Day 71, PP – Bangkok – Abu Dabi – Berlin ;-)

Berlin – Vladiviostok
Vladivostok – HK
HK – Cambodia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Quiet morning in PP hostel, packed when I got the washing back from the laundry – just in time so to say – and met lutz for a late breakfast.

TukTuk ride to airport was smooth, but traffic definately a lot thicker here overall since my last visit 4 years ago.

First leg went well, even got a nice meal with friendly Bangkok Airways.

Now stop over in Bangkok for 3h, then off to Abu Dabi with Etihad.
Etihad was ok, staff not overly friendly and they constantly spread that incense through the aircon (weihrauch, same as the catholic church) so that made me feel a bit like throwing up after some hours.
Next time Singapure again I guess.

Had a nice seat by the emergency exit though – could change my booking at the airport for both flights – no problem. Tried to do the same with onward flight now – but Air Berlin wants almost 100€ extra for those seats! Ridiculous.
Having to kill 2.5h in Abu Dhabi airport now. A bit tired 😉

Finally arrived in berlin. Managed to catch some sleep this time, but not much.
Sunrise when we touched down, cold windy and the sun soon hid behind thick grey clouds. That’s about when the rain started.

Fairly depressing to be back.
But thank you for reading this blog, writing it helped me focus on many things.

Day 70, PP

Breakfast, russian market with lutz, dinner in italian place.

Should I go back at all?
Will the fan fall on my head?

Day 69, Phnom Penh

Night was OK, forgot to switch off aircon so woke to the chill. The royal guest house is OK, but not very clean overall and definately not a hostel. Location and room OK though.
Will prepare to go and see hospital, wrist bearable, but want to have it checked since not free of pain.

Went to the hospital and they gave me an appointment with Dr. Valez for 3h later. So with time to kill I went back to the bikeshop since I had forgotten to get my passport from them (deposit for bike) and then looked for a specific charity shop Cambodian Handicraft Association for Landmine and Polio Disabled (CHA)
– a friend had asked me to see how they were doing and to get something for her.

After that got caught in heavy rain, or as Dan Simmons would put it: ‘… actually rain is to gentle a term for the deluge that strikes us each day, obscuring the shore, pounding the tin roofs of the barges with a deafening roar, and slowing our upstream crawl until it seems we are standing still. It is as if the river becomes a vertical torrent each afternoon, a waterfall which the ship must climb if we are to go on. ‘
Well you get the idea, who ever said SF is for trekkies only. Luckily I could sit it out in a nice restsurant.

SOS clinic after that – all went quite well and relatively fast. Bones not broken and got a wristguard to give it some rest. Similar to my chop stick/elastic bandage really. Also supposed to take some ibuprofene for the inflamstion in the soft tissue of the wrist. Had done that with the chinese cream also, but will try pills.
If you ever wondered what I look like on the inside:

Have also phoned my orthopedic guy in berlin today and made an appointment for friday – the day of my arrival back home.
Some more time to wander around town now – might join up with lutz and eva later and visit a vernisage at the MetaHouse.

Just heard about terrible ferry accident in Hong Kong, took many of those only some weeks back – strange feeling. Makes wrist look like what it is – peanuts.

Went to the GIZ (German governmental foreign aid thing) expo – about land issues and preserving historical buildings in cambodia. Was ok, usual foreign aid/NGO/goethe institute/embassy crowd – drunks and buffet free.

Day 68, Kampot – PP

Wrist hurting like shit, trying to find some pills and organise transport for bike and me. If I make it to PP, will try to stay in town and find hospital.

Got minibus to PP, ride ok with pill 😉

Day 67, Kampot

Relaxing yet again, no stress in mind and wrist. Breakfast and accidentally meeting stefan there – who yet again postponed his kep trip 😉
Maybe small dinner now, then movies and second helpings later …
Also becoming a sucker for the iced coffees with sweet milk 😉

Wrist still hurting, but swelling down so will try to drive to PP tomorrow or tuesday.

