Letter home

Dear Dad and Mum
I was posted to the Border town of Ha Tien, we have strike out for Rach Gia and then further into the Mekong Delta. The locals of this small provincial towns are really friendly and have looked after me, they seem shocked to see me as I pass and are always yelling out hello. I have crowds gather when I stop to view my transport, In fact when I was poising by my bike someone asked me to move out the way so they could have a better look at the bike.
The terrain is mostly flat with a few small hills, after leaving Ha Tien my path hugged the coast line. On leaving Ha Tien I came across the locals up to their knees in mud on the mud flats at low tide, it seems hundreds head out to gather crabs. It looked liked colored spots through a dark brown land scape.
The road carried along the coast for some way till it took a turn in land, no hostiles here at all, I stopped for food in a small town of Kien Luong, the locals gathered around me to watch me eat, it is a strange sensation, I felt a little uncomfortable, not that I was threatened but more that I hoped I was eating with the correct ethics. Not sure if Ethics is the right word but you know what I mean.
I had thought Rach Gia was only 50km away but it was 95km away, by the time I got there with the late start and the hot day I was pretty tired. I found a good room just across from the local market, The colors and the people are amazing, already had a few local girls tell me they love me. I had had a break earlier in the days and was invited to sit down with some locals, I was told by one that I was a handsome man. Seems myself esteem and ego are getting a boost in Vietnam.
Once I was stationed and dug in for the night at Rach Gia, I headed out to find a map, the first shop I got directions to did not have the maps I wanted, a local girl offered to take me to another book shop that might have the maps I wanted, it ended up that the shop was across town so I rode her bike and she sat on the back it was a bit of a laugh, at one stage she asked me to slow down. We managed to get the book so I can work out the distances and the terrain I may encounter. Very sweet young lady.
I stopped for dinner at a café next door to my hotel, it seems cafes here don’t sell food, I was given a coffee drink, and then one of the girls went across the road and got me some food. You know how I don’t like coffee and I would have felt bad about sending it back, so the plant that was by me had a bit of a drink, hope it servives.
I think you would love this country, the people are amazing, I only hope it stays like this all the way north. I have about two months left of my tour of duty.
Hope all is well at home, Take care.
Love Steve

To Vietnam in a roundabout way

Washing found, outside of room some still wet, if they had given it back to me the night before as I asked it would have been dry, luckily nothing of importance was wet. Had some breakfast before I left still not sure how the stomach was doing. I had to ride about 25km to the border then into Vietnam and Ta Hein a town 6km from the border, easy ride.
The trip out of town was nice, overcast so it was pretty cool, the road was getting fixed up so it was an easy ride, I have to say I like Kep, no one hassles you or anything, they just get about their business and if you would like something you just have to ask, no constant nagging. This mornings ride to the border consists of a straight road, then a right turn then another right turn and straight to the border, sounds easy does it not.
I got the first right turn no problem, the next right turn was a whole other matter, to tell the truth never really found it, I realized this when I came across the town I had seen on the map and told myself I don’t want to go there, not because it’s not a nice town but because it is about 10km out of my way and a bit of a roundabout way to get to the crossing I wanted. Well that was a shame. Top up on some fluids and got directions, headed off and went straight passed the road I wanted again, turned around and stopped on the corner, it was heading in the direction I wanted, Ask a local time again, pointed down one road Vietnam reply Yes, pointed down the other road Vietnam reply Yes, great it was one of those that if I pointed up to the sky and said Vietnam I would have got yes. Took the road that was going south, bit of a dirt track, enough for 1 ½ cars, lots of traffic must be it.
Spent the next 10km on a dirt road with minivans bellowing smoke and dust everywhere, I wonder who is going to pay for my dry cleaning bill. Even with my directional mistake and the rough roads I still made it in good time and the repairs on the trailer worked as it was towing well.
After the 10km dirt road track I came across the road I should have been on, another dirt road, now you don’t really find the Cambodian border here you more just stumble across it, it dirt road, dirt road oops border, if you blink you could miss it. Got my passport stamped and got a photo done, 3000km people, 3000km how about that, who would have thought, I have ridden 3000km and have a few thousand to go.
After the dirt road of Cambodia, which was kind of a nice way to leave Cambodia for some reason, it just worked, it hit Tar seal and a big building on the Vietnamese side. Now it was a hot day and I did my health check and the guy asked for a US dollar and I just paid, did not really think about it till after I had done it, I have not have to pay for a health slip, brain just must have jumped out of gear. I found it funny really, and I think so did he because he gave me a big wave when I left, probably thinking stupid tourist, ha and he would have been right. The jokes on him, because I ticked no to everything, yet I have had headaches and diarrhea, that will show him, I think…
Off to Ha Tein, skip a jump and I was in town, found a bank so had some Dong(money) all was good, time to feed the machine and think about heading on east in to Vietnam, so I pulled into a hotel, plenty of time for Vietnam easy day today. I tried to find a map for Vietnam but that was not going to happen in Ha Tien, to tell the truth there was not really much here at all. My room was nice and the people who run it were friendly enough. So the tour of Nam had started.

