We had our 2 days of break in Sihanoukville and now it's time to head out to Phnom Penh. It's a pretty short ride of less than 300km so we can afford to take our time. On your travels, what makes it even better is always the people you meet along the way. You may keep in touch, you may not, but for that brief period you're friends and enjoy each others' company. So we started the day saying our goodbyes to new acquaintances.
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| Johhny and tattoo surfer dude |
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| Spanish jewelry maker family from Spain |
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| Aaron, but of course in M'sia his name would be Harun |
We also took a last look of Otres Beach, not knowing when will we step foot over here again. With the development going on over there I really doubt the place would ever look the same. You just hope that there's some common sense applied when developing with care taken to preserve the beauty of the beach. I mean that would be a reason why I would head out there right? Nice clean beach, not too heavily developed, retains its rustic charm. I shudder to think that Russian money would turn this place into another Pattaya.
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| New resort |
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| Just lovely |
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| Mushroom Point - another booming guesthouse on Otres |
I stopped to take a picture at the main roundabout in Sihanoukville, not because I love roundabouts (I don't!). They have this statue of a male and female lion on it and I thought it's quite hilarious how from certain angle it looks like they're humping. (Yes....I do really need to go out more).
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| Hey you two at the back! Stop humping! |
While this was happening, Husref went ahead so you can imagine my heart skipping a beat when I saw him by the side of the road with the Police. One look and you know this is not good, and when I stopped it just confirms my suspicions.
He greeted me nicely. That was enough to put me on guard. Guys, you know that tone of voice that your GF or wife would use when she wants something, or right after she dinged the car? Yes....that one. The one that gets your ears up just as a Gazelle would in the prairie trying to suss out what sort of danger is out there. Well Mr. Copper was using that tone and as soon as he mouthed "International Driving Licence?" I knew we're gonna get it. But with that tone, you also know he wants something else.
I thought I'd still give it a try, so I gave the usual bullshit of "I always ride here no problem", "Your embassy said ok", "You look good in uniform" (well not the last one, esp after my confusion with Ten) but you can tell that he wasn't budging. Then he said the magic words you know would be coming but try very hard to steer away from.
Cop: "You buy beer, I no fine"
Me: "What beer?"
Cop: "Angkor"...then he adds "One box"
Me: (Gulp)"One box?"...I'm trying to do the math here but it doesn't help that I failed here, so I asked
"How much one box"
Cop: "Ten dollarrrrrr"
Me: "What?!!" (Actually my response was such coz I was shocked that it's quite cheap, but he was shocked as well, and must have thought I was balking coz it's expensive.)
Cop: Ok five dollarrrrrr
Hahaha....I told Husref pay the man and I asked to take a picture with the fella, which he happily obliged. I really don't care about his picture though, my thoughts were, if we're stopped again later I'm gonna show the police the picture and tell em. "This guy has your beer!"
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| Five dollar beer cop. |
The ride up to Phnom Penh is in stark contrast to when we made our way to Sihanoukville. It made such a huge difference to not have people blind you to death. They have little respect for motorcyclist where if they want to come out and overtake and be on a collision course with you they would. It's like they know you'd come off worse and would do the necessary to avoid them, which we do, with handlebar slapping about silly as we're pushed to the road shoulder, loosing grip in the gravel, trying not to hit the dog that's minding it's business but is now directly in your path, while muttering curses under your breath. Other than that.....it's all good man. Lol
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| I think this is a cool pic. |
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| See what I mean. They just come out. YOU avoid THEM |
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| If possible, the cop wants the whole truck. |
Was pleased to roll into Phnom Penh and see Maybank. I was running out of USD, mainly because I failed to change before I left as a result of last minute planning, so quickly popped in there and used the ATM to get some dollars. Withdrew USD300 and was charged RM930 for it.
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| Hidup Maybank! |
It's pretty much 2 years on the dot that I last rolled into Phnom Penh but the last trip was purely a hit and run as we overnight in PP en-route to Vietnam. It was also then that I filled up at Total and was given USD10 extra change. Something that bothered me all the while and so i was pleased and relieved when I saw the Total was still there. I stopped and gave an attendant the USD10 trying very hard to explain what happened and why I was giving this money. I doubt she understood me at all but I didn't care. I'm here to put the record straight. That's all.
Posting it in FB got positive remarks all-round until of course one fella (Yes, you Kevin!) had to point out that with inflation I owe more than US10 and most probably I owe them double. Well you just had to put a damper on my feel good factor didn't ya? Coz the next day I friggin lost the hotel key card (the master copy it seems) and was charged wanna guess anyone? Yes...You Ass Dee 10. Karma is a bitch and she's out to get ya! Lol
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