Sihanoukville - let the rains begin

---

Today I'm taking my first Cambodian bus trip. The 5 hour journey from Phnom Penh to Kamb.... costs a total of $5. I must confess I don't have high expectations of the bus, but I am told that it is airconditioned and should be ok. How bad can it be?

After a nice breakfast with Adono, we realise we are a little late and grab a motodop to get to the bus station more quickly. This is my first experience having more than one passenger on the moto and actually its quite fine. I must say I'm impressed at the motodop's balance. In all he has two backpacks balanced in front of him and two women behind him as he weaves through the Phnom Penh traffic.

Having made it safely to our bus I find that Adono has pre-booked the ticket and we have two seats at the front. If you are making a similar trip in Cambodia, I recommend the idea. After a few false starts (which followed the formula of: drive for a few minutes, pull over, two men get out and do something under the bus, driver checks brakes, men get back on bus, towel off sweat and reapply shirts, drive for a while... repeat) we were eventually on our way. Nobody seemed particularly bothered by the delay, t was quite comfortable and the AC was working so nobody seemed very bothered. It turned out to be an opportunity to make friends with some of the other passengers, particularly one lady and her baby girl, who was quite fascinated by my glaringly white skin.

Around lunch time the driver made an unscheduled stop as the planned stopping point was still quite a long way off due to the earlier delay. Whilst we were all off the bus the lady with the baby came up to me. I couldn't really understand what she was saying but she seemed to be trying to give her child to me. Which was a bit confusing. Turned out she wanted us to mind her baby while she went to the bathroom. It was a little humbling actually to think that she would trust some foreigner who didn't even speak the language with her child! Good thing that Adono figured out what she meant and the poor woman got to take her bathroom break.

Some hours later we made it to Sihanoukville. A crowd of motodop and tuk tuk drivers came running for the bus as it pulled in, but we had our own transport. Kong, a young Cambodian guy who has adopted Adono as his own sister was coming to pick us up. Three on the moto again, which was really fine. I think 3 is workable, just as long as the driver has good balance. I'm not sure if the RTA would see it the same way.

First stop was Agape home - the house that Adono set up some time back where kids from the poorest families in a nearby village live during the week so that they can go to school. The kids certainly don't live in luxury at the house, there are 9 of them sharing two rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls, but all the same, its an enormous jump from their conditions at home. The 'kids' range in age from 7 to about 17. One thing I liked about the way the house is run is that the kids who have family in the village go back each Friday night to spend the weekend at home, helping their parents and being part of the community. Apparently the kids find this a bit of struggle sometimes, because at home their families often don't have food to eat, so they are always hungry.

I'm so glad that we got there in time to see the children before some of them left for the weekend. They were so overjoyed to see Adono and so warm toward me too.

After a long day, Adono was kind enough to take me for a lovely meal at a restaurant overlooking the ocean. It reminded me a bit of Fiji actually. And then it started to rain. Which also reminded me of Fiji. Perhaps all these subconscious reminders of Fiji were not really what I needed though. Because to get back to the guesthouse I was staying in, I needed to go via motorbike. Three on the moto again. But this time, it was three people, huddled under plastic ponchos, hurtling along in the dark, with not much headlight to see anything by, with pouring rain, large potholes and puddles, not even pausing at red lights (as is the custom). Two things were in my mind - firstly that Adono didn't have a helmet on at all, and secondly that unlike with my experience in Fiji, if we came off the bike this time, the odds of us all being gallantly caught by the driver and thus avoiding injury were pretty slim! However, we made it without incident. Drenched and chilled to the bone but in one piece. It was at this point that I discovered why the other tourists had moved into an 'A/C room' despite it not being terribly warm. Turns out that 'A/C room' is also code for 'room with hot water in the bathroom'. Ah hot water, how I missed you in my shower tonight!


***Scroll down for more photos!***

---

Comments

[Peggy]

It sounds like you're having such a good time. The 'Evening' photo looks like a painting...perfectly framed!