Kampot & the 2012 countdown

Christmas had been truly great, but was pretty much a recovery day so we felt able to set sail on a boxing day booze cruise. At 11:00am we left the shore, the boat comprised of two levels with big speakers borrowed from the shack bar on the lower level the bass resonated to the dancefloor deck above. The drinks were red bull and whisky mixers, but the red bull is insanely strong compared to the UK equivalent, full of amphetamines and taurine so you really don’t want too much. We stopped just off an island and jumped from the top deck while we swam to shore, the bar crew shipped the speakers and BBQ food onto the beach, we had a few rubber rings and played some volley ball, Jamie also discovered a octopus inside a submerged rum bottle, but it soon squeezed itself out and squirted ink at us. And so for the rest of the day we relaxed in the water, playing Frisbee, fooling about and listening to reggae. Our journey back was more boozy from previous drinks, we watched the sun go down from the top deck and did backflips from the deck rail. On shore we returned to The Dolphin Shack, had more drink and all 6 of us trotted round the club in zigzag patterns attempting ‘the Will dance’ as made famous in the inbetweeners movie, there were some very confused looks from locals that evening but also became pretty renowned with the bar staff who even offered us work. By this point in the evening we decided it was time to skinny dip; running into the waters lit up by moonlight, the phosphorescent plankton shimmering. After we reclothed we had shoulders fights too, team Alana and James won everytime. We enjoyed a lazy day beachside and more movies in TopCat (Limitless and Blades of Glory) sharing interesting flavored pizzas.

Feeling re-energised I was ready for the three day excursion from Shinokville to Kampot and it’s national parks on scooters. Andy, Jamie and Myself would be driving with one of the girls as passengers. After a lot of hassle finding decent Scooters and something that looked reasonably like a helmet, we set off, Alana holding tight behind me, I don’t think she approve of the slightest lean on the bikes but didn’t complain, too much. The journey took 4 hours and we passed through some small towns and Cambodian countryside, we would overtake each other on the long empty straights whilst singing wonderwall and anything else we could remember the lyrics to. Once over the river and settled in Kampot town we found a restaurant, Alana and I sharing veggie meals involving a lot of cheese, and had a few beers, but tired from the driving we had a reasonably early night watching a few movies.

In the morning the motorbike convoy passed through the winding and meandering hill roads of the national park. This place had a lot of construction work going on that would basically ruin the vast majority of park and make it into an American style slice of suburbia. Consequently some parts of the road had sand deposits, in one corner, on sand, the bike slipped from under me and we both came off. Luckily we were going relatively slow due to my precious cargo continually reminding me to do so, but both me and Alana got a bit of road rash and a matching cut on our elbows. The road was empty apart from a dumptruck that ran over our scattered sweets. But when you fall off, you got to get back on, and during the rest of our journey we came across some pretty spectacular view points, abandoned villas and a old casino right on the edge of a cliff, at one point we also encountered a pet monkey that tried to gnawing on everyone’s legs. On the ride back to Sihanoukville at one point we were being run down by mad dumptruck driver eating up the road at a furious pace. Towards the last leg Jamie’s back tire burst so Andy had to trail Jamie’s bike whilst carrying two people and moving at a pedestrian pace, we stayed back with the extra luggage and leisurely sipped coconuts, once we found them beside the road the repair guy melted hot rubber onto the intertube and sanded it down, It cost $2 and we were back on the road. 

 

By New Years Eve we had brought marker pens, blank canvas' (dolphin shack vests) and decided on a theme; Asians, the girls had brought us Angry Bird accessories, the whole of Asia really loves angry birds right now! We got badges and bird neckless/mirror (I got a big fat purple one who looked more constipated than angry) in the evening we were doodling over each other. When we made for the beach you couldn’t move, so many people westerners and Cambodians alike. I managed to persuade the temporary bar staff at dolphin shack that I worked there and got free buckets of alcohol. By midnight everyone was setting off fireworks and all aimed into the sea, a mass volley of light that lasted a good 10 minutes. my hair also got singed. Maybe it was one of those nights where there was too much expectation or maybe it was our bodies needed more time to recover from the nights before, but the evening didn’t quite reach the same heights as Xmas eve.

New Years Day I woke up early, grabbed a bottle of water and a pair of boardies and went for a run down the beach, Passing all the shack bars and the dodging the remains of fireworks that now littered the beach, eventually I ran into the locals part of the beach and then after that I was running on a white sandy beach on my own. By the time I got back the sun was high and I was pretty sure I’d sweated out any lingering toxins from the night before. Rehydrating on coconut milk, I went back to meet the others, we spent most of the day on the beach eating BBQ tuna and then back to Topcat watching; Grandma’s Boy, Rise of the Apes and Are You Afraid of the Dark (by the latter I was sound asleep).

Our remaining days in Sihanoukville we stayed down the beach, had a traditional Khmer massage and entered a pub quiz as the sextuplets, but I think the questions were aimed at an "older" generation, we didn't have a clue and just doodled on our answer sheet, we lost so badly the owner felt pity and gave us free sparkling wine. We set sail on boat trip around some of the uninhabited islands and snorkeled, one of the beaches had such fine white sand it looked like sherbet. I would have taken pictures for you but my aquapac leaked and cameras hate salt water. We walked through a jungle trail barefoot and waded chest deep through murky swamps full of buffalo dung. Sailing back at sundown we saw dolphins diving through our wake. Sihanoukville had been good to us.