Day 66, Kampot

Days beginning to melt into one, not even sure whether I have already written a blog today or not …
Of course even here some kind of (lazy) routine starts to settle in – first decission of the day wld be whether to get up already or just stay in bed a little longer, then check the weather and decide where to go for breakfast. Developed a taste for khmer and vietnamese soups, VERY tasty and becoming with a little beef and lots of veggies.

Today I ended up at one of my favorite places in old bridge street. I had hardly ordered my soup when Stefan showed up as well 😉
He had decided to go to Kep only next week, so time for a meal and some high end intellectual barang talk early in the morning (well it was 10:30 alteady …)

We then went to hang out a little at his cinema and when Bart (the boatman) showed up, we decided to go for a ride in his kajak – taking a small sidearm of the big river. We drove out to his really nice khmer style house, got the kayak and pushed off – here are some pics:

We went ashore to watch a khmer couple (smiley as usual) cut the leaves of the harvested palm leaves – the stems are not used for anything, while the leaves serve as building material for thatch roofs, walls etc. By the way, the palms growing here are the only palms which can grow in the brackish water of the river. Actually the water is only brackish during dry season when the nearby sea pushes far up the river.

We walked a little further to a really nice guesthouse, located right between the rivers and the rice fields. Had met the the previous owner who had build it (Dirk- german guy) but recently sold it to a very nice french couple who had only recently came here from romania. Nice to see them both enjoying this project, working as a team.

When we got back to Bart’s place, it was getting dark already and we decided to get dinner in town. On the way through the fields we stopped in a small village and tried some of the home made rice wines at the low key version of a small supermarket. They had 3 pots of different flavours – dont know what they were, but one had chinese medical herbs in it. Recognized the taste and I also believe it’s what the propriotor said 😉

The ‘wine’ was actually quite nice, rather smooth for a schnaps. We then headed to a german owned restaurant and splashed out on a steak – the first one for me since leaving germany over 2 months ago!
Walking home some hours later …

Day 65, Kampot

Lazy day, going out for breakfast and resting wrist a little. Nice day too, not to hot and no rain after noon shower – so far. Stepping on the balcony reveals rainclouds in the distance and swallows flying low too.

Annoying buddist or political something screamer around corner from hotel. Noice amplified through shitty speakers and has been going for hours. Hope its not one of those daylong events. Anyway, nothing romantic or exotic about it – noice polution in it’s purest form. Imagine some 80 year old reciting the alphabet nonstop, amplified by said sound equipment and any intonation punishable by death.

Went to a pepper plantation today, just outside Kampot. This area is/was/might be again world famous for its pepper. Interesting farm with no machines, only woman sorting each single pepper corn with tweezers. Like diamonds.
Pepper grows in many places around the globe, but as with vine it all depends on the climate, soil etc.

Pepper here is harvested in march/april, so you won’t see any fruit on the plants. Black, red and white pepper is all made from the same plant by the way.

Day 64, Kampot

I decided to stay on in Kampot a few days longer and rest my wrist a little longer. If it doesn’t get better I can still have someone look at it in PP – or even Berlin in a week or so.
Got some chinese creme/balm (smells like deep heat) and managed to find an elastic band to keep wrist stable.
Lutz went back to PP today – needs to do some work on his project. Takes him even more effort to get on his bike at the moment – people were asking if he drunk too much 😉
But chinese warm band aids seem to work for him. He also had some electric issues with his bike, but was off eventually – just in time for daily downpore.

I am getting rather comfortable here, small town with many restaurants, a little cinema (stefan) and a bunch of good people I met through lutz and stefan. Also nice hotel, comfy room, wifi and private bath with hot shower 😉

Saw The Killing Fields yesterday – bit dated technically and aesthetically, but OK. Got me to talk to some expats about the country. Little weird that only 14 years ago there was still war going on here – 20 year olds remembering rockets and guns going off around them. Also a lot of former khmer rouge around this region – a little unsettling when going through the villages.

