decompress

We arrived in Sihanoukville at nightfall and took a few days to decompress. There are nice beaches but not as many as you'd think. We just spent the time swimming, reading and writing. The snorkeling is somewhat unspectacular as the area has been overfished by dynamite. But it is a beautiful setting with lovely, unusual sunsets.

We took a day out and decided to head east to Kampot and Kep, the old French Colonial Towns that there wasn't much left of anymore, but ride was pretty wonderful. With Andy driving and Sarah on back, we took off helmet-less (the Cambodian way) up Highway 4 turning East on Highway 3. In the distance we see the huge lurking figure of Bokor 'Hill,' an enormous plateau 1000+ meters high stretching miles and miles in every direction, consisting of a National Park and the French Ghost town at the Hill Station with shells of hotels and casinos and water towers still standing. We had heard you could get up there and thought it might be an interesting detour.


But first we had to get through the dust choking roads and unstable rocky layout to Kampot. After holding our breath and protecting our eyes as much as possible, we made the 3-hour trip without incident, and saw some amazing scenery along the way, with kids (and adults) greeting us with hearty "Hello(s)!" the entire way. This time we treated ourselves to hot water and air conditioning and did something a little different -- sat in our room and watched HBO, one cheesy movie after another and did absolutely nothing except eat grilled chicken and frog.

After checking out the surreal little seaside town of Kep the next day, we came back through Kampot and found the entrace to Bokor Hill. It was 12pm and we learned that it would take 3 hours to come up and 2 hours to come down and the sun set at 5:30pm. And the entire 30km road up was in disarray. 4x4's or mountain bikes are recommended, but moto-bikes have made the trip. Andy asked the woman taking the $5 for the 'privilige' of using the road if we could do it on our little moto-bike. She turns to some old man sleeping in a hammock in the other building. He says something back and she tells Andy, yeah you could do it. After much internal debate we decided to go for it and just stay up on the mountain for the night. The woman said there was a ranger station and that we could find good "Thai noodles" up there.

We knew the road was bad but didn't realize just how bad. It was pretty much intense concentration for not 3, but 4+ hours just keeping the bike from falling over through big stones, dirt gullies, little stones and the worst -- miles and miles of medium-sized stones stretching end to end that simply ate tires up and felt like a hand was reaching over and trying to pull the bike down. At 4:30 pm and pretty exhausted, we saw the glorious sight of hulking old buildings on the horizon -- Bokor Hill Station. Before we checked in, Andy noticed another problem, we had used so much gas struggling to the top, we only had a little over 1/4 of a tank of fuel left. Surely they would sell fuel there, right? Anywhere there's a way to make a dollar, they're there.

We checked in at the Ranger's, got supplies for an immediate picnic stat! (we hadn't had any food since 9am) and set out to watch the sunset from the shell of the old Palace Hotel -- a glorious structure built by the French in 1908, briefly used by the Khmer Rouge as a hideout, and now a ghost of its former self, covered with brightly-colored orange moss, with glass shards and original French tiles scattered about. On the middle terrace of the grand structure at the edge of the plateau, we watched an almost indescribable sunset over the horizon in the distance 1000+ meters below. Enormous grey clouds gently wafted right over our heads like an giant, abducting spaceship. You better believe that drive was worth it, but next time we might hop in the back of a truck!

When we got back to the Ranger station, we found out, amazingly, that they did NOT sell fuel. A couple of the Ranger guys looked at the gauge and said that we could still make it down as it takes much less fuel. We guessed we really didn't have a choice!


The next morning we ate the 'thai noodles' which were really just a dyhadrated cup of Nissin. We decided before we left to hike to the waterfall, which ended up being a disappointing trickle. We wondered how it could be the gusher all the books were talking about because we were already on top of the giant plateau. Where exactly was the river coming from? The main story though was Sarah who, wearing flip flops, somehow got stung by a giant black ant on her foot. It really smarted, and she was writhing in pain for a few minutes collapsed to the ground almost on the verge of tears. Andy thought if she passed out or something, he might have to carry her or run back the 6 miles to get help. Luckily, it retreated to simply a big red welt and she was able to hike on and not even notice it for the rest of the day, but it was a real scare for a few minutes. We hoped this wasn't a bad omen for the ride down!
Actually, the ride down turned out to be much easier (relatively speaking) than going up. It was the same road but it seemed as if the rocks were bouncing off a little more gently, the road falling a little more easily in our direction. That said, it was still a ride from hell that lasted well over 2 hours, took the life of a disfigured the right brake pedal, and after the pounding our bodies took the day before, just seemed like it would never end. At about 2pm, we emerged from the park, saw the same non-plussed lady from the day before and went on. We did manage to convince a couple of locals to try to bend back the brake pedal to its original position, but it was still pretty messed up. We got plenty of gas and made it back to Sihanoukville a day late, but in fine fashion, and well before sunset (You don't want to be on those roads at night). Luckily the renter never discovered the cosmetic damage to the brake and took the best $12 we ever spent for four days.



A couple of more days and then we're on to Angkor Wat, then either Northeastern Cambodia or directly to Laos. See? We don't have EVERYTHING planned out. Sometimes we even make it up as we go along!



Thanks: to everyone who is still following along and enjoying the details. And thanks to everyone who is replying to the blog. We really love hearing from you, as many times, the only other friends we find ourselves having is subtitled HBO! We miss you.