to see if I wanted anything which he might be able to make some money from and when he found out I didn't he chatted for a while. It seems that the local tourism industry in Ko Kong is not so keen on Charley for him letting out his rooms so cheaply... he wasn't joining in with the local price fixing.
I was a little lonely after spending a month on the beach with Kristen and didn't really know what I was looking for. I walked back into town and realized that I didn't really know how to get back to my guesthouse. I walked about for a bit and stopped for a drink. It was a watermelon soda made in Malaysia and didn't taste so good - kind of mealy and I thought that might have been the sugar used to make it. While drinking I got chatting to two young Norwegian girls. One of them had the most amazing two-tone blue/turquoise eyes and the three of us decided to go back to their guesthouse - which was where I had initially arrived in town - and play some canasta. I hadn't played canasta for quite a while and it was nice to sit and play for a while. While we were playing the guy who drove me from the border came back to try and sell me a bus ticket to Phnom Penh for $20 again - he had tried earlier. Charlie had told me he could get me a ticket for $15 so I was waiting on that and doing my part to force prices down. Already I was getting the impression that tourism in Cambodia was quite smart at getting the most $$$ from its guests. When I told the guy that Charley was getting me a ticket for that amount he finally caved and told me I could go on his bus for that amount and that it was the only bus and Charley would be probably coming to see him to get that price anyway, but not to tell anyone what price I was getting. So I walked back to Charlie痴 in between games of canasta and made sure he hadn't got me a ticket already, which he hadn't and then booked on the bus the next day. I had to work for that $5! I got quite thoroughly beaten at canasta, but I was beginning to remember the correct strategies, which is always a little chaotic in a game with three players as opposed to one with two. I arranged to meet the two bright eyes and bushy tailed Norwegians for dinner at Charlie痴 after we had all showered.
Back at Charlie痴 after my shower I got talking to an old Australian who had been travelling around these parts since the late 70s. He had a Cambodian or was it Vietnamese girlfriend in a village somewhere and had just left her for some time. He had kids in Australia who were grown up and was quite enthusiastic about telling me all about the people in this part of the world. He pulled Charley into the conversation a little and also his wife - who had lost all of her family in the Pol Pot genocide. I realized that it was getting late for the two girls and went outside to look for them. I got right back to their guesthouse and they weren't there, but then bumped into them on the way back to Charlie痴. They had missed it and ended up walking out into the fields.
The next day the two Norwegians took a bus to Sihanoukville - the beach in Cambodia that was supposed to be very nice but quite quiet. I had decided against going there because I had been on a beach for the last month and didn't fancy going to one on my own. I got the 0830 bus to Phnom Penh.

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