Got up reasonably early and discovered that Alfred sleeps nude, obviously this is fairly normal but I'm not sure many people do it in dorms full of people.
Anyway, that aside, I decided that I'd head to Kep for the day rather than moving there, finding a guesthouse, etc. so I went back to the same place to rent the same motorbike I'd had the day before. I specifically wanted this one as the guy had told me I'd need a full tank of fuel for Bokor when in actual fact it had half a tank left when I returned it. So I asked them to pull it out, even though it meant they had to move half the other bikes there, only to find that they obviously siphon off all the left over fuel and use it for theirselves. Oh well, at least I know the bike is fairly decent.
After a quick trip to Kampot market to buy some deodorant (I stink - Anji had the only deodorant) I head out on the ~25km trip to Kep. It was all uneventful but nice.
After arriving in Kep, I realised the town was fairly boring. Nothing much to do but eat crab or lay on the beach which wasn't very nice so I took a look at the map and noticed a hiking trail that lead around the "mountain" in a nice loop. Me being me, I decided walking it would be a waste of my motorbike rental so I decided to see if I could ride it.
To begin with I was on the wrong road which I realised once I came to a dead end so came back down and decided to take any road/track that took my fancy. 9 times out of 10 these lead to nothing more interesting than a hole in the ground. On the 10th time it lead to thousands of decomposing multilated crab laid out on various old tarpaulin sheets, which was a little odd.
After finding the start of the trail, I decided it would be worth a go as it actually started out as a road, albeit an unpaved one, with a $1 toll entry fee for the national park but no one to take it and an open barrier. So off I went.
The road soon degraded to a rutted path but I kept on going up and it was lovely, with benches every so often and signs pointing out the various points of interest. At one point I passed a couple of tourists walking up the path and thought to myself how foolish they were until it occurred to me that I was the one doing the wrong thing. Oh well.
I reached the summit and stopped for a well deserved drink before heading back down the other side of the loop where unfortunately the entry booth was manned and I had to pay $1.
After carrying along another dirt road I noticed another signposted trail to the very top of the hill so decided I may as well have a go. This was pretty foolish as I soon discovered this trail was very steep and in fact was more of a storm runoff for the mountain streams with loose rubble everywhere. I wasn't about to give up though and powered my way up slowly but surely. After a while the trail came to a temple and narrowed into the forest so I could no longer ride. Feeling that I really ought to do some exercise today I got of the bike and walked through the forest/jungle until I got to "Sunset Rock" which was a lovely viewpoint. There were already a couple of people there who'd obviously walked all the way up, the idiots.
I wasn't feeling quite so smug once it came to the descent as it had started to rain and the cable operated drum brakes of the Honda Dream leave quite a lot to be desired. The front brake actually won't hold the bike on even the slightest incline so it was quite fun. On one of the flatter bits of the descent a huge bird, an eagle I think, soared out of a tree along the path and flew in front of me for a while. It was most impressive but I couldn't really take my eyes off the rutted surface.
Once eventually down I decided to head for a tarmac road into Kep itself to see if there was anything to do.
I wandered the crab market and the seafood stands but wasn't hungry so after a short ride along the beach front road I started to head back to Kampot. Realising I had over half a tank of fuel left I decided not to head straight back and to just find an interesting looking dirt track off the main road which I did. This led into the countryside proper, with traditional houses on stilts, people working the fields and children chasing me along shouting hello. At one point I had to cross a river on a bridge that looked a bit like the one in "The Man With The Golden Gun" only flat and without a massive gap in the middle. Still it was fun riding over it whilst it twisted and creaked.
I decided to keep taking random dirt tracks to see where I ended up and stumbled across a lovely temple where I stopped to take a few photos. The locals didn't really know what to do until a boy ran up to me and said "money, money, money".
After leaving the temple I rode the dirt tracks for another half an hour or so before meeting a raised train track. The only options were a steep wooden plank rested on the track and then bumping over two set of tracks or to follow them until I hit something, preferably a road. This is obviously a common choice as there were plenty of tyre tracks. It wasn't long before I came to a bridge over a stream, unfortunately it was a railway bridge but fortunately somone had laid planks along it so you could just get a bike across which I did and it wasn't long before I'd got back to a main road. I still had lots of fuel left so just decided to ride until I was bored. This never happened but my aching back (asian motorbikes just aren't built for normal height foreigners) got the better of me and I decided to head back to the guesthouse where I discovered Alfred had checked out. A cheap dorm wasn't really his thing.
