Time to hit the road

All of the ice seemed to be making it way around town like this.
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After seeing Helen off back to Saigon at the bus stop, I headed over to the motorcycle rental store recommended by the Lonely Planet guide, called strangely enough “Lucky! Lucky!”. (Apart from odd names, Cambodians also seem to love naming stores after other successful ones, so I could have also gone to Lucky! Lucky!’s sister store, “Lucky! Lucky! 2”) .

The bike they had available seemed like it had a few clicks under its belt and after going through the formalities (everything in Cambodia seems to involve your passport), I was heading back to the hotel on my “new” rental bike. A short detour to the closet service station was required as the nice folks at Lucky! Lucky! had kindly given me only enough fuel to get about 100m.

Apparently neutral was something that happened in Switzerland, not in Cambodia

Sunset over the Gulf of Thailand.
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Negotiating through the traffic wasn’t so bad as the roads in Cambodia are well maintained and once you get the hang of what’s going on, a little bit of order emerges from the chaos. It was at this stage that I discovered another feature of the Lucky! Bike!, apparently neutral was something that happened in Switzerland, not in Cambodia. Still, once packed and out of the city traffic this wasn’t really an issue and before long I was putting the miles under the wheels heading down to the sea-side resort of Sihanoukville.

Highway driving in Cambodia was a different experience again from the melee of city driving. Due to the wide and reasonably straight roads, everyone seems content to drive as fast as their particular vehicle can go. Unfortunately as these range from bicycles to high powered sports cars, over taking is commonplace and sometimes a little scary. It was very common to see one car doing 120 km/h overtake another doing 119 km/h, thereby driving side by side down the one lane highway for many hundreds of meters, everyone else having to take refuge in the thankfully well maintained gravel shoulder. Incidentally, I’m only guessing the speeds of the other vehicles as, you guessed it, It! Didn’t! Have! A! Working! Speedo!

After around 4 hours and 250ish km of surprisingly bland terrain, I arrived in the town of Sihanoukville and found a place to stay. Luckily I was in time for a gorgeous sunset over the Gulf of Thailand whilst sipping a beer on the beach.

I spent the next day relaxing by the pool and having a bit of a poke around town, trying to stay out of the sun a little. In the evening I headed back down to the beach for another couple of beers and another pleasant sunset.

One of the drawbacks of the beach front at Sihanoukville is the continual stream of hawkers interrupting both the view and your sense of tranquility, flogging all manner of items. One small child however offered to make me a Cambodian flag bookmark for the book I was attempting to read, and since I didn’t have one, I agreed. While it was taking shape, we chatted a little about his family and what he was doing at school, then after some last minute bargaining on his behalf, it was finally mine.

After sunset I again retreated to the hotel as the beach nightlife seemed slow getting started and I was eager to get an early night’s sleep for the long ride to Bokor Hill station the next day.