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Do we look relieved?
Us and friends Andreas, Linda and Jo after escaping those Canadian psychos in Ko Samet Sues'day from Cambodia
It had to happen sometime. I'd felt we'd had it far too easy up to now. After last Friday however we could say we were now really travelling...
It was a day of firsts. When the clapped out minibus pulled up to take us on the 4 hour journey to the port of Ban Phe in South Eastern Thailand we were a bit apprehensive! It got worse from there, we were joined by 'Pam and Marzie' from Canada, at an initial glance they seemed normal until they sat in the seat behind us and the talking started. I sort of lost all sense of time but I would imagine it was coming on 15 mins before they next stopped. We were then asked our names.
"Oh my Gawd... your name is Enda. When me and my boyfriend Roger were in Laos last year we met an Enda. They like sat up all night drinking beer and then they like climbed over the gate and out into the city together. Gawd I wasn not happy ... Like if you were the same guy know cause I would fall down right here..."
Roger, a short message
if you are reading this..run now while you still can!
Martin being the seasoned traveller had slyly slipped on the earphones. The lovely Swedish couple in front of us were too shocked to speak and the poor old German woman on her own in the front seat simply looked terrified. Luckily we were joined by an old ex-army Englishman smelling of beer and his lame Spanish girlfriend. When we finally had squeezed her into the van we set off and all listened intermittently while he shouted in Spanish on the mobile to the office at home. By this stage he had befriended the Canadians and they chatted non-stop all the way there. It was about as annoying as having a mozzie in your ear for the entire journey but I put it all down to the experience. What was worse was that the driver was a lunatic and seemed intent on keeping his foot to the floor and had never heard of an indicator or a seatbelt. One ingenious move had him avoid an approaching red light by swinging left into a side road doing a sharp right turn and continuing on as if the junction has never existed.
Up the front of the boat with the fruit
Boat trip to Sihanoukville that earned us a roasting I thought the journey would never end.
Koh Samet was a pleasant surprise when we got there. We only intended it as a stopover to break up the journey. We arrived in a small fishing boat along with the shopping for the island late at night and once we had seen where the Canadians were going headed in the opposite direction! Although when we arrived it was late, and beggars certainly couldn't be choosers we had to settle for a less than desirable room just back off the beach at the beginning of the forest. I had never shared a room with a cockroach before so we christened the one in the bathroom Cormac. The Swedes, who had moved in next door, also had one and a lizard. And on coming up the steps later that night I found a Frenchman sweeping what he later told me was a scorpion off the steps. Don't worry he said, "It's a female, they don't have stingers". Following the logic that where there is females there must be males I wasn't taking any chances and searched the room from top to bottom. Apart from a dead cockroach in my bag (the smell
of dirty washing must have killed him!) there was nothing!
We had two nice evenings relaxing at the beach side bars and restaurants and even watched some of the footy. It is a nice island with plenty to do there despite all of the wildlife it seems to be a place a lot of Thais go.
The trip to Cambodia was another eventful one. Armed with a small piece of paper with what looked like a scribbling of Bart Simpson's head on we headed off for Sinhoukville. The journey had us taking 2 different minibuses, a taxi and a luxury coach to get to the border. All along the way at the various stopovers everyone seemed to be expecting us however and we got there in no time. As always in Thailand just when it looks like things are about to go belly up, it magically all works itself out in the end!
The border and crossing into Cambodia was not at all as I expected. I was wary and super suspicious as we were immediately surrounded by kids jumping up and down and lots of taxi drivers asking us "You have ticket?". Martin was a bit
less anxious than me so once we had sorted out our visas we jumped into a car with three strange men and headed off into the pouring rain towards the border town of Koh Kong. It all worked out fine though so maybe thats a lesson to me not to be so suspicious that everyone we meet is a conmen out to get us!
Koh Kong was a strange town as there was absolutely no lights on the streets and walking through town at night was a bit disconcerting. It was only next day we read that page of the Lonely Planet which said that it was a town of "crooks, thiefs and prostitutes and by no means to walk down here alone at night". Maybe we should have read that page earlier!
We got the fast boat to Sinhoukville next day which was a pleasant experience riding upfront with all the fruit and taking in the sea breeze. Although as I was later to discover when I looked in the mirror it also had me burnt to a cinder..
Sinhoukville was not as I expected. Cambodia is clearly a lot pooer than Thailand and there is
Where would we be without them?
These mainstays of bus journey stops keep us from starving much poverty to be seen in the outskirts of the towns. You are also constantly approached and shouted at to buy stuff like a taxi-ride, massages, trinkets, lobster, fruit, books, sarongs and anything else you can imagine. From our experience so far however the people are exceptionally friendly and accomodating and we felt more than sad today on more than one occasion to see several limbless people, clearly the victims of this country's blight, landmines, trying to make a living. We both bought books today on the Kymer Rouge and Pol Pot's regime to try and learn a bit more and understand what they went through.
Victory Beach where we stayed last night was a bit of a disappointment as it was very quiet so me moved today. But it is becoming apparent that this is a place people come to just lie on the beach, chill out and eat great seafood....
Tomorrow onward to Phomn Penh to meet Blath and Tomas with a possible stop-off in Kampot to see the lovely region of Bokor on Gar's recommendation.
Keep in touch,
Enda
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