The arrival at the Parade Plaza bus station is characterized by countless touts and commission hunters, now camouflaged in old Thai motorcycle taxi outfits, but still with their trademark hats and caps. Avoid these at any cost! We continued in the bus although this is their scheduled final stop. We stay on until the G.S.T.Garage on Ekkareach Road, much to the dismay of the touts.
On Ekkareach road is also our proposed hotel or better Guesthouse, Alex from Italy runs a Pizzeria here with a few guestrooms, across from "Holy cow", a neat bar down Ekkareach.
Aircon accommodation for the two of us plus a vintage moped for each for 10 $, we quickly agreed with Alex, who also picked us up from the Garage with his minivan.
Sihanoukville, the seaport city with Cambodias oldest blacktop road to Phnom Penh and the only worthy container freightterminal also boosts a large market. Stefan needed to have his BDU pants attended to and the market has a craft-section with tailors, sewing machines and all sorts of goodies. The heat and bad air in here was horrific, rats zoomed around and everything looked a bit sorry.
The air to breathe here was hot, heavy and humid. Ventilation at this old market was surely it's biggest weakness before some arsonist burnt the whole market down shortly after our visit to Sihanoukville, killing many rats but also a few marketenders and their offspring :(
On partly rotten plywood in between heaps of other trash, my brave comrade stripped quick much to the enjoyment of the females here and had his pants altered. The Krama (headscarf) served him as a cover for those few minutes. He eagerly scanned the floor to avoid any rat climbing up on his naked legs. The Rats were really an annoyance here!
The following days we didn't do much except beachbiking, we must hace covered every square meter of beach drivable between here and Ream Navy base, we had much fun just doing that.
The Occaheuteal and Otres beaches provided the most fun, here we found a few fruitstands and refreshment stops on the otherwise vacated beaches. We swam a great deal too, the little surf was perfect and the water ultraclean.!
Occasional creeks crossing our path were no real obstacle for us, we covered large distances.
On one of these trips, we run into a group of deminers in the morning, but that part of the story was made into a seperate partof SIAMPEDIA, so I will just mention it here.
The Coffee served at Alex's at breakfast in the mornings, was one of the most tasty coffees we both ever had. A dripping device was placed over a glass and the freshest coffee dripped in there. Condensed milk and sugar complemented it for those who liked.
The lovely daughter of Alex and his charming Cambodian wife entertained us and we gladly excanged chewing gum or candy for some wonderful smiles.
Alex sold his business and moved with his entire family within a short timeframe after our stay there. Rumor has it, that he offers his tasty cousine and boarding now in Siem Reap, if anyone has information about his whereabouts there or an email address, the author would be happy to rekindle contact with Alex!
Happy Herb's Pizza was diagonally across whe road, their clientel enjoy Magic Mushrooms on their dish or amounts of Marihuana per slice, that would trigger a gang-war in Los Angeles. Here in liberal Cambodia, you may have that also delivered to your hammock on the beach or home. All it would take is a cellphone call.