Back to the mainland

Sleep, it would have been nice to have more especially after having to get up a few times in the night, but I was up early and ready to go, thanks stomach. I had packed my bag before anyone else had even gotten out of bed, I seem to feel better when I am doing something.
Was not really feeling up to breakfast so finished of reading my book, I will be without one till I can change them some time in Vietnam. By the time everyone else was up it was about time to go, because I was still not really feeling that great I headed off to the pickup point with my big bag, I wanted to be able to take my time and rest if I needed too. I made it to the bay and along came the two German girls, and then guess what, they said the boat was coming to pick us up from the other bay. Bugger.
They offered to take the big bag but I thought that would be wrong, the bag I am sure is getting heavier and weighs a ton. We headed back over to the other side, and yep you guessed it the boat was going to pick us up from the bay I had just come back from, well slap me with a 4x4 but buggered if I was going to carry my bag back the other way. Well lucky for me the guy who was arranging the boats sent one of his minions to carry my bag which I was very pleased about.
Got soaked on the boat ride back but not as wet as the others on the boat who were up front of me, I parted company with the group back on the mainland, they were a nice bunch of people, and were heading back to Kampot. I stopped for the night in Kep. Kep I have to say is a lovely place, it could be a really great place with just a little more development, just as long as they do not over do it.
The guesthouse I stopped in was a bit over priced but the spaghetti bolognaise was pretty dam good and my bed was really comfortable. I had got them to do some washing for me and with the day how it was I thought it would be dry, when I asked later on that night it was still wet, so I asked if I could get it back, I was going to just hang what I needed up in my room to dry, but by the time 9:30 came around it had not arrived so I just went to bed, I would deal with it in the morning.

When stomachs go bad

My stomach has not really settled down and although I do have days were it seems better, today was not one of those days. When I woke up it was to the rumble of my stomach I headed for the loo and that’s when my day went downhill. It was all over in a couple of seconds but the way my gut was I knew it was not be the last time I would be in here today. We had the boat trip that afternoon too, was not looking forward to that.
Because I was up early and did not want to wake klous I headed to the beach front to look out on the world, the wind had only let up a bit so there was a bit of surf breaking on the shore. I always find this sound very calming, I sat at one of the sun beds that was catching the morning light and let the sun warm my back as the wind blew into my front. Besides my arse it was going to be a nice day. Breakfast was steamed rice and an egg. Yummy. That was lunch too.
The idea was to come out for one night then head back to the mainland at four, I was going to stay in Kep and they were going back to Kampot for the night then back to Phnom Penh. Besides Klous who was retired the rest were all teaching English in Phnom Penh. $14 an hour US. That’s if you want a job teaching English.
After so discussion it was decided that 3 were going back and the rest of us were going to stay one more night. The three who were leaving headed off, Klous, The Cambodian Guy who I had not really talked to as he got in a mood with one of the German girls he goes out with and the got drunk on rice wine and passed out and the German girl. I kind of felt that we would be seeing the German girl again as she did not really want to go.
About 40 minutes later the German girl showed up without her boy friend, looks like that relationship is going to last, NOT. Anyway not that I really cared I was having an intermit relationship with the toilet, we really got to know each other well. I did manage to go for a swim and by the end of the day was feeling a little better, I was feeling as though I had a bit more control. That night after a nice enough sunset I had a meal of Grilled Fish with steamed rice, yummy. Well the fish was nice.