After a bit of a relax whilst researching possible Vietnam sat nav options for my phone I wandered into town and had a cheap dinner at a food stall and sat by the river to watch the disappointing sunset. Realising I hadn't sorted out any travel arrangements to Saigon, I then tramped around the various bus ticket offices to work out my best options before giving up and wandering back to the guesthouse only to find that they coud arrange the tickets at the same as the cheapest price I had found. Still 13 hours on a bus doesn't sound like fun and I'd imagine it will take longer than that so I may just book a ticket to the border town and see what happens when I get there. I have until 7AM to think about that as that's the latest I have to book the bus for a 9AM departure.
Getting an early night so that I can be up early and it's absolutely throwing it down outside. It seems rainy season has begun in earnest.
Anyway, that aside, I decided that I'd head to Kep for the day rather than moving there, finding a guesthouse, etc. so I went back to the same place to rent the same motorbike I'd had the day before. I specifically wanted this one as the guy had told me I'd need a full tank of fuel for Bokor when in actual fact it had half a tank left when I returned it. So I asked them to pull it out, even though it meant they had to move half the other bikes there, only to find that they obviously siphon off all the left over fuel and use it for theirselves. Oh well, at least I know the bike is fairly decent.
After a quick trip to Kampot market to buy some deodorant (I stink - Anji had the only deodorant) I head out on the ~25km trip to Kep. It was all uneventful but nice.
 |
| Sorry kids... Kep Beach |
To begin with I was on the wrong road which I realised once I came to a dead end so came back down and decided to take any road/track that took my fancy. 9 times out of 10 these lead to nothing more interesting than a hole in the ground. On the 10th time it lead to thousands of decomposing multilated crab laid out on various old tarpaulin sheets, which was a little odd.After finding the start of the trail, I decided it would be worth a go as it actually started out as a road, albeit an unpaved one, with a $1 toll entry fee for the national park but no one to take it and an open barrier. So off I went.
The road soon degraded to a rutted path but I kept on going up and it was lovely, with benches every so often and signs pointing out the various points of interest. At one point I passed a couple of tourists walking up the path and thought to myself how foolish they were until it occurred to me that I was the one doing the wrong thing. Oh well.
I reached the summit and stopped for a well deserved drink before heading back down the other side of the loop where unfortunately the entry booth was manned and I had to pay $1.
After carrying along another dirt road I noticed another signposted trail to the very top of the hill so decided I may as well have a go. This was pretty foolish as I soon discovered this trail was very steep and in fact was more of a storm runoff for the mountain streams with loose rubble everywhere. I wasn't about to give up though and powered my way up slowly but surely. After a while the trail came to a temple and narrowed into the forest so I could no longer ride. Feeling that I really ought to do some exercise today I got of the bike and walked through the forest/jungle until I got to "Sunset Rock" which was a lovely viewpoint. There were already a couple of people there who'd obviously walked all the way up, the idiots.
 |
| A lot steeper than it looks |
I wandered the crab market and the seafood stands but wasn't hungry so after a short ride along the beach front road I started to head back to Kampot. Realising I had over half a tank of fuel left I decided not to head straight back and to just find an interesting looking dirt track off the main road which I did. This led into the countryside proper, with traditional houses on stilts, people working the fields and children chasing me along shouting hello. At one point I had to cross a river on a bridge that looked a bit like the one in "The Man With The Golden Gun" only flat and without a massive gap in the middle. Still it was fun riding over it whilst it twisted and creaked.
I decided to keep taking random dirt tracks to see where I ended up and stumbled across a lovely temple where I stopped to take a few photos. The locals didn't really know what to do until a boy ran up to me and said "money, money, money".
After leaving the temple I rode the dirt tracks for another half an hour or so before meeting a raised train track. The only options were a steep wooden plank rested on the track and then bumping over two set of tracks or to follow them until I hit something, preferably a road. This is obviously a common choice as there were plenty of tyre tracks. It wasn't long before I came to a bridge over a stream, unfortunately it was a railway bridge but fortunately somone had laid planks along it so you could just get a bike across which I did and it wasn't long before I'd got back to a main road. I still had lots of fuel left so just decided to ride until I was bored. This never happened but my aching back (asian motorbikes just aren't built for normal height foreigners) got the better of me and I decided to head back to the guesthouse where I discovered Alfred had checked out. A cheap dorm wasn't really his thing.
 |
| Everyone wears pyjamas in Cambodia |
Getting an early night so that I can be up early and it's absolutely throwing it down outside. It seems rainy season has begun in earnest.
No comments:
Post a Comment