28-09-2010, 13:08 geschreven door zoriander  

I woke up full of energy today and went out to find a mountain bike and breakfast. Soon I was set to go and left for Fishing Island; as the name explains this island is full of fishermen… To get there I had to cross the very interesting old bridge, the bridge has quite some history and has been rebuild in 4 different styles as you can see on the picture. 

I took some random roads throughout the island and soon got stuck: the path was only used in dry season I think but then I estimated that the water from the creek would not be that deep. I emptied my pockets and just drove through, it was a bit deeper than I expected and I had to stand up on my pedals to make sure that my backpack would not get wet. The only thing of my bicycle sticking out of the water was the seat and the handle bar… Refreshing is the correct word for this. A bit further I got stuck again, but it was stuck with a wonderful view! The creek in front of me was a bit deeper so I didn’t give it a try, I saw some boys at the other side and signed that I wanted to get there but didn’t know how. The boys signed that I could just ride through the dried salt fields and some more creeks. 10 minutes later I caught up with them and they lead me to a small village of salt farmers. Balance after 30 minutes: completely soaked but for the first time nor from the sweat nor from the rain, lot’s of beautiful sceneries and friendly people. The boys invited me in for some tea and I dug out my Khmer phrasebook to start a conversation. 

Time to get going again as I continued my tour around the island I spot a very small hut in pretty bad shape, it was going to rain and I felt sorry for the one that lived there. The first drops were already falling and I really appreciated it, a nice breeze an even better view, some kids were running through the rain while shouting ‘hello! Hello! Bye bye! Hello!’ and they went in the hut that I just described. It wouldn’t help them much for shelter: the plastic on top was full of holes and badly attached so one side was completely loose. A bit later the mom came past and she told me to get in since it was starting to rain quite hard. Out of respect for her and to make sure my backpack wouldn’t get too wet I went in, as I though it didn’t help much. The hut was in a really bad shape and I saw that it really was a house, I had to sit on her blanket (= bed) supposedly for my comfort but I liked it because this way I could keep it dry… As soon as it was over I thanked them with words and some candy and took off before it would start again. After 2 minutes it started again but this time I kept driving regardless the many invitations into their huts until I saw a waterproof house. Perfect for shelter! I got some honey on a stick and some tea. Hmm delicious, this is what I call fresh honey… Now it was time to go and climb the hill of the island, (only 40 meters high) but it gives very nice views if the sky is clear. It was misty now… I drove around for another hour before heading back to Kampot. 

A very nice day!

28-09-2010, 12:34 geschreven door zoriander  

24th of september was a transport day from Sihanoukville to Kampot. Since I still wasn’t feeling very well and had a very nice room in Sihanoukville I left quite late: I took a shared taxi at 11.00. The ride to Kampot takes about 2 hours and we arrived at 4 pm. For those that are wandering how that is possible, let me explain: A shared taxi is a car (Toyota camry) that waits until it’s full before it leaves. Full means 6 passengers + the driver. So I waited and waited until more people showed up, finally there were 4 others and the driver was satisfied. The others first treated me for lunch since they didn’t ate yet, ain’t gonna say no to food… Once we arrived in Kampot I asked to go to Bodhi villa, a backpackers place about 2 km north of town. I just arrived there to hear that it is full for the rest of the week. I wasn’t in the mood to hop around guesthouses all the time so I just asked the driver for a clean and relatively cheap place. In the evening I went for a stroll down the very charming town towards the river where there is an amazing sunset. The town consists of a lot of colonial style buildings who are rotting away.

I also checked with the tour operators if I could do a two day trekking to the Bokor national park with the famous bokor hill station. The price was pretty overwhelming so that was out of the question. A one day tour was still in debate however also pretty expensive for what it is. I told myself that I would check out a different guesthouse tomorrow and rent a bicycle to go to the countryside.

25^th of September was a rainy day, I found a nice guesthouse: blissful. The room is very basic but there is a mosquito net and the sheets are clean, they have wifi, a video room and a dutch girl behind the bar. I didn’t do much because of the rain and took my time to do some research about what’s next: the bicycle trip! In the evening I treated myself with a nice pasta on the riverside, while I was enjoying my beer I met another dutch girl. She was interested in accompanying me to the monthly concert of the traditional Khmer music school for disabled and orphaned children (I got the flyer from the tourist office). So of we went looking for the school, when we arrived there it was completely empty so I checked the date again: 25^th 7.30 pm that’s now. We looked around but besides some kids playing hide and seek there was nobody around… Finally someone showed up who spoke some English and told us that the flyer is from June! Why does the tourist information gives me a flyer from june! As far as I know I can’t time travel yet and I have quite a lot of travelling experience… Anyway instead of a concert we just went for a drink and talked a little. She advised me to go and check out the crab at Kep which is supposed to be really good. She also told me that the tour to Bokor is quite bad: a lot of car and waiting in different places, way too small lunch and not enough time to walk around and see everything…

28-09-2010, 12:01 geschreven door zoriander