The Wobbling Sprocket

We rode up to the old French Hill Station of Bokor. It’s in a national park but a HUGE development is going in.  The road up is 38k and it is probably the nicest road in all of Cambodia.  108o meters above sea level.

The hill station provides a commanding view of the coastal plain below.  Strategically it has been important in past conflicts.  The free Khmer overran the French here in the late 40′s when they were fighting for independence and in 1979 the Vietnamese fought their way up here when they invaded Cambodia in 1979.   At one point the Vietnamese and the Cambodians were shooting at each other….one side from the Catholic Church and the other from the old French Hotel….about 500 meters apart.

Anyway, we rode our bikes up and then back down.  The locals clearly thought we were nuts…..we got a lot of looks from the construction crews who are still working on the roads.

The Old French Hotel on Bokor is being refurbished

WHAT A GREAT PLACE this is.  A great setting along the river.  A lot of interesting architecture.   A hill station within reach.  What more could you ask for?

The ride here was none too easy.  We battled a headwind the whole way.  Plus my shortcut out of town didn’t turn out so we turned 105k into 125.  What else is new?  We were both pooped.  I think panniers make a big difference.  Nothing is easy with panniers.

No place had a room along the river, so we checked into NY NY.  It was spotless….for $15.

US 15000 can get you a place on the Cambodian Riviera

See. I wasn't joking. Would anyone come visit?

This is the express line.

On the other side of the road you have to transfer over to the local line.... It's actually great the line is being upgraded. The old tracks were all warped. No train could go over 20k per hour. You can do better on a bike.

Not sure if you can see this. We ate a the Rikitikitavi...which had a fantastic view over the river.

This was the Guesthouse across the street from us. I can't remember ever having seen a place named ""The Magic Sponge"....and I've been around.

This is out of order, but we passed a bunch of little fishing villages like this. There weren't any beaches along the coast....just mangroves.

aka Snookyville by the locals. I picked up my visa at the Vietnam mission and then we were going to catch a bus for Sihanoukville.  However, we quickly learned that all of the buses were full until noon.   We didn’t want to wait around that long so ended up hiring a car.  It was a Toyota Camry and I didn’t think we could jam our bikes in the trunk, but in the end we managed with the aid of some twine.

The ride down was scary to say the least.  Our driver said he drove the route every day.  I am sure he did.  He overtook everything in his way…on the left on the right…it really didn’t matter.  His assumption was that his horn gave him the right away.

We checked into the Coolabah.  A nice place.  The proprietors are Scottish and Australian.

Sihanoukville is sort of an oceanside VangVieng.  I didn’t expect it to be so developed….and to feel so non-Cambodian.  There are lots of tatoos around and the beach here is one long concession stand with wall to wall umbrellas.  Vendors carry grilled squid and other local fare to the sunbathers on the beach.   A beer goes for a buck on average

At the beachfront in Sihanoukville

Beachfront in Sihanoukville

We had dinner by the main Round-about...where a lion had a nice view of a billboard.