~ Kampot...then to Trat and Bangkok ~
Thursday Feb.11
Feeling much relaxed…I go for short walk from Botanica down to the muddy, mangrove-fringed and insipid sea…nothing new about that. I start to take pfotos. Later, I meet Mike, an Irishman who is also a teacher in Saigon who's escaped for TET on holiday. Boy, can he talk…but an easy enough character to get along with. He is the first of many good people I’ve yet to meet in the coming week on the overland journey to Penang. I have the evening meal at the crab market running into Mike nearby. We eat together at the popular-with-tourists, second-to-the-end place…a bit on the "expensive" side…like $3.50 the cheapest…for fried noodles and squid. But hey they taste very good…the first real meal I’ve had in days. There are now about half a dozen upmarket bars at the Kep "crab market" formerly just a local restaurant strip, some places owned by barang (foreigners)...certainly popular with today's backpackers and the expats from PP. Back at the furniture-less room I write a brief email to China and to J.J….where-ever he might be...maybe in Trat
Friday Feb.12
I ride by bicycle down the road to the ‘White Horse’…a traffic roundabout/circle village where the Kep-Kompot coastal road meets the Kompot-P.P. one…trying to find a cheap way to Koh Kong and Hat Lek, the Thai border-crossing. But prices are exorbitant...this is typical of Kep these days. On the way back manage to take some saturated shots of the locals. There are sizable Moslem communies along Cambodia's coast and they make pfotogenic subjects. I'm rested up now and I decide to move on to Kompot the next morning…by one of the P.P. to Kompot buses which pass by about 11am.
Saturday Feb.13.
I walk out the Botanica gate to wait for the bus and get picked up by a tuk-tuk returning to Kep…for $2.50…which is pretty reasonable. The bus is $2...which is a rip-off...because the fare by bus from PP is only $3.50 to Kep [or Kampot]. It's a great start...a very pleasant journey along good and quiet [after Saigon] roads. Once in Kampot, I end up at Riverside Guest House…next to the new bridge. This is after walking around trying to find out where exactly I am in the town. It's a great room on the river for $6 a nite…nobody else about. This guest house is not popular with travelers for some reason that escapes me. Later Hans…yes…from Germany arrives…old-time traveler and big smoker…and not such bad company
I walk down the river in the evening…taking photos…it's great to have a camera again…meet up with him Hans…and have meal at Coco restaurant on the riverside strip…good food at a cheaper price than the other places on the now-very-pleasant riverfront tourist strip...oddly enough, not many backpackers avail themselves of its most pleasant setting...nicer no doubt 5 or 6 years ago...before the new bridge nearby. I recommend visitors to avoid the food here...it's not good value and hardly appetizing...or at least when I was there. Maybe the cook's come back by now!
I spy Hans with two girl 'pfoto hustlers'... who just need you to take their pfoto... so they can then ask you for money. Fair enough I suppose...and they're quite pfotogenic too. I was really surprised that I now liked Kompot…a place that I had been disappointed by in the past. Like it was a nothing town before…I usually like those...but in Kompot then there was nothing for me then...(this is 3 or 4 years ago only)...it had no centre to it, but more than that...it seemed...hollow somehow...and I had heard of what a cool place it was...expectations...from other peoples' experiences of a place...to be taken lightly, when traveling I've so often learned. The old buildings of the central part of the town of Kampot, Coastal Cambodia are slowly but surely being refurbished as the town grows in economic security. But of course... I'd missed something. Yes...an appreciation of colonial style (French in this case) architecture.
