It was time to leave Phnom Penh for a few days. We had been pleasantly surprised by Phnom Penh especially after some of things we had read and heard from other people.It is amazing that a city that suffered so much under terrible conditions for so long could be so vibrant.
We had, as most people do, booked the bus for our next destination at one of the many local tourist travel agencies. We were off to Kep on the coast for a few days. There was only one bus company running on that route and the picture of a shiny new looking bus of the Phnom Penh Sorya Transport Co. on the agency wall was re-assuring. Given that our last experience on a bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh was more than reasonable, we were quietly confident that all would be well on bus ride number 2...hahahaha. The $11 (I think it was that - I lost the ropey bits of paper) round trip cost of the ticket for the nearly 300km journey was more than reasonable and even included pick up from the hotel in a minibus!
All started well but then doubts emerged as we looked at the ropey pieces of paper that were our tickets. We were dropped off (more like 'dumped') at the chaotic bus station and someone vaguely pointed to the equally chaotic ticket office. We had been told to exchange our ropey looking tickets at the ticket office and to confirm our ride back to PP from Kep.
Not much talking was done but the ropey bits of paper were exchanged for equally looking ropey bits of paper which were carefully stashed in my money belt. We then pushed our way through the throng of people towards bus 72. It was nowhere near as shiny as the bus in the picture at the travel agency! The sight of someone we found out later was the driver, scrambling around in a compartment loaded with batteries and muttering, was not reassuring. We found out a few minutes later he was in the nerve centre of the less than sophisticated air-conditioning system for the bus. It was a very hot and humid afternoon, the thought of no A/C for the 5 hour journey started to get very unpleasant indeed. I put the bags in an very dusty and well used luggage compartment and hoped that the bags would not fall out through the floor or get soaking wet if we went through a lot of puddles!
We clambered on the bus and sat in our allocated seats which were right above the front wheels which only added to the sense of cramped space for me with my long legs! The bus had obviously seen a bit of action and the signage in Korean around the bus was a pretty obvious clue as to where the bus started off it's illustrious career. It is hard to imagine that it would be economical to ship clapped out buses from Korea to Cambodia for a second life!
We set off about 15 minutes after the scheduled time only to drive for 10 seconds to park across the road! The driver and some of the passengers got off - it was all a bit confusing. We stayed in our seats and began to wonder if we should have forked out $50 for a private car to take us to Kep instead. A few minutes later the bus driver and most of the passengers who got off re-appeared. The driver struggled to get the bus into reverse gear (he had parked to close to a car in front of us) but he finally managed and just as we were finally getting ready to go fro a real, there was a knocking on the door. A tall and very hot back-packer guy (read: very sweaty - he was only "reasonable" looking) wanted to get back on. The driver had told him the wrong time to get back on the bus. We were to later nick-name the young tall back-packer "head-boy" because we imagined he had been one at school, he had that way about him!
We weaved our way out of Phnom Penh amongst the myriad of motorcycles and tuk-tuks. Our driver was a "Knight of the Road" and proceeded to blast his very loud and completely serviceable horn at every opportunity, especially after he had sneaked up on some unsuspecting motorcyclist! The road condition deteriorated badly and quickly even before we had left Phonom Penh and this set the scene for the next 5 hours. Never will I complain about roadworks on British motorways. The Cambodians were trying to upgrade the road while drivers in vehicles of all shapes and sizes ploughed their way right through the roadworks. At times, it looked like the road had disappeared but our driver who obviously drove this route every day, knew every pothole and bump in the nearly non-existent road!
We tried to watch the world go by, but it was hot, bumpy and almost impossible to read a book. The A/C was just blowing the hot air about, but I guess it was better than nothing. After the first hour, we were more than beginning to see the funny side. The bus we were on was doing it's job, getting us ever closer to Kep and had not yet broken down. The driver seemed to be at one with his bus and he coaxed it along very successfully. The views out of the surprisingly clean windows was an absolute delight. Hundreds of cyclists were scared senseless by our horn hooting driver and some of them ended up in the ditch by the side of the road. Size really does matter in Cambodia and the bus driver knew it only too well! There were though occasions when even he yielded to even bigger and even dodgier looking lorries. There was a momentary lack of concentration by the driver and we narrowly escaped running into the back of pick-up truck that was parked in the middle of the road - the smell of burning rubber and overheated brakes stayed with us for quite a few miles. The driver of course had seen it all before and laughed off this minor incident!
After about 2 hours we stopped for a break in a dusty town. The place was much cleaner than the one we had experienced a few days earlier on the Vietnam/Cambodian border but I was not tempted by any of the food on offer, having a can of Sprite instead!
After about 20 minutes we got back on the bus and the driver and his assistant drove on without seemingly checking to see if everyone was on board! We headed off down an ever improving road towards some gloomy looking storm clouds - would our bags be safe in the compartment beneath us!? The rain started and it cannot have pleased the driver as the windscreen wipers on the bus had not been replaced in ages - using them actually made his visibility worse. He continued, undeterred by this only slightly irritating inconvenience. At least the rain helped cool things down inside the bus!
About 30km from Kep, there was much passenger/bus driver interaction as passengers negotiated their preferred dropping off points. One man agreed his drop off point and then got distracted at the rear of the bus by some young ladies. He missed his stop by about 10 minutes before he realised that he had. The bus stopped next to acres and acres of rice paddies. What looked like pretty relaxed discussions between the driver, the passenger and other 'helpful' passengers ensued. In the time that they took to decide how to resolve this situation, the driver could have turned the bus around, dropped of the guy and continued on our way. But no, the negotiations (it looked negotiating) continued to the point that "Head-boy" could not stand and this tall 24'ish guy started being all head-boyish about the situation. He was of course ignored and went back to his seat with a shrug or two of his broad shoulders. By this point in the journey, we were not upset at all and we wished the man well when a tuk-tuk the drivers assistant had managed to track down appeared. We all waved at him when we finally set off again for Kep.
The rain had stopped as we approached Kep although the clouds still looked dark and menacing but as it was early evening, that was hardly surprising I suppose! We were met at the bus stop by a number of tuk tuk drivers. We failed to use our now preferred method of picking the best looking driver and ended up with a fairly pushy (and not that good-looking) guy. We had spent 5 hours on the bus and all we wanted was to get to the hotel. We negotiated the fare and set off in a clapped out tukt tuk. Other passengers who got into their tuk tuks after us went flying past us and waved at us happy in knowing we had picked the lemon. Even when the bus passed us on it's way to Kampot the driver blasted his horn and most of the passengers waved and laughed as we crawled up the hill in out 150cc tuk tuk! We left the main road and headed along a dirt road. The rain of early had turned the road into a slippery mess of mud and it was not surprising when the driver indicated he could not take us and our bags to the top of the hill to our hotel. So we got out and watched as our bags were driven up the hill - the driver never came back to collect us and we clambered the last 200 yards up the hill to the hotel. At last we had made it although the driver did not offer us any discount for having to walk the last bit of the ride! He then had the balls to ask if we wanted him to drive us around the next day! We spent the next 3 days trying to avoid him but not always successfully - Kep was not a big place!
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