Offgrid living on UK waterways
I’ve arrived here, and it’s Vietnamese New Year,
Everyone has the two days off, which means I’m going to be hanging around Ha Tien until moving on to my next destination tommorow.
Ha Tien is a fairly pleasant little town around 3km from the border crossing.
Kind of sleepy.
Not a lot going on.
But nice.
Taking route 3 via Kampot.
Making my way to Kampot from Sihanoukville. Had a slight problem.
The bike blew up.
I was just coming down the hill and up the other side, heard a crunching sound. Pulled the clutch in. The engine stopped.
Pulled over.
There was a young man, Tay. Who came across, ‘You have problem?’.
He spoke english, so I drew him a diagram of what I thought had gone wrong. His friend owned a garage 10 yards away, so we pushed it to that.
There his friend undid a couple of screws, then decided he didn’t have the parts or expertise to deal with it. He wanted to tow it 2km down the road to another friend.
This friend also owned a garage, and would be able to find and fix the problem.
I explained I had hired the bike from Phnom Penh. Took it to the friend, he had a look at it, phoned the hire dude. He said I should wait there and they would bring another bike out from PP in 2 hours.
For the next 3 hours, Tay showed me round his home..
Introduced me to his family. Gave me some food. And tried to get me drunk. Met his sister.
Got the new bike. Stopped for a drink and the lights and electrics stopped working(!)
This meant riding to Kampot in the dead of night with no lights, cows wandering across the road, navigating by the moonlight.
When I reached Kampot, I’d had enough. :(
So.
Have made it to Sihanoukville, Cambodia’s most happening party town.
On the coast, it was some 5 hours from the capital. When I arrived, it was night-time. Which gave me a slightly bad impression, having been tired and lost and whatnot.
I woke up and had a walk around, took my laundry in on my motorbike. It all seemed a lot cleaner, less drunk people and hippies, and altogether, a much more wholesome place to stay.
I’m staying at the ‘GOlden Star’. And it seems very good and is located pretty close to Serendipity beach, maybe a 15 minute walk away.
Yesterday, I took my motorbike and had a look at the various beaches, of which there are 3. I’m located on the busiest one, Serendipity. It’s were most of the partying and drinking, eating and sleeping go on. Continue reading “Sihanoukville”
