Thursday, January 3, 2008

170 km Cambodia Moto-tour

The day after our big Christmas Eve party we just hung out at the beach and took it easy, in preparation for our big motorcycle tour. Valton, one of the guest house owners, along with his family, some other friends, and a couple of other guest house occupants and us, we all went for a 170 km motorcycle tour around the Sihanoukville region on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas). Valton and his family closed up shop for the day and took us on a fantastic journey.


I think we were about 10 motorcycles in total, some with one rider and others, like ours, with two.


We mostly traveled on rural dirt roads, visiting some of the lesser visited parts of the region.


The rural scenery was fantastic.


What to say.


We had dirt in our teeth for having smiled all day.


We got a flat tire, and only had to go 400 meters from where it was punctured to find a small house with a fisherman who could fix it. Everybody out in these rural parts can pretty much fix anything as there are few options other than to do it yourself. Always service with a smile, too. We found the Khmer people to have a very pleasant demeanor.


Looking rather red, mainly from the dust, we finally arrived out our lunch stop.


A small Khmer restaurant at the edge of Rheam National Park, right on the water. Another seafood feast ensued, this time with fish pulled live from a cage in the water and cooked immediately. Also fresh crab and steamed prawns. Valton is a great chef and he sure knows how to find the good local eateries as well.


From lunch it was onward into the park, along some even less traveled roads. Our final destination before racing the sun back home was a gorgeous, truly empty beach...


Until we got there, that is. Voila!

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