Along with the (also) riverbank towns of Savanahket in Central Lao and Battambang (in Cambodia)...Kampot is still full of great examples of French colonial buildings...should be heritage sites all of these, really, I reckon. But then again, not everyone's kinky about buildings...before they were machines we live in, I mean. Now Kompot has a few more options...and it's more organized...a good thing?..and tidier; seems to be thriving and there are more than a few seemingly happy tourists, mostly backpackers of the older variety...the others tend to party in Sihanoukville (SHV). An absence of prostitutes hustling openly at least...like in Sihanoukville…probably all over there in the young kids' party town...with its more than fair share of the old timers. SHV's like a retirement home-cum-brothel complete with cheap, cheap girls...not all young...making the most of their youth to better their lives. I lived there, too...a couple of years ago...an old-timer, no different from the rest but on leaving the place....promised never again to have a live-in bar-girl girlfriend. Not that I took my own advice...because it happened again in PP just last year...and ended...me with no money to show for 5 months' work...and having had a couple of doses of STDs...what WAS she doing...when I was at work?
Sunday Feb.14
I spend the day relaxing and finally backing up on the external Samsung HD I’d bought in a rush the nite before leaving Saigon…which is now fading fast from the memory. I feel like I'm well and truly on holiday now. The immediate goal is to Lake Toba, in Sumatra because previous plans to get there never eventuated. Decide that I need to check my mail…and find out from sister Irene about Mum’s dire health situation…re-admitted to hospital after a problem with the replaced heart valve, done in an operation last year. Irene advises me to seriously consider returning to NZ!! This is a circumstance that continues to affect my travel plans for months into the forseable future. And, I will return too, if things don’t improve and Mum doesn’t pull through. I have the feeling that by now, she could quite easily just want to slip away and be with the Lord and of course also be with her lost husband…my dad…George…killed in a car ‘accident’ more than forty years ago. But I can only afford one trip to NZ...will it be for a funeral or will it be for a visit to see her...and my grand-daughter in Dunedin? It's been almost 7 years since I left...and keeping in touch has never been my strong point. Must move on to Thailand tomorrow…leaving the now-very-pleasant Kompot and Cambodia behind…for ever?
Monday Feb.15
Take the public minibus to Koh Kong meeting up with two couples…German and Canadian…very amiable…all the way to the Hat Lek border for the agreed price…thanks to the Canadians who have to phone back to Kompot…because the driver wants to scam us all for another $10 each to get up to the border from K.K...an old trick this one...that's been happening here for years...either way I'm not phased...a moto costs about $2!
Through to Thailand…no overstay worries...like the last time I was doing this crossing...on my way to Bangkok from SHV...a month overstayed...and the officer didn't pick it up...to my utter amazement and relief...as I was on a really tight budget. The overstaying was necessary...to save enough to do the whole trip...the object of which was to get a new passport...I could afford an extension to stay in Cambo...but had run out of pages...fuck it. I made it back to SHV with a new one too...probably wouldn't have if the.. border policeman had been on the ball that day. Here's some factors I put it down to: the heat of the day (he'd been having a siesta(?) and being the first in line in the queue,...and LUCK or KARMA and/or any combination of the above.
Shrine on the main street of TRAT, Thailand. Behind is the main entrance to the central Trat wat. The road goes to Koh Chang to the left and Bangkok to the right. It's known as Sukhumvit. At Thai border, .a 15 day transit visa of course…and eventually on to TRAT…after a monstrous fuck-up with the bus company…many tourists waiting for 2 and 3 hours just to get away from the border to their various destinations…like Koh Chang and Bankok ...BKK…and last in order of money-making potential…the ones like the 6 or 7 of us headed merely to Trat. Arrive Trat…room for B120 NP guest house…nite market with J.J.
Tuesday Feb.16
Say ‘hello’ to some old friends…lived and worked in Trat for over 2 years...2003-05...”hello old friends”…especially at Residang and Orchid. Eat mostly buying chicken from the nite market and drinks from Seven Eleven. The room’s simple but good…at just under $4 a nite and who can complain about that these days.
Trat's night market in the early evening. Excellent dishes of all sorts, but especially seafood are very affordable and tasty. A favorite of mine however is the deep-fried chicken, usually sold by Moslem women at such markets throughout Thailand!
