January 9, 2008
Phnom Penh - Sihanoukville - Ko Kong: Another bus and another boat
And yet another bus ride. The traffic in Phnom Penh has a bad reputation but again we find it not too intimidating and have no problem making our way through the morning traffic to the bus station. As usual there is much help at the bus station. We are immediately approached by ticket sellers and directed to the next bus leaving for Sihanoukville. The ticket agents in town told us that we couldn't take our bikes on the bus, but at the station they just ask us to take off the front wheel.
We are on our way to Sihanoukville, a town on the coast about 230 kilometers southwest of Phnom Penh, created in 1959 to provide Cambodia with it's only deep-water port and named after the king reigning at the time. We see our first mountains in Cambodia, not terribly beautiful ones, a little boring with scrubby growth, but a change from the flat. It's not yet noon when we arrive.
Soon we have our boat tickets in our pockets for the trip to Ko Kong tomorrow as they are conveniently sold at the bus station. After getting ourselves set up in a hotel, we cycle down the hill to the nearest beach, a few kilometers down the road. Plenty of beach restaurants here, but it all looks neglected and run down. Much garbage lying around and everything in a general state of disrepair. But the food is good. I have the biggest, juiciest shrimps that I can remember eating for a long time.
In spite of the loud and not very efficient a/c in our Chinese run hotel, I sleep well. Air-conditioning is in most rooms, even the cheapest. If you don't like a/c, turning it off is no option as there will be no other ventilation in the room. We have had a/c that has only one setting - very cold - and had to put on our long johns and woolly caps for the night. And it's no joke, our sleeping bags have been essential here in the tropics.
Our boat will leave at 9:30 which leaves us plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast. On a small side street is the Starfish bakery, a project for helping needy Cambodians. We have a very good coffee in its lovely garden cafe decorated with plants - an oasis of peace after the noise and chaos on the streets.
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Then it's over the hill to the port for the boat to Ko Kong, the last stop before crossing the border to Thailand. The last kilometer of road to the port is again in miserable condition, rutted and full of potholes, but very busy with market and local traffic.
Once at the docks help is again offered immediately. For a few dollars our bikes and bags are carried on board.
The boat ride itself is four boring hours. We get a glimpse of green islands and coast and not much else except the films that are on the tv screen in the cabin.
We are in the river port of Ko Kong in the early afternoon. I expected sex, drugs and gambling as this is supposed to be the original Wild West border town, thriving before Poipet had earned its reputation as the ugliest border town in Cambodia. Instead we are greeted by a quiet little road along the river with a few guest houses and hotels.
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