We woke to our last day on lonely beach and a drunk German trying to get into our shack mistakingly thinking it was his. Luckily he realised before he actually got inside. We packed our bags and headed to HQ for coffee and to plan exactly how we will get back to the port and mainland. The boss man genuinely didn’t seem to want us to go and offered us a job in the kitchen. We reluctantly paid the bill $320 for 4 nights and all our food and drink which seemed excellent value…..the Khmer bathroom experience alone was worth 4 8th’s of that.
After a final breakfast we bid everyone goodbye and our pack of dogs escorted us to the edge of the lonely beach territory at which point Em remembered she had left her phone charging at the bar so ended up getting some extra steps into her day. Me and the dogs guarded the bags from pirates and highway men. One of the Cambodian waiters had arranged for his Tuk Tuk friend to pick us up at steep hill 2 passed plank bridge (the point at which Tuk Tuks can go no further) and after a 20 minute walk through sweaty jungle we passed the water buffalo and reached steep hill 2 just beyond plank bridge where our Tuk Tuk was waiting for us.
We bounced for an hour along tracks back into town (truly terrifying). It was weird entering back into civilisation which seemed less civilized than where we had come from and a little dirtier than before. Irrespective of this we rejoined civilized society with a bang and had veggie burger and chips at a beach bar targeting westerners, we stopped short of going into Paddy’s Leprechaun Irish bar for an all-day breakfast and pint of Guinness.
We killed some time waiting for our ferry watching the shoals of fish under the pier (me) and looking at clothes we would never ever wear (Emma). The speedboat ferry was pretty bumpy, occasionally giving butterflies in the stomach. When we arrived at port we elected to walk an hour through the hot city with our bags rather than get a Tuk Tuk. Not the best idea maybe but good to get some movement and get a feel for the place. Turning down tuk tuk drivers became an endurance event that almost broke us but we stayed strong and stayed on our feet.
An hour of walking through a busy city with no western faces was a good experience although we walked through some rough areas and avoided being robbed despite basically carrying a big sign saying ‘im a tourist rob me’. The vibe was generally pretty safe. We walked passed a few schools and the kids had a good stare at us with the brave ones smiling and saying hello.
The heat was intense, the bags were heavy. We seemed to walk through the china town and indian town eventually stopping at a 711 for some sprite refreshment. It wasn’t long to the bus station, after crossing some crazy city roads buzzing with Tuk Tuks mopeds lorries and cars we waited for the bus.
It showed up on time and we climbed into our air condition double (for midgets) bunk drew the curtains and hunkered down for the next 12 hours hoping to wake up at 5 am in Siem Reap for the next stage of the adventure. It’s all fine sharing this small space with your partner but sharing it with a random stranger would not be ok! There’s no way you could occupy this tiny space for 13 hrs without full bodily contact!
This was very much like how I would imagine a trip to the moon would be. Very space age and it wouldn’t surprise me if I woke up in the future like Buck Rogers having spent 100 years in a time capsule locked on a Cambodian bus.
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