Link to the previous page malaysia–trip1-e 
to be back
Back in Hua Hin: 14 days in our pretty Big Apple. Did our water aerobics every day. Off to the dentist, stitches were removed in no time – next appointment at the end of November.
Spent 2 days trying to reconcile dentist, Big Apple (fully booked for 4 months from Dec) and visa. From Oct. 1, the visa is valid for 45 days. Fortunately, we were allowed to leave our suitcases in the Big Apple again, although there is hardly any space to store them.
We want to stay in Bangkok from September 11 to 18 and have a look around. No more temples — Gerhard has had enough for now and we have already visited the most important ones during our first stay.
Sunday we took the bus to Bangkok at 1pm and were at the hotel by 6:30pm. Found our street food from last time straight away, but everything had deteriorated, become more expensive, like everything here