Just back from movies, saw ‘salmon fishing in the yemen’ – love mcgregor and her (what’s her name). Good story too in most parts. Had some beers with stefan and the belgium crowd – cambodian gold. It’s a relaunch and NOT very good. So different brand tomorrow 😉
Stefan going to kep on Sat, might join him on back of his bike – met an australian who apparently build a very nice eco lodge. Love getting ideas. Maybe for portugal or where ever – if I ever get away from berlin. But working on it 😉

Day 63, Kampot

Day started well, starting at 10:00 to find long sought offroad connection between Kampot and Kep.
Lutz stayed at the cinema, because of his back (sticking on chinese deep heat band aids) and stefan had to go to a buisiness meeting. So only me and thiran.

We had a great ride and made it to Kep eventually, nature at its best.

On the way back though, a woman on her scooter drove into me and I hurt my wrist coming off. Since it happened next to the police station (yes, on the dirt road near a village), they were there quickly too. To make a long story short, no one was interested in me or the wrist or why the woman drove on my side – the lesson to be learned: If you are a forigner in a 3rd world country, you are automatically the source of income. No matter what- but hey, what else is new. Anyway, with the help of Thiran and various phone conversations with the bike rental and him with the police, I eventually paid a fine of 35$ to the police. Hope they keep most of it.
Thank you also at this point to lutz, stefan and others of the local expat community to make the phone conversations possible (long story).
Here you see the bike (nice pic actually):

Anyway, managed to drive back somehow (right hand side, so throttle!).
Got some ice in the cinema, had some beers. Later I put on some deep heat equivalent and a bandage.
Will try to put bike on minibus to PP tomorrow and take it from there.
Worst part being, that I was invited to a 5 day jungle trail tour to Ankor Wat in 2 days time 😦
Maybe there will be a miracleous recovery …

Day 62, Sihanovkuille – back to Kampot

Last time to enjoy a pot of green tea on the beach – leaving back for Kampot today. We will meet Thearan in Sihanovkuille, he is a tour guide for offroad trails, working for straydogs. He needs to go to Kampot anyway and we decided to team up.

Straight out of town onto a fairly easy/fast mud road – and his bike died in the first deep mudhole.

An hour or so later we had to cross 3 rivers fairly much next to each other. By then my bike has developed the habbit of cutting out and the battery was not getting charged properly either.

We got the bike going by exchanging batteries with Lutz’s bike and at least we could go on. A bit further on Lutz had a fall in a deep mud section and seems to have hurt his back somewhat. But cant stop here and not too bad.

We lost Lutz an hour later because he decided to drive ahead (we were going on the tar road at the time) and we wanted to take another trail. We waited for a while then decided to go off on our own – wld meet up again in Kampot at Stefan’s cinema.

Nice fast ride on very narrow tracks through rice fields and remotest villages (we of course slowed down then and a lot of waving to kids) for about an hour before back onto the tar road.

Looking foreward to a dry hotel room – been driving in the rain for the last couple of hours and walking in rivers don’t help either – boots filled to the brim. And anyway, clothes didn’t get a chance to dry over last few days anyway. Some of the stuff is really starting to smell real bad …

Booked into Paris Hotel for the usual 8$ a room and enjoyed the first warm shower in cambodia. Pizza with Stefan and then back to the hotel. Might try some new trails around Kampot tomorrow 😉

Day 61, Sihanovkuille

Didn’t do much at first – hanging out by the beach and enjoying the view.

Around 12 we decided to go for a short ride – became 6h in the end 😉
Wonderfull scenery, mud jungle rivers high grass – fun stuff.
Unfortunately my bike is giving me problems – electrics. Cutting out in the middle of the worst mud sections or rivers.

