Hi All,
We got sick of Sihanoukville very quickly. It is a hideous example of tourism gone wrong with most of the town being the domain of the local people being quite rundown and then there is Serendipity beach. Bars strips on the beach, massages, seafood all for next to nothing. Hang on. That doesn't sound too bad does it? It felt and looked like the rich European countries were just exploiting the poor Cambodian people. Maybe being pampered on the beach by the native 'slaves' is for some but not for us. We found that the water visibility was quite poor as was the snorkeling but did find a colour changing octopus on a submerged rock and some striped shrimps in some coral. The beach was quite nice but it wasn't hard to decided to move on to Kampot.
Next day.
This was our introduction to mini vans in Cambodia. Now in the western world there are a certain number of seats in a minivan that can been filled with people but this is not so in Cambodia. The minivan turned up and there was not a great deal of room for our packs but they fitted in behind the back seat. No problem. Then we picked up some more backpackers with packs and some more until the packs filled up behind the seat and threatened to fall on top of the people in front. Great we all fitted and expected to be heading off for Kampot.We expected that we would be in a minivan that essentially provided services just for tourists as we paid a high price for the tickets. No the driver started looking for Cambodian passenger and started fitting more passengers than seats and even managed to fit a pushbike on the back as well. This was our introduction to minivans in Cambodia. We have since seen that the minivan was underpacked as there was space on the roof for at least another 10 passengers and the back of the minivan can be raised and a platform inserted so that additional load can be carried such as 20 sacks of rice and a couple of 125 cc scooters. Additional passengers can then hang off the back of this load or even sit on the scooters. Simply put a minivan is not full unless the back tyres are rubbing on the wheel arches.
Cambodian roads are not safe at all. Drivers do not require licenses so decided on their own rules of the road. Road anarchy. Simple common rules apply: the small give way to the large with the exception of cows who have right of way; looking when entering the road is optional; no one gives way at crossroads but just weave instead like a stunt driving team; when overtaking it is necessary to ensure that a head on collision almost always happens; there is no age limit for riding motor scooters; direction of travel on road is optional and the list goes on....at least they travel slowly. I am sure you get the picture.
We arrived in Kampot and decided that large buses were the way to go in Cambodia and avoid the front seat! It was an underwhelming place. The guide book says it is not a place for site seeing but for relaxing. We selceted our guesthouse based on a suggestion from a person that we had spoken with the previous day, the magic sponge, named after the sponge used to revive football players with a rub before drug testing was introduced. It was a bank in a past life but now was well setup even with a mini golf course. We grabbed a couple of bikes and went for a look in town. Hmm. Boring. Ended up back at the guesthouse and watched a movie. We had a good conversation with the irish bartender downstairs who recommended that we hire a motor scooter, get up early and visit rabbit island and Kep. He assured us that there would not be many people on the roads at that time. Sounds like a plan. We hired a scooter.
Next day.
Up early. Not 100% confident about riding in crazy Cambodian traffic. We got out on the road and found that there was a lot of traffic. The cambodians get up with the sun and work until the day gets hot. Not exactly what I wanted still being a learner scooter rider! Amazing how many people can be fitted on a scooter. Think that the most we saw was 5 people. Amazing how many live chickens can fit on a scooter. Just bind their feet together and hang them upside down on a broom handle. Think that we saw one scooter with about 100 chickens. How about some pigs? the farmers carry 2 large pigs on the back of the scooters. The live pigs lay upside down in wooden cradles. Actually it is amazing how much the Cambodians do fit on their motor scooters. Remember the road rules. Not good when two busses are coming in opposite directions on a skinny road and we were inbetween the action. It was a nice (but stressful) ride out to Kep and the crab markets. Kep used to be THE beach place when the french controlled Cambodia so has some large villas. We continued along the coast to a jetty where we expected we would find a boat over to Rabbit island. Luckily it was pretty easy and we only had to wait for about 30 minutes before the trip. The boat left at 9am and was expected to return at about 4pm giving us plenty of time on the island. It was a short 40 min ride in a longtail boat on the calm ocean to the island and lovely beach with palm trees and thatched huts. We had been thinking about spending a few nights on the island as there were only supposed to be a few huts but unfortunately progress had caught up and there were about 30 huts. Still it did look very much like a scene out of giligans island which was very quaint. Where was Ginger?
We had read that there was a 6km walk around the island which could be picked up at the end of the beach. It existed so off we went. It was not long before we came across a village and a lot of empty water bottles in rows in the ocean. The villagers were farming sea weed. It was so attractive to see a family size village on the beach with basic huts on stilts with smiling women and children. The men were out in the boats. We continued along from bay to bay finding other villages. The walk was becoming a little tedious and we came to the 'end of the track' prematurely. An enterprising villager had blocked the path with vegetation but did have a boat to take is around to the beach for 5 USD. No thanks. We waded into the water and walked around the coast only to find the track again in about 100m at the start of the next beach. Cheeky. We found a dream wooden house close to the water on the beach in a patch the palm trees. We stopped for a while before chosing a spot to try snorkeling. Unfortunately it was not good. We continued along the coast and the track became a little rugged but it was not much further to to starting point so didn't present much of a problem. We went for a snorkel at one end of the beach and found that the visibility was poor at abour 2m and the coral was in poor condition. What to do? We had 3hrs before the boat returned. Not much to do but sit on a platform on the beach under the shade of a tree and relax.Tough life.
The 30km ride back to Kampot was uneventful and I was glad to return the motor scooter. It is a relief as the scooters do not have insurance. I always ask how much it will cost to buy a new scooter before hiring. The scooters are hired almost empty of fuel and then you put as much fuel as you require in them for your trip. Good for the hirers as they can use the fuel left in the scooters for their own use. I think that it would be fairer to receive and return the scooter with a full tank of fuel but then I don't make the rules.
Dinner again at the bar and conversation with the interesting and well travelled old irish bar tender. There was a 'well travelled' American IT businessman working in Cambodia at the bar overstating his business and travel who bored us for a while. Our question we didn't ask as we weren't interested was if you are so successful why are you working in Cambodia?
Next day.
Time to move on again. Booked a bus to Phnom Penh.
Bye,
David and Vanessa
