Kampot to Sihanoukville and Out

After Phenom Penh we headed to Kampot. The main attraction here for us was Bokor National Park, where apparently in its thick jungle is home to wild elephants and tigers, not that we saw any. But if you want to drive through it, on a road maintained by the devil himself you can climb a mountain to an old abandoned french Hill Station.

Here is one picture we took of the road, and by no means was it the worst. It took us about 3 hours to get up the 31km road. We only rented a - you guessed it - 100cc Honda, but the little bugger got both of us there. It cost us $3 for the day, and the lady had no problem renting it to us, even after we made it very clear where we were taking it. She not only was okay with it, but she promoted it! Now let me tell you, that poor little bike took the beating of its life that day, and I am sure we took a few years off its life. In retro spec we wished we had rented a dirt bike - something we heard you could rent, but never saw - because I think Jillene and I took about as much of a beating on our backs as the poor little bike.
An old church at the top.And something no Hill station can do without of coarse, a casino! It was pretty cool walking around all the old buildings and the virtual abandoned town that was left behind. I can't imagine the number of hours and bodies it took getting all the materials up this mountain, let alone building it!We can see why they would want to live up here though... they had one heck of a view.
Next we headed to Sihanoukville for some more beaching; can't get enough.

Made some more friends with the local Cambodian kids. This was Tour, he liked to check in with us at least 3-4 times a day usually starting at breakfast, and then later on the beach. He was a great kid, with and awesome sense of humour. Whenever he showed up, and funny and interesting conversation followed. You're never safe from these guys! it is a sad truth, but the beach is littered with these kids selling anything and everything. They use the money to pay for school - or so they tell you, but I am sure in most cases it is true. It is sad reality and Cambodia, as a number of kids are put to work at a very young age by their parents so they can add to the families meager earnings. Not much of a childhood...
We had a lovely bungalow on the beach with a great view overlooking the ocean.
And that is it! We had to go back to Phenom Penh first, but we booked ourselves on a boat trip out of the country and into Vietnam through the Mekong Delta. Not a huge amount of time in this country, but we're running out of time and we still have a lot of ground to cover. I would have liked to spend more time in Cambodia, but it will just have to wait for another day I suppose... Here is me kicking back on the way out.
Our boat made it though!

Hope everyone is well back home. We're doing great over here. Heading out for a nice river boat cruise dinner in Saigon tonight for Jillene's birthday, then heading north. GO FLAMES GO!