Wednesday Feb.17
Walk around Trat taking quite a few photos…on the river…at the reservoir and around. Decide to move on sooner rather than later…get to Sumatra. Get about $700 into my Thai bank account from VCB…and a new Visa card for this account…for a minimal charge too. See the friendly Isan girl, Oi, girlfriend of Jim... who's out first-mating a container ship in the middle of the Pacific somewhere still..., just before she goes off to dance at an OTOP thingy…missed Jim by about a week...again! She looks terrible in make-up but still has a really nice body!..still loves her beer...mischievous girl...good fun.
Thursday Feb.18
Catch the Cherdchai Bangkok-bound bus which leaves at about 7.15am…costs B242. On the way meet another Canadian couple…this time retired…have been living in Thailand for 5 years. They’re going to Hualungphong, the train station…we share a taxi. I want to find out about trains south…to HadYai and Butterworth, opposite Penang Island. The main waiting area of the Hualungphong train station (Bankgok Station) is often crowded with passengers. There's the underground down below, which hooks up to the sky-rail lines...commuting made easy...and cheap. Of course, there's always the 'traditional' Bangkok tuk-tuks...sometimes on a lunch break outside the train station.
As it turns out, there’s a second-class sleeper available on the 2.45pm…'special express'…but only to HadYai…for B880…maybe I can catch a later train from there. Take some photos and movies while waiting at the station…worked out that best to rest the camera for the latter…and thru the train window…and a probable good one too...from inside the smoking room…the loo.
Friday Feb.19
Second-class sleeper is the way to go...good to get a lower bunk though. Air-con and comfortable. Smokers can stand or sit between the carriages ignoring the 'no smoking' signs. Slept little on the upper bunk…lower is better…arriving HadYai 6am…go inside and manage to get back on the same (reduced-sized) train…only 2 carriages…B330 to Butterworth by noon…standee the ticket says…but 2 Japanese boys…who also got on…find and offer me a seat! Soon at the border at about 8am or thereabouts…a minimum of hassle…Malaysia 90day stamp…make sure I take photo of the notice about dress-code and appearance for entry to “The Kingdom”...Thailand. Maybe it' the original one...been there since the '70s, if it is. Delayed departure waiting for north-bound train…in fact delayed arrival at Butterworth because this continues to happen…get in at about 3pm local time…Malaysia being one hour ahead of Thailand. Go south and the time changes...what could this mean?
Walk along to the ferry…only 5 minutes from station…across to the developed island.
Off the ferry and walking, not knowing where the backpack area is…a Chinese lawyer... who’s on his way home, takes me and drops me at a cheap hotel...the Noble…but it’s still Chineses New Year going on here and the price is double…MR38 or about $11…so I find a place called Sky Hotel for MR25…on Chulia St…the main street of the backpacker/budget area….
Original is a kind description…but I’m buggered…been on the go for about 30 hours from Trat! Have a rest and head out…having an Indian meal (with Indians) on the street in 'Little India' for reasonable price…trying to find a store that sells adapter plug…so I can charge things up…and boil water for coffee. Go to a place with Wifi to check mail…can’t connect…no help either from the grumpy chink. Back in the room…try to connect …and bingo...Penang free hotspot.
But news is not good…Mum is in a worse way…Irene says she’s ‘not scared of dying, and will go to the Lord’ soon…two valves aren’t working properly…still in hospital…My brother, Cameron and Aunt Jess up there too…family conference…if Mum gets well enough to leave hospital…will spend her last days in retirement home on Waikeke. I’m advised AGAIN to return as soon as possible if I want to see her in a reasonable condition…her memory is going…and she’ll only go downhill from here, is what I’m told. Strung out from the travel...but buzzing from the fact that I'm in a new town...but I must get some meaningful SLEEEEEEP…think things over more clearly after I do…and will look for a better room tomorrow too. So I've been 10 days 'on the road' already.