In one really bad section the sand at the far end of a small ravine broke off when I jumped over it and the whole bike dissapeared under me. Went head first over the handle bar and burried my head in the sand. Took us a while to get it out of there 😉

Once we got my bike out of the ground, we soon found greener fields to play in 😉

On the way home we had to cross yet another river (but hey, that’s what we came for). There was a little, slippery wooden bridge under water, but one wrong step or twist of the throttle and the bike will disappear in the deep water. And then it’s pushing it home – would take a day of hard work and means camping in the bush. Without camping gear 😉

Day 60, Sihanovkuille

Up ‘early’ at 9, swim and then I made breakfast for us – landlady asked me to show her how to make some western style omelette 😉

Since bike working again we decided to go to Sihanovkuille proper – haven’t really been there yet. Wanted to check for flights, email etc.

The place is saturated with hostels and although off season, quite some travellers around. Glad we don’t stay here 😉

But nice to have a milk shake and some food.

Day 59, Sihanovkuille

Lazy day, rain in the morning – the continueation of previous night’s thunderstorm, which luckily stayed off the coast somewhere at the horizon.

Since heavy rain at first, I went for a dip in the sea, breakie after that and bed again soon after. Have a nice few of the beach and the sea when I leave my door open – it’s only 5m 😉

When the rain turned into a drizzle I moved towards the communal area and watched the dogs in action 😉

By this time it was lunch already and we decided to go to Otres beach proper – 2km up the road towards Sihanovkuille, but still way out of town so quiet this time of year.
Also had some bangles made to pass time and support local school kids 😉

Planned on some jungle excursion after that, but my bike didn’t want to start. Push start OK, but can’t really do that in a river or rice field. Phoned the bike rental in phnom penh and they promised to send someone with a new battery from Sihanovkuille. They would only arrive at 18:00, so decided to spend the afternoon watching the waves while lutz went off with another german guy on an offroad bike also.

Took a photo of old battery as a compromise – originally the rental place wanted me to bring back the old one to PP for prove that it had been changed.

We had grilled baracuda for dinner, we asked our landlady if she could get it for us while in town. Dinner was great – last baracuda I had was in mocambique in 1989. Memorable fish 😉

Day 58, Kampot – Sihanovkuille

Planned on sleeping in a bit today, but woke up at 7:30. So woke the barman/owner, ordered breakfast and phoned lutz (sleeping on his ponton next door). Beautiful and sunny day, so should make traveling today easier – road supposed to be worst (tarmac) road in cambodia.

… the road wasn’t too bad if compared to the russian ones. Fairly similar to the SA – Mocambique road in 1989/90 – the usual collection of potholes and construction in progress. The landscape a lush green, a lot of water and rice.

The already expected rain shower was rather heavy today – so out with the rain jackets yet again. But one thing is for certain – rain at 30 degrees is a LOT more pleasant than at 3-15 degrees. Actually it can be quite refreshing – if it doesn’t go on for hours. And of course it’s also possible to stop for a juice/soup/talking bull shit 😉

About halfway to Sihanovkuille we left the tarmac and decided to follow what looked like a small dirt road/stream. Good fun, rock sections, dense jungle, water, mud etc. After a lot of small streams

… we came across a bigger one which proved difficult to cross.

After a couple of hours and various attempts with the compass, we finally found the coast outside of Sihanovkuille and we decided to head straight for a remote beach where Lutz has been to before.
We rented 2 nice basic grass/wood huts right by the beach, very nice khmer lady with 2 kids and a couple of dogs. The bikes parked right next to the huts and a great view with the sound of waves breaking overpowering all other noises. Yes!

Day 57, Kampot and around

Good nights rest im my simple but luxurious wooden bungalow 3m up in the air – safely tugged in under the mosquito net.
Nice breakie on the wooden deck hanging over the river. People swim here, especially during rainy season, when the water looks muddy (and is), but the water quality is better than during summer.

