For details of the places I visited in Kampot, Kep, and Sihanoukville, with GPS Coordinates, see my book Kampot, Kep and Sihanoukville.
Hitting the road again. 🙂
To get the last information for my book, Motorbiking Vietnam and Cambodia, and also for upcoming books about the three towns, I decided it is time to hit the road and visit the three towns.
I was on the wire if I should ride down with my motorbike (just over 400km to Kampot from Siem Reap), or take the bus. Seeing as the motorbike is not in such a perfect state, and it being cheaper to go by bus, I booked a bus ticket to Kampot. The first leg would be from Siem Reap to Phnom Penh (Cambodia’s capital), then from there to Kampot. Advertise travel time, is 10 hours.
Due to the long travel time, the bus departs at 6:30 in the morning, with pick up at 5:40. Seeing as I live 25 min walk away from the pick up point, I decided to leave at 5am, so I needed to get up at 4am. Crap.
I had a headache and just could not fall asleep until 2 am. I had set three alarms for 4am, but woke up at 3:30 (perfect). So naturally I take a loo break, then roll back into bed and wait for the alarm. Just then it starts to rain heavily, and in my house with an outside corrugated iron roofed patio, it is deafening.
I roll twice around in my bed, and then pick up my iPad and stare at the time. Holy shit, it’s 5:35. (I got 5 min to get dressed, and walk 25 min, not going to happen).
So now I had two options, go back to sleep and later book another bus ticket for tomorrow, or hop on my scooter and hope for the best. Luckily saner minds prevailed, and I do not hop on my scooter, I climb on. 🙂
So there I am, blasting at a blistering light warping 60 km/h (max the scooter can do at current) to Kampot. On the way I pass some awesome landscape.
About 100 or so km in, the road turns to crap, where the potholes have potholes, and the gravel road at points turn to a mud mess.
Main highway between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, good section.
I pass a truck that played chicken and lost.
I later pass a bus that broke down, and then later another bus that did a bit of an emergency stop.
Note, the bus has been there for a while, and is being disassembled as it is too damaged and not worth being towed.
The poor scooter takes a beating, and about 200km into the trip (almost half way), the engine starts to sound bad. From the state of the engine, I know I can make Phnom Penh (about 120km to go), but then I may be stuck there. So, with a heavy heart I turn back, and limp home.
9 hours after setting out, I tiredly arrive at home. I take a little break, then head down to the travel agent to book another bus ticket. After sharing a laugh with the travel agent about me oversleeping, I head to the mall and get myself an travel alarm with extra load sound, for and ipad seems to be too soft.
Right, tomorrow i will, try again to catch my bus.