Island and wind

The morning arrived by Moto and I meet up with Jelle for breakfast he was heading towards Thailand and then home and I was off towards Nam, after breakfast we headed our separate ways, I stopped at a bank as money needed to be replenished from the hole in the wall, I have been thinking lately that I could give up the bike easily and just carry on backpacking my way across the countries, it would save a lot of money and would mean I maybe could complete my whole trip, at the moment it looks like I will run out of money before then end.
As I cycled out of town I realized just how good it is on a bike, the people of these countries remind me why it is such a good way to travel around, I got a lot of hello’s on the way out of town and people yelling to friends as I rode passed (they probably saying look at the freak everyone) but it does make a journey. When I was heading out of town I caught up to a Moto with a big trailer full of people, I popped in behind and slipstreamed for a bit, I was greeted with smiling faces, ok some of them where tooth less but they still smiled and there was waving and laughter as well, it really does make the day.
The 27km took less than an hour to ride and I arrived at Kep, for a start when you head into Kep there does not really seem to be too much, it is as you head to the shore and cruise the road along beside the see that you know why the French made this a holiday spot when they governed Cambodia. The are many ruined villas along the coast road, some have become homes for the locals. The architecture is pretty marvelous and places show a lot of forward thinking in their design.
I had had a look at the local map and found there was a wharf so slowly made my way towards there, I had a heap of time, so took a slow ride along the coast. It was nice to have the sea breeze and the smell of salt and all the other smells of the sea again, it felt like I had been away from the sea for too long. There is something about the sound of waves crashing against the shore and the smell of the sea I really enjoy.
I arrived at the wharf and pulled into the restaurant there, it was owned by the same people that own the guesthouse where I had stayed the night before. It was breakfast time so I sat down and eat. I contemplated my trailer on my bike, you ask yourself why, well on the way out to Kep I had noticed that the trailer felt like it was dragging behind the bike rather the gliding along as it has done in the past.
I knew it was not sitting flat anymore and thought this might be the problem, I was trying to figure out the best way to fix it, to see if I could get it running true again. After I hard feed I took to the trailers front end, the bars at the front were no longer sitting even so the first step was to sort that out, with a little help from the builder across the way I managed to get it all to pieces and started to knock a few things back into place so the front arms would be more level. I spent maybe 45 minutes doing this and then tested it to see how it sat behind the bike. By this time I had a crowd watching, most of them probably had more idea then me I what I should be doing but because they could not speak English they just stood and watched.
After I had tested it, it was still wrong, the trailer was more flatter then before but the back wheel was still off centre, then, you know how you can look at something and for the life of you can’t work out what is wrong, then you have a little step back from the project and it hits you, well this is what happened to me, I realized the back wheel was out of shape, the bars had been bent across, this would have happened in the van ride.
I got one of the crowd that was still hanging around to hold the front of the trailer down while I bent the bars at the back into place. New rule for trailer, when someone is tying trailer to a van make sure they don’t tie rope to the back wheel it is not strong enough to take the weight. So not the trailer is running more or less straight. Once I was finished with the trailer I sat back down and had lunch and waited for the group to arrive.
After reading my book for a couple of hours I was going to give them another 30 minutes which would make it 3pm, if they had not arrived by then I would find a guest house for the night and head off to Vietnam the next day. About 10 minutes after I had decided this they turned up. So there would be 3 Germans, 2 girls one guy, an English couple and a Cambodia guy who was going out with one of the Germans and me.
As we sorted the ticket for the island I locked the bike up beside the restaurant, the guy who manages the restaurant said it would be safe so I just went with it and hoped it would be, it was kind of out in the open a bit. We jumped on the boat and headed for the island, now these boats are long and have very low sides, when the sea is choppy you get soaked to the skin, so this is how we arrived at the island like a bunch of drowned rats. I did notice that the driver and the other crew man sit right at the front or right at the back and stay dry. The swines.
Once on the island we headed off towards were the bungalows where, Klous the German Guy who was mid sixties lead the way as he was here only a few weeks ago. At the bungalow me a Klous decided to share a bungalow because otherwise someone would have had to stay at another place. After I dropped my stuff in the room I headed straight for the sea, it was so good to be back in the water, it was not a deep bay but I ended up swimming around for about an hour or so. The water was lovely and warm, the only thing that was not so good was the fact that the wind was blowing straight into the bay.
I did manage to do a bit of body surfing though which was good fun. After the swim I headed for a shower which was just a bucket of water, I really like the back to basic stuff, the bungalow were a Bamboo flax construction, that sat about 3 foot off the ground and had a hammock out the front and two single beds with mossie nets in side. The bathroom was again Bamboo and flax construction but with a concrete floor.
After my shower I went back to the bar for dinner, ordered the food straight away as we were on island time now so it would take a while. I chatted with the others while my food was prepared. We had some music playing so it was a nice evening, a bit later on the younger ones of the group headed off to smoke some weed so I headed off to bed, old man I know.
The weather blow into a storm that night with heavy rain and high winds lucky for me my bungalow was protected by the others so it did not seem that bad, the huts hold up to the weather really well.