We decided to simply head in the general direction of Kep – maybe look st an old cave temple, supposedly much older than Ankor Wat. We drove through many villages, past scattered dwellings and through plenty of rice paddies – people here always smiley and ready to return a nod or wave. Really quite a difference to russia.

We eventually found the mountain which is supposed to house the cave with the temple in it – but we couldnt find the cave, no matter how many mudpos we crossed.

We did ask the local communities for direction and that was really fun for all parties involved. They loved our map and the compass on the iphone blew their mind. That is despite iphones being as common in cambodia as anywhere in the world. Maybe they simply enjoyed the 2 barangs in their little hut restaurant in the middle of nowhere. As I said, very nice people and also our advantage being, that we go where hardly any tourists go. Ever.

As we got closer to Kep, we came across a fairly new temple, set in the forrest at the end of a dirt road overlooking the surrounding land.

A bit further on we came across this strange building – no windows etc, only small openings …

… apparently it was build to attract swallows – they even play the right bird songs from a CD. The birds start building their nests inside and the eggs or being collected and sold to the restaurants.

Eventually we arrived in Kep and lutz even managed to see a potential customer owning a restaurant

Finished the day with visit to stefans nice little cinema in kampot and after that some beers in the hostel bar by the river.

Day 56, Phnom Penh –

Up at 8, usual ‘chaos’ getting away with lutz – off at … 11:00
😉

… and 1st stop around the corner for some vietnamese soup

Going to Kampot, famous for jungle, the river banks and green pepper. On the way down we stopped for some juice – and can you believe it, it’s the same spot where i stopped 4years ago – took a similar pic

The road is good – meaning boring for us. On arrival in Kampot we had a nice meal incl. a fresh coconut, so full of water I couldn’t finish it.

We picked a nice laid back hostel on the west side of the river, cant think of the name though 😉

We simply dropped our bags and decided to use the remaining hour of daylight for a quick ride into the jungle. Bliss- after going through some rural area we were quickly into the thick green, mostly following small streams because there were no paths or tracks. This one example shows a small stream, bordered by eroded banks towering next to us with a lid of dense foliage above our heads. The tunnel was about 2m wide and 2m high. Since it curved we were not able to see how long it was and if it carried on at all. Quite similar to driving in a big storm water pipe.

Up and down small ravines, crossing mud pools and always trying not to loose our sense if direction in this. Perfect.

On the way back we stopped at the green house hostel- lutz knowing the owners and we had a nice beer on the very colonial style veranda. They will have a big party on saturday with live bands, let’s see if we are still in the area then. We also met stefan, a belgian guy whom I had met 4years ago in Kep by the sea- he sold his hostel and now runs a small cinema in Kampot.

After dinner and some more beers in our hostel I will now hit the sack – a bit tired, maybe going for a swim in the river tomorrow morning – right from the bar 😉

Day 55, PP

Got up at some time, now sitting by the riverside – still don’t know what time it is. Surrounded by tuk-tuks, buzz of the city, bike parked in front of the cafe.
Cambodia starting to have it’s effects. Good.

Hung out in PP after lunch with lutz’s client, bought a Lonely Planet and marked some stuff I had not seen last time.
The plan still is to leave for the coastel area tomorrow – bikes kind of ready 😉
Went for a nice massage this afternoon – seeing hands, a project for blind woman. Good stuff.
On the way home I stopped to watch the local fitness addicts – always at sun rise and in the afternoon 😉

Day 54, Phnom Penh

Lazy day in PP – early morning though, fell asleep at 20:30 last night!
Bit of work in the bike, setting levers etc, changed front tire.
Then off to lutz’s hotel project and some site work. Nice guys the owners dimitri and gian.

Can only do facebook sporadically, lutz’s provider is vietnamese and there FB is apparently baned. Will try some cafe tomorrow.

