TravellingStrom

Well, here’s a turn up for the books, Joe came down while I was having breakfast and we chatted again. He mentioned the fact he had read a few of my posts and found them very well written, in fact he said, he could get a sub editor to cut it smaller but there would be no rework needed!! Well, that is high praise indeed from a Managing Editor of a travel magazine, thank you very much indeed, maybe all this hard yakka doing blogs will ‘pay’ off eventually 😉 It has certainly given me food for thought while I ride and travel anyway 🙂 And the numbers he mentioned for copy were indeed encouraging 🙂

So, after a nice chat with Joe I said my farewells, he was heading back to Oz in the next day or so. It was nice to meet you Joe, and maybe we can catch up again when I return to Oz. I headed upstairs and started to pack, always a chore after more than a night in the same place. This is because I usually bring more and more gear to the room as I settle in, especially clothes etc as they start to smell after a while 😉 The best part of being in a hotel for a change is the sink has a plug and it has HOT water, so I could do my washing properly for a change, instead of just wearing them in the shower. 😉 Anyway, I packed and paid up and left town heading south to Kampot, a small town on the river that is about 20km from the coastal town called Kep and 155km south of Phnom Penh. The information I have heard is Kampot is better than Kep, it is more relaxed and has a lot less tourists, although there are still plenty.

I came to a major town where I had to turn right and the good road I had been on went bad, lots of rough stuff and potholes, this only lasted about 30km or so, but it was enough. And this is a major highway! But it is probably not the one most people take to get to the coast. Most Phnom Penhians that are well off head to the other place further to the west called Sihanoukville or Snook. The reason I am leaving today is, they will all be off the road and back at work, so I should have less chance of being run off the road. I played chicken with a few wankers that were in my lane as they tried to pass other buses and trucks, I must say these mid weekers are a bit weak(mid weakers maybe), except the trucks of course, big is better, I moved over for them 😉

As I approached the southern coast it got warmer and cooler, if that makes sense. I could feel the heat increasing, especially with all the gear on, but the cool refreshing sea breeze was great, it was in fact, cool and refreshing 🙂 I arrived in Kampot around midday which was my plan from the start. I had seen online when I booked the price was very high, around $30 or more, yet Joe had said he was paying $15 for an aircon room. By arriving just after checkout, I had the best option of finding a room available, before they were booked online. I was a little bit unlucky in fact, the only room they had left was a small bungalow with 2 fans. It looked nice and I figured, why not, it is only one night and I can move into an aircon cabin tomorrow and was assured of this by the counter chappy 🙂

The Orchid Guesthouse GPS – N10.60700 E104.18451

Joe had said to chat with Tun, the owner who is a national Enduro champion, but he was not there, not to worry. Once I had my gear settled and gotten changed, I went looking for the other POI(Point Of Interest) that Joe had mentioned, This was the Rusty Keyhole 🙂 I had messaged Clive and Christine about meeting there for a beer. I walked down with my GPS and checked out the river frontage, but it was mainly to get my bearings, it is only a smallish town, but big enough and the streets went in funny directions, so it would be easy to get lost after a skinfull until I knew my way around.

It was not hard to find the pub, it was right on the corner with a Cambodian and British flag portrayed.

The Rusty Keyhole GPS – N10.60760 E104.17907

And look who I should find inside, none other than Christine and Clive and it looked like they had started before me!! I quickly rectified that and Clive promptly taxed me my beer for the photo, it was still frosty 😉

It was good to catch up, even though we are following each other on Facebook, they are heading where I just came from and vice versa 🙂 So we had a few beers and battled with the dunny seat, this thing was crazy, the bowl is too close to the cistern and so the seat is held up with string LOL 😆

This went on for a few hours before they headed off to refresh, they were staying very close, within 100m while I was half a kay away, so that meant more beers for me while I watched the sun set behind Bokor Mountain over on the other side of the river 🙂

The evening was more of the same, bangers and mash for dinner for me. C&C came back for the evening session and shared a meal so they could have the special lemon meringue pie for afters 🙂 (I’ll tell you what, you would think Clive would have a shave or something eh, I mean, anyone would think he was on bloody holidays or something!) I found a different option for desert, some rum and coke, yes I spotted it on the second shelf 🙂 Unfortunately there were only 3 nips in it and this pommy chap I met at the bar had a taste of the last ‘never ending 13’ drops 😉

Christian the owner tried to get more but apparently the supplier is out, since the Chinese New Year they have been on days off, so that was the last of it 😦 But, never mind, it was probably a good thing because I had arranged to meet C&C tomorrow morning out front of this place at 9am for a ride up the Bokor Mountain. There is a big new resort going up but there is also an old one that was established in 1923 or something like that and the road up is supposed to be OK, paved and everything. It should be interesting for a look 🙂 And one other thing, I have yet to see C&C’s bike and they have yet to see mine 😆

Cheers from Krabpot Kampot
TravellingStrom