Disappointment and biking around

Meet up with Jelle last night and had dinner, we discussed headed up to Bokor Hill station and taking the bikes if we can get up there, it’s a 1000m drop along a dirt road, there is also a old abandoned Casino, water falls and a Buddhist temple to visit. After we had a dinner we headed over to a bar that looked good, we had a chat with an English expat who owned the bar and were told the news that you could not go up the hill, it seems they have sold the national park off to the Russians and they are redeveloping the area.
There is to be a new Casino and a golf course, the road is being widened and this is why no one is aloud up there, so plans were a bit ruined. So do I stay or do I go. I decided to stay for one more day. Before I woofle on about the next day I have to tell you about the chocolate brownie, Now we have all been travelling and you miss things when your away, like a nice roast lamb or things like that, every now and then you do find things that you really like, in my case Chocolate brownies, now you have to have them with cream or ice cream, brownies by themselves are always wanting.
So far in my travels I have tried a few chocolate brownies around the place and they really have not been up to standard, I found the perfect chocolate brownie in Kampot. It stood just over a inch and a half high and maybe 3 by 3 inches, warmed and moist all the way through with some large dollops of Vanilla Ice cream on top. I have to say it was a bowl of heaven. If I had not had so much dinner I would have had two helpings.
The next day I meet up with Jelle again and we went for a ride around Kampot, I ride took us through the back streets and towards the sea, we went passed these houses built on stilts sitting out over the river I have to wonder what happens when the river rises as some were only a foot above the water, our little foray came to an end when we hit a cannel, a local guy stopped on the other side and pointed down the cannel to where it was only thigh deep, but by the looks of the water we decided that this was not the best course of action and retreated back towards town.
After the disappointment of not being able to reach the see we headed across the three bridges bridge, now let me explain this, during the Vietnam war, the Americans bombed the bridge twice, so one section is a concrete section one metal and then a different concrete section. It made for a very interesting bridge, of cause now they have a brand new bridge up river a bit.
We rode around on the far side of the bridge for a hour or so then headed back, we decided to meet up later on for dinner again. We went back to the bar with the chocolate brownies and had dinner there, Jelle meet up with a guy he had meet in Siam Reap so we sat down with the group he was in. Jelle’s friend recommended the BBQ Spare ribs so that is what I had and these were also very good, the only problem was when I went to order the Chocolate brownie again Jelle had beaten me to it and got the last piece, as you can imagine I was disappointed. I had to console myself with a big bowl of Ice cream.
I had chatted with the people around me and when they headed off they invited me to come out to Rabbit Island with them the next day as it is just off the coast from Kep my next destination, it sounded like a good idea, the only thing was I had forgot to ask where and when I would meet them. O well tomorrow would tell if I caught up with them again.

