Travel Photography | 52. Onwards to Phnom Phen!
Riding my cool pink bike around the first corner, three police officers pulled me over and “fined” me 20$. It went straight to the guy’s pocket, I saw!
Handshake, smile and off I went. Without a licence, of course. After that, I always had it with me. Not that anyone cared anymore.
Anyhow…
This is what happened 6-11.1.2012.
Getting off the boat, quite shaken by the week on an island, took moto-taxis because the tuk-tuk driver was not there. It was weird since we still had an outstanding debt of 350$ to pay him. We could have just taken off! Rare to find this kind of trust anywhere anymore.
Needless to say, we called him up to meet us at the Monkey Republic.
As you can see, safety always comes first in Cambodia. I felt secure enough to shoot photos with one hand while holding on (to my beer) with the other.
After detoxing for two days in Sihanoukville (yes, the bikes were still idling in the hotel garage for 6$ per day), we felt like it was time to move on.
Ghost rider!
On the way, we decided to stop in Kampot, where the pepper grows. Naturally, we had the Kampot pepper steak. It was awesome!
The pepper that is imported to many countries is green here, instead of black. The taste quite sweet with a bit of a kick. Later in Siem Reap, we found a bar that serves Kampot pepper shots that are made by infusing fresh peppers in vodka! Simply delicious!
Finally, we reached Kep by the sundown to return our bikes. The owner was a little surprised we kept the bikes so long. We thought it wasn’t necessary to tell him why.
Kep was now full of local tourists and almost all hotels were full. “Kindly” enough our moto-guy pointed us to one that had room, in exchange for a 1$ tuk-tuk ride across the street. Nothing quite like getting ripped off at the end of a long day. Seriously, we could have walked faster. 🙂
Early in the morning we took a bus towards Phnom Phen and arrived in good time to walk around the city, which was surprisingly comfy for an Asian capital! Well, it is not exactly a big city with only some 2 million people. Still, have to say I really liked the place, right from the get-go.
Nap time for the rickshaw guy.
These miniature gas stations were everywhere. As they should! I ran out of juice twice while riding in Cambodia.
Better be careful with that bottle of Johnny Walker there though, the colour is deceiving…
As stated before.
Simple elegance.
Organic chicken.
Got bikes for one day to see more. Got my international licence too!
Antti wanted to show me the biggest natural lake in Phnom Phen, Boeung Kak. He was there couple years back. After riding in circles for quite a while, not finding it, I began to question his sense of directions.
After short googling, we found out that a local corrupt senator has paid 79M$ to lease the lake for 99 years! He pumped it full of sand, flooding over 10000 people out of their houses, to build residential areas and shopping complexes. Nice!
Moving on…
Wat Phnom and yet another storyboard on Buddha becoming Buddha. Liked this temple very much! Well worth the 1$ admission.
Practical clock.
Here is the end of the trip (when I remembered to snap on the GPS)
Phnom Penh race at EveryTrail.
Oh! Almost forgot. I also, unknowingly, smashed my sidelight (or someone moving my bike did) and had to pay 15$ to fix it.
Turns out, Cambodia, not a cheap place to ride…
After the hard days (expensive)ride, it was only appropriate to cool our heels in a hard rock bar with 50cent Pastis!
20 or so white tourists racing each other with prepaid rickshaws in matching shirts. I have seen enough.
Next up, Angor Wat!!
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(First published 11/01/2012 at LiveJournal)
beautiful place!
U promise to follow me when I follow u and I did.
Please am new into it and will really need u to put me through