Mairood

Mairood, a bustling little fishing community not far north of the Thai-Cambodian border is my next stop.

I have been here before last December, and I am happy to return to this little paradise. Chin, the Thai owner who spends half the year in his second home on Nantucket Island, Mass., and Judy from Canada were glad to see me back. Or maybe, they weren't, because of my less than favorable review of their fabulous place on Agoda. We all had a good laugh, and the issue was settled, kind-of.

I moved in to the little bungalow #1, the one with the sun room and the American flag (a Russian guest once threw the flag out into the yard), and I am happy to spend a few days here, entirely cut of from the world and everything else (well, of course there is an excellent, fast Wifi connection!), surrounded by chickens, cats, many dogs, and geckos, and a new member of the family, Yaya, the little pig. It is just great.

Beautiful Yaya, the little pig.

The village is inhabited by Cambodian refugees who fled the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime in the mid 1970s, now the village leaves the impression that everyone is fairly well off. The fresh catch, crab, shrimp/prawn, fish are plentiful, and business seems to be very good. Sometimes the larger boats go out for a few days and nights on end, before coming back to anchor in the village.

All homes and the little concrete footpath are build on stilts, no cars, vans or trucks can access here. Walking through the village is walking through peoples living rooms. Everything is out in the open, children play carefree, the motor-scooters which are coming and going have the right of way. When they are coming it is best to step into one of the private residences and let them by.

Nets hung for repairs

The town's 'main road', here comes a scooter, you better get out of the way!

The freshest seafood, plentiful!

I cannot believe that I rode on this path above the water last year!
This time the motorcycle is stored outside the village in Chin's garage. Much better!

Sihanoukville - Cham Yeam (Cambodia) Border Check Point, Ban Hat Lek (Thailand)

The ride to the border leaves Sihanoukville on the infamous Cambodian Highway No. 4, the same road one would take when going back to Phnom Penh. The traffic is typically pretty heavy, the great number of big Angkor beer trucks coming from Angkor's (Carlsberg) only Cambodian brewery going mostly to the capital Phnom Penh add to the mix.

The heavy and at times crazy traffic changes completely when turning left from No.4 to the rural highway No. 48 towards the Cardamon Mountains and Thailand. Last year's ride on this road was a challenge, maybe a good third of the stretch from the Cambodian-Thai border to the city of Sihanoukville were still unpaved gravel, or worse, construction sites. Last year I had a near miss on a gravel road when some adventurous Khmer motorist in his old Toyota Camry was passing a truck, gravel was flying everywhere, and he either didn't see me on my lane, or, more likely, he didn't care since two-wheeled vehicles have to go off the road if necessary. However, there was nowhere to go because of the gravel shoulder, and a steep drop.

Now, one full year ahead, much has changed. The road is, with the exception of about 25 km total, in relatively good condition, and best of all, there isn't hardly any traffic. The signs which warn of elephants and dangerous curves add to the entertainment.

Water buffaloes keep nicely to their side of the road.
Cambodia has right hand traffic like the US and Europe, Thailand left-hand traffic.

Overall it is a very pleasant ride through dense jungle territory, few fishing villages, and across nice, well-built and long concrete bridges crossing the rivers, and one long one near Krong Khemara Phoumin, just before the town of Pyam, and reaching the border.

But I wasn't too much contemplating the road condition. My mind was preoccupied with the border crossing technicalities. The motorcycle was an 'undocumented', foreigned-owned vehicle for one full year in Cambodia, and I was not sure what to expect, especially from the Thai Customs people.

Thai border crossing at Ban Hat Lek

I am back in Thailand!
I can now take off my home-made headlight screen, necessary in Cambodia since riding with the lights on is illegal.

After some 4+ hours of pleasant rural countryside riding I reach the border.

The border formalities, my visa and the so-called Thai 'Simplified Vehicle Importation' and 'Thai Conveyance Information' documents (the 'Visa' for the motorcycle were easily obtained, filled-out and stamped, I was completely surprised how easy everything went.

I am now back in Thailand on my way to Bangkok.

Next stop my hosts Chin, from Nantucket and Judy from Canada, the little 'paradise' resort in Mairood, Trat Province, Thailand.

Short stay in Sihanoukville

I stayed a few days in this Cambodian harbor town before continuing on my last longer ride through the Cambodian country side, from Sihanoukville to the Cambodian-Thai border.

There isn't much to report from here, I stayed in an inexpensive small hotel near Victory Beach, run by a British fellow and his Khmer wife; in the evening I went to a small, nice bar which distinguished itself from others by displaying a German flag. The owner was nice enough so I went there two evenings to have a beer. It turned out that he is originally from Poland, but lived in Germany as a political refugee from, at the time, communist Poland. Now he owns this nice bar.

I hooked up also with Dennis, the electrician from Germany who works in Amsterdam. We did some riding together last year; he keeps an older, beat-up HONDA Transalp in Sihanoukville, ready to ride whenever he visits. We had lunch together and regretted that I could stay that long this time. Maybe next year we plan for a nice, longer off-road ride to Ratanakiri, maybe ten days.

Of course, my breakfasts were taken at 'Douceur de Cambodge', Boulangerie Francaise, this fabulous French-owned bakery owned and operated by Vincent, croissants, baguette to die for.

The French bakery seen on the right of the picture, facing my motorcycle.

Kampot-Sihanoukville

From Kep to Kampot it is only a short ride. I didn't stay overnight.

A quick stop to take some last pictures of more 'interesting' Cambodian roundabout sculpture, a visit to the market to talk to the nice, smart salesman where I bought a phone which doesn't work that well, and I should be on my way.

Salt workers monument, Kampot

Monument in honor of Durian, the 'King of Fruits' (smelly, though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian

I paid a little extra to have my new/old Samsung phone which I bought a few days ago at this open-air stall  replaced for a new/old LG G Pro. For some reason the Samsung which was a refurbished phone from Korea, made in Vietnam, didn't produce a good signal. It is beyond my understanding how this phone business in Cambodia works, but the new LG I bought looks brand new and works like a charm, except that it has Korean characters and keyboard (No, they can be switched to English, but first I was a little surprised.) I cannot post the price here, but what I spent was ridiculously little.

I continue the ride to Sihanoukville.

Leaving Kep

I spent New Year's Eve on a large plaza in front of the Provincial Government Hall in Kep, together with another thousand or more people from the surrounding villages, or Khmer travelers coming from even as far as Phnom Penh. It seemed that I was the only 'Barang' (Foreigner). The Angkor  beer company had set up a sales tent, consumption of the good local brew was heavy, not only for me, but for everyone else too. The pavement of the plaza was littered with empty cans, paper wrappers of food items, banana leaves (also used as food wrappers).

There were no big firework displays, but people enjoyed to ignite long handled, hand-held sticks which shoot out nice fireworks for about 2-3 minutes each. They were very popular. Numerous food stalls sold everything from fried grasshoppers, grilled snakes to freshly made popcorn; The atmosphere was one typical at county fairs, with small merry-go-rounds and other low-key amusements. It was nice.

After a few relaxing days with food from the superb local restaurant 'KIMLY' (Crab, crab, and more crab! http://www.kep-cambodia.com/mainpages/PlacesinKep/kimly-restaurant.html) I am heading out of this pleasant, quiet little sea side town, going West, eventually ending at the Thai-Cambodian border.

Old, Japan-made 125cc HONDA, used as tuk-tuk , rare.

Le, the nice waitress of the bungalow resort sees me off.