bumblebee

He is the Russian owner, nice guy who played the sounds we wanted to hear.

Some more of the frivolities before the next event. :rolleyes: *Some photos courtesy of Coco.

It will be short and sweet, just an eventful 24 hours in the lives of some traveling LB hunters.

The hotel we book into is pretty good, with all the rooms facing a main pool. We reckon we might spend the duration of the trip here, little do we know at this stage that we would not even spend 1 night in the place. By the time we get sorted it is almost 11 pm, so we head up to beach area to get something to eat. Most places have stopped serving and a tuk tuk driver tells us we will have to go to Freedom bar which serves food till midnight. It’s in the main town area, about 2 km away. The tuk tuk takes us there, and after we order we call PDogg to join us. He says he will be along soon and is true to his word. A freelance GG hovers around our table and we think hell let’s ask her where do the ladyboys hang out here. She replies JJs bar, back down on the beach near where we are staying. For some reason we cannot shake her, and she joins us in the tuk tuk. PDogg calls one of the LBs who work in a bar he frequents and asks her can she tell some of her friends there are some LB lovers heading to JJs bar. JJs is a pretty busy, noisy place on the waterfront full of partying backpackers, ok for a drink, but not really our gang’s scene. Suddenly we notice a few of ours turning up, the phone call has worked its magic. We also see that there is a relaxing, empty looking bar out on the jetty. Before we know it the five of us and a few LBs are on our way there. Gradually the place begins to fill up with, what we were to discover in the coming days, were most of the local LBs. 12 are counted at one point. I turn to PDogg at one stage and remark it is like a scene out of one of those rock videos where the singers have a party around a pool surrounded by hot girls, except this was real.

It just covers one day, albeit an eventful one.

More to come BT,it was an eventful day/night.

We leave the blockade at 4 pm, and reach Highway 3 at about 5-ish. Time to start all over again, 4 hours after we originally left PP. I mention to the guys that on the way back from one of the Ezy road trips last year, Lita kept stopping and supplying us with drink to keep us distracted from the journey, now there is an idea. :rolleyes: For those not familiar with Cambodia, along the highways there are small fuel stalls every few KMs, which also sell booze. There are 2 main brands of beer here, Angkor and Anchor. To make it more confusing, Angkor is pronounced like a ship's anchor, while the other is pronunced AnnSHORE. While Kliome and myself are not so fussy but prefer Anchor, Coco is the only one not flexible on this, and only drinks Anchor. Most of the stalls have plenty of Angkor, and it is a struggle to keep him in liquid, but we manage it. Ninewives is not a beer drinker and is happily sipping away on some gin from what I recall. Of course, when anyone drinks so much on an air con bus, eventually the call of nature becomes overwhelming. We decide to synchronise our pit stops to limit them. These stops are pretty harmless, as the highway is pitch dark and little traffic. One stop gets a bit scary however. We stop and Kliome decides to jump down a small bank while we stay beside the van and take aim into the darkness. As our eyes adjust to the darkness, we realise that Kliome is pissing into some farmer's vegetable plot. To make matters worse, we spot some of the owners jump up in the low light about 40 metres to our left, and make their way towards us. We finish our discharges rapidly and jump into the van and shout DRIVE. After more booze refuels and urine breaks we eventually make it to Snookey about 10 pm, 6 hours later than planned.

Got a few things to do myself Farangbah, but hope to post a bit more later in the afternoon. Need to find somewhere to live here this afternoon.

While the times we travel can be fun and eventful, seldom does a day have so much happen as a day in SE Asia. The day we went to Sihanoukville was one of those stand out days. We book a mini van for midday to get us to Snooky by late afternoon, it should be a 3 to 4 hour trip depending on traffic. We pile in at 12.40 pm, myself, Ninewives, Kliome and Coco. Comfortably seated we set off on our $90 journey. All is going to plan until we come to a backlog of traffic at the 91 km point on Highway 4. The driver passes the traffic and in the distance myself and Kliome, the other two are out cold, can make out what looks like branches and local farmers blocking the road. He gets to about 50 metres from the barrier when some guy outside says something to him in Khmer and he does a swift U turn. He does not speak much if any English, but his noises indicate if we go any further we will get "bang bang" or something similar. We park a bit furtehr up the road and discuss our options. We talk to the people who we booked the van with, and they tell us they are not sure how long this will last. Coco, Ninewives and myself stroll up to the barrier and see some officials negotiating with the protesters. The leaflet the proteters is in Khmer, but we are informed it means the people in this area are protesting about the government taking their land, and that they gave the government a deadline which has passed, which indicated that they would take action, ie block the main route between Phnom Penh and Snookey. As we don't know how long this will take to be settled, we make a call to drive back towards Phnom Penh, and get onto Highway 3 and take that road to Snookey, adding another 5/6 hours to our journey, plus another $60 but at least we are moving.

Great work RX, a wonderful occasion indeed.

This all happened in Shianoukville, back in PP now, guys leave tomorrow so I'll have more time to myself to catch up with the forums.

Photos and tales to come as soon as I can catch my breath, give me a day or so to recover, it's been a roller coaster. 80

Too late, been here a week now, so unless someone else steps up to the plate there is going to be a photo famine for a while.

Welcome aboard guys, we are a relatively civilised bunch here so feel free to join in.

I don't think Ciobha will be replying on this thread until he gets home. He is nervous to access the sites on the work's computer he is using.

Another welcomed guest at the party, Alis back in familiar surroundings.

Those intrepid explorers will soon be there. No LB stone will be left unturned for the cause.

My pleasure BT.

The girls really put on an effort with the costumes, well done Nok and the crew.

That is correct, the remaining forces will have to battle on with depleted numbers. Half of us are in Phnom Penh now.

Well the recent party season came to a climatic end with this do on Sunday. There seems to have been a party in Patts almost every second day recently. So many FMs is town, these gatherings have been something special as has been noted by the guys who attended. This one in La Bamba, and later on the terrace in Famous, a great spot for a party by the way, was another fantastic night in good company. Lita and he girls turned up, along with a couple of celebrities. So without further ado here are some images for those of you who could not be there.

Just about to head out to another party, this time it's FM Ciobha's 40th birthday. Should be a good night, I'll try to upload some photos as soon as I find a signal in Cambodia. Anyone in town, feel free to drop in and wish the lad a happy birthday.

Some more of the action, it was a damn long night.

Cheers BigTel, gotta make the troops at home feel like there were there.

Let's continue on with the night.