Biking out, then a Van ride

Had the worst sleep ever last night, it was bloody horrible, first could not get to sleep then kept waking up all night, lucky no dreaming, at least my stomach was a bit more settled. I was up at 5.30am one of those mornings were you wake up before your alarm and then just before it goes off you fall into a deep sleep. Motivation Zero. Dragged myself out of bed and packed, then out to put the trailer and bike back together before hitting the road.
For 6am in the morning there was a lot of traffic on the road, had had the map out earlier for a look so knew basically were I had to go. Joined the traffic and off, worked my way through the city till I hit the main road out, Now remember I had left only a few minutes after 6am. I had my mouth and nose covered as the amount of car pollution is incredible. I think this was a reason I was feeling a bit sick.
Threaded my way through the traffic, Bangkok has nothing on Phnom Penh, lots more bikes then cars here but there is even less road rules. I inched my way out of town. Not Phnom Penh has the same problem with signs as you find on the open road, I came to a sign saying State Highway three off to my Left, about 5km further down the road I had still not found the road, it was not till I had done about 10km and I only know this from the map that I finally found the Left hand turn onto Highway three.
Once I had found Highway three I was not even sure it was the right road I had to ask someone to be sure, Highway three makes the road into Phnom Penh from the north look like a main Highway, Highway three consists of what would be a single lane road with a dirt verge on each side. The road has more bumps then it does flat bits, I have ridden mountain bike tracks smoother then this road, in the end I just rode on the dirt track on the side of the road because it was smoother and a bit safer.
Now I had a bit of a head ache that I think was caused by all the car fumes, My stomach also let me know it was still there as well, I carried on out of town form about 47 km, I only know this because I had just passed a sign when I decided it was time to catch a Minivan ride, I signaled one to pull over and with, thank the heavens for this guy who could speak English negotiated a ride to Kampot. $4 for about 100km.
We loaded up the bike and me up front and headed off, I was going to have to change vans but the driver of mine would sort that out, all I had to do was pay my $4 at the end. There was a few of us in the van as we headed off. On the way to the changeover we came across a crash between two of these vans and I thought maybe its not such a good idea being in the front.
When we finally made it to the change over, my bike was dragged off the back of one Minivan and taken down to another, I watched my bike being taken away while I tried to keep an eye on bike and trailer, it ended up they both made it to the same place and were tied to the back of the van, It did not really look that safe but what was I supposed to do.
I still had a headache and was in the back of the van with very loud high pitched music blarring out of the speakers, plus because the back door was open the dust from the road poured into the back of the van, at more than one point I was considering getting out and riding. The road progressively got worse, till even the gravel roads in New Zealand looked better then what we were driving on. They really have shocking roads.
When I finally made it to Kampot we were listening to remixes of EMINEM with Cambodian voice over, if I did not have my headache it might have been funny. I am here now and settled into my room after moving from another one because the roof leaked when it rained. Will be catching up with Ellea later on, then will see if I head to Kep tomorrow or stay around Kampot for another day.