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On the Road to Sihanoukville


bumblebee

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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.

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Hey Guys I can assure you this is going to be a good one! :clapping:

Just my 100 riel on the politics, nothing wrong with eminent domain to promote the greater good of society however if one's land is seized one should be fairly compensated and it seems the powers that be never want to be fair if they don't have to be.

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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.

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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.

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WARNING: For those of you of a weak disposition, or who may be eating I would advise to think twice before reading on.

"Let's get outta here, let's get out here" was the chant of, and in fairness I'll not mention which one of us it was, to spare his blushes. The security guard from JJs is after me, I am banned from the place.

He goes on to recall how, on feeling a movement down below, he knew he had about 2 minutes to make it to porcelain safety. As he approaches JJs, he asks where is the toilet, but the girl ushers him into the male urinals, and by now it was way too late to leave. He locks the door, drops the slacks, turns around, bends over and aims as best he can into the pisser.SPLATTER!!.

The urinal fills up immediately and the walls get a fair share of it also by all accounts. In his blind panic to cover up the mess, he reaches into the bowl to remove any blockage and surfaces with some half limes, he tries to push the pagan pile into the pipes, but it was finger in the dyke time.

He hears people knocking to enter, the door would not be locked usually, and in his rush, turns to where the sink would normally be, but no dice, and with quite soiled hands, grabs his britches, pulls them up and and fumbles to look presentable.

He charges towards the door, and shouts at the gathering line, as he pushes his way past "keep away" and the last thing he hears is some unfortunate screaming "Oh my god" The security guard spots him and that's a few moments before he arrives back to where the others are drinking.

*In the interests of research, I went back the next day to see the scene of the crime.

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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.

This is really quite similar to party situations that guys like P Diddy encounter.

True they would have a luxury yacht instead of the modest vessel in the first pic. And maybe they'd be drink Dom Perignon instead of Anchor or Angkor.

But the party is really same same as a group of girls are trying quite hard to win the fancy of the guys.

It was a great party...........top notch guys, friendly but not pushy ladyboys on our turf not some beer bar, beer aflowing, great music, excellent vibes, and instead of a toilet being able to piss off the pier into the Gulf of Thailand.

A great reward for the 10 hour trip the rock steady crew had to endure. Hours after arriving in town, the cutest ladyboys in town found the intrepid travelers. Just as they would find P Diddy.

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Cheers guys, now let's finish this day off with a grand finale. After the event described we decide it's about time we went back to the hotel, and the fact that it is now 4.20, makes this seem like a reasonable idea. But hey, let's finish it off with a swim in the pool there we all agree.

So the whole group of us make our way over to the hotel on a few tuk tuks, a short 3 minute ride. By the time I arrive, Kliome is already in his boxers and ready to get wet. We are not making much noise, well to our drunken ears it seems that way, but suddenly a woman appears on the upper balcony and tells us to leave, not just the pool but the hotel.

We are not sure who she is in the darkness, but then a man appears poolside who claims to be the manager and he tells us the same thing. It is obvious they do not want a gang of LBs staying on the premises.

We try to reason with the guy that we will go to our rooms, but he is having none of it and insists we leave immediately, it's now about 4.40 am. Realising me have no choice, we get our stuff from the rooms, with the help of the LBs and there we all are, a sorry bunch, standing with our bags in the pitch darkness on the road outside the hotel. Fortunately we have not paid the $30 each for the rooms, and the manager never mentions it, it seems he just wants rid of us.

It must have been some sight for any passer by, seeing a group of westerners and LBs carring a load of luggage in the darkness along the street at this ungodly hour. We manage to find rooms about 5 minutes walk away, and this is ok for a few hours, until we can decide on our next move in the morning.

The end of an eventful day.

* Most photos courtesy of Coco.

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I pulled up on my moto a minute or so after BB arrived, right before the shit hit the fan. Now I wasn't even staying at their hotel, motel, holiday inn. I was across town spending my days reading and my nights playing chess at my favorite bar.

So the party on the pier was a chance to live vicariously through my friends and was curious what would be going on back at their digs. On the pier we felt like rock stars and the boys felt invincible. But upon my arrival, I remember saying to Coco, "wonder how long till u guys get kicked out of here", and in sports betting parlance if u took the under you'd have won.

The nasty sound of the owner's wife shrill voice from the balcony was the beginning of the end. Sensing the party's over, figured I'd get out of Dodge before the sheriff arrived.

Coco's pics of the Snooky ladyboys wheelingthe luggage down the road in the wee hours are classic.

What a night. Felt like the king of the world on the pier. And even though getting kicked out of the hotel might not have been pleasant at the time it's a great story to tell the grandkids.

Mix together a few great lads with of bunch of sexy ladyboys, fuel the fire with booze and this is the result! :shok:

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