Cambodian Coastline

The past four days or so I feel like I’ve seen the Cambodia I came to see. Phnom Penh is a dirty place, but the coastline is a different world. Leaving Phnom Penh early in the morning I met an Australian guy named Anthony on the bus who was headed to Kampot as well and also was interested in doing some motorbiking. When we arrived in Kampot neither of us were impressed, so we rented some motorbikes and headed for Kep. Kep is a tiny little beach town of about 4000 people and more of a Cambodian vacation spot. It was New Year’s Eve so there were no rooms in any of the guesthouses. We ended up finding one room with two beds and doubled up. New Year’s in Kep was by far one of the most low-key I have ever had. We drove around on the motorbikes looking for any kind of party, but there were none. I knew it would be slow, but not this slow. It was relaxing and I had no desire to spend the holiday in Phnom Penh or Sihanoukville from what I’d heard of the place.

The next morning we hit the road on the bikes. By now I had told Anthony of my plans to ride the coastline and see the countryside. He had no experience on a bike before the previous day, but I agreed to help him and we’d take it slow, and it is also a lot safer to have someone with me on these 200km rides. Especially in Cambodia. We headed for Sihanoukville, a port city and beach town that is the third largest city in Cambodia, I think. The ride was fun, as the road was good, and it took a lot less time than I thought it would. Both of us were eager to get somewhere where there was more going on after our holiday in Kep.

Sihanoukville has everything from a Ramada, to backpacker districts and guesthouses, and where we are staying which is called Otres Beach. Otres is 5km north of town where there is nothing but a few small bungalows. Paris Otres, our guesthouse, only has power from a generator a few hours in the evening, mosquito nets, and very primitive bathrooms. It is, however, very cheap and my room is 15 yards from the ocean. It is sad in the evewning when they cut the generator and my fan dies, but then you can clearly hear the ocean. Being lulled to sleep by the ocean the past few evenings has been a real treat, even if I had to sacrifice my fan.

Serendipity beach is the main drag. The beach runs for about a mile with seafood restaurants right on the beach with candlelight, cushioned wicker papa-san chairs, and delicious seafood BBQ’s. There are some beggars, handicapped and children, you can smell people smoking weed everywhere, and you do see the occasional western guy with a very young Cambodian girl, but even with all this it is a very cool place. Anthony and I had a beer and shot some pool, cruised the beach for a while, and then headed back to our bungalow. The road back is much more difficult in the dark, and only accessible by motorbike, and when we arrived the generators were already shut down. We grabbed the headlamp and walked down the beach towards a few of the places that still had some lights on. We ended up chatting with two German couples that were very nice, and made plans with the four of them to hire a boat the next day and go on an expedition. The next day was really a fun, relaxing time. We got to snorkel and fish, had a grilled barracuda lunch on an island, and a good dose of sunburn. Later in the evening we gave one of the couples a ride into town on our motorbikes, and had a huge seafood BBQ of shrimp, squid, clams, mussels, 2 types of fish, and all the fixings. To satisfy us all with full bellies of fresh seafood, beer, wine, and coffee cost $8 each.

All of our German friends left today, but we may run into them in Siem Reap. And Anthony wants to go to the Angkor temples next as well, so I might have a partner in crime for the rest of my trip in Cambodia. He is a school teacher in Australia and a professional videographer, so he got a kick out of my helmet cam. But he is a very nice, intelligent fellow, who has also had some recent, tragic, woman problems, so we make a good team and I’m happy to continue with him to the temples.

Cambodia, to me, is a very polar place. A place of extremes with no middle ground. It can be very seedy and dirty, or beautiful and peaceful. The people are very young here or they are survivors of genocide. There is a hustle and corruption on every level, but the majority of the people are wonderful. The food has been delicious, and the countryside makes for pleasant travel. I’ve hated certain parts of the country, but adore others. It is a country where you can lounge around on a secluded beach and not see a soul, or get stoned and shoot automatic weapons at farm animals with a bunch of hookers from go-karts. It’s a young country that’s new to tourism, but has some of the oldest ruins in the world. It’s just what I expected in a lot of ways, and not at all in other respects. You can tell that it won’t be like this for long, development has started in a lot of places, and as the government becomes more stable, more foreign money will pour into this country. Which will be both good for Cambodia and tragic.

My scabs are almost gone. The saltwater has been good for them, and they would have fallen off sooner if they hadn’t been so intricately woven into my leg hair. Without sounding like some retarded gypsy, this trip has been healing in a lot of ways.

~ by deanius on January 3, 2008.