Check out the local biltong

Day 53, Phnom Penh

We only made it to one party yesterday – house warming, most people working for NGOs, GIZ, (former DED, GTZ), Friends international and many more. We left Lutz’s house on Mekong Island around 20:00 – and it was pissing it down. So rain gear and off on the bikes. After about 5km, right in the centre of PP, my bike died completely. It had already signalled before, that it had problems with the generator/battery.
So there we stood, in the middle of the city, surrounded by heavy traffic and a rain which was trying to flood the city. We decided that lutz should drive to the bike shop (closed), get the tel. no. from the sign and call for help. Apparently the initial reaction was ‘the shop is closed/yes we know/it’s raining/yes we know’. Anyway, the guy showed up and pushed me on my bike while sitting on his (his left food on my right rear footpegs) through the city until we reached a shop where we could park the bike for a night.
Here is a shot of us waiting in the rain – under the roof of some bank, lutz on the phone (my iphone doesn’t like the local sim card. Samsung here we come, soon).

We arrived at the party by nineish, good atmosphere, nice hosts. Met a dentist from japan, now living in australia, doing dental tourism here in cambodia. He showed me many pics of his bikes back home and of patients teeth – he always had the laptop ready 😉

Left at 2 or 3, too late for the other party and slept over at eva’s place just around the corner. Good we thought, sleep in, have late breakie etc. We thought …
By 5:30 the catapilar started to grade a new street below our appartement. Hadn’t stopped when lutz and me left to pick up my new bike (around 11). And today is sunday!

Anyway, we got the bike – feels better, although on this bike something is wrong with the steering head or even the frame. Feels a bit odd going around corners, will try it some more tonight or tomorrow.
Central market then, lutz bought some boots for bike trips and the back home onto the peninsula. Just before a brief shower started.
These shots were taken from the roof overlooking the Mekong river …

OK, will try to catch some sleep before going out tonight. Will go to a bar where local expat bikers hang out, hoping to obtain some info on tracks through the jungle/rice paddies/mountains. Planing on leaving around tue/wed for a week or so. First trip, then maybe back to PP and after that 2nd trip. We shall see what happens.

Day 53, Phnom Penh

hh

Raining quite a bit in PP – but it also stops inbetween 😉
Dry in the mornings till midday it seems, so possible activities more then and in the afternoons again. Early eve till whenever rainy again it seems.

Sleeping in huge bed with small mattress – thank you for lending those to me Eva! Put up my mosquito net (good idea here) and had a good nights sleep.

Lutz is again renting the same house on the peninsula in the Mekong river – same as 4 years ago.

Went for breakfast into town – 15min drive – and were just in time for torrential downpour, but at least by that time we were sitting safely inside.

After breakie off to the hotel lutz is doing the lighting design for and then on to find a bike rental. Found a small XR250, same as Lutz’s. Picking it up tomorrow, they agreed to fit new tires, brakes etc – let’s see, asking 17$ per day so good price.

Back at the Mekong ranch we dry ourselves and get ready for a party later – actually 2, one of them a little punk session in a bar which will be demolished in the process since the owner wants to rebuild 😉

Day 52, HK – Singapore – Phnom Penh

Early start – not really used to that anymore I guess. Didn’t even need the alarm to go off at 6:00 – was awake already. Shower, banana and off to the bus station (Bus A11). The driver didn’t have change, so the 40HK$ still in my pocket for the next visit.

Bustrip to the airport from HK island only takes about 40′ and they have wifi on board. Enough time after check inn for brunch

Flying Singapore Airline is a treat as always – good service and friendly staff. Love the menue, drinks etc – well, not spoiled by easy jet and the likes I guess 😉

Also love Singapore, been here last 4 years ago, during chineese new year. Well, this time its only the airport for me – 2.5h stop over, but that’s OK since I need new headphones and there are enough shops, cafes ….

Arrival in Phnom Penh was greated with tropical downpour 😉

Phoned lutz and took a tuk-tuk to meet him in town. The ride was a good, familiar and hair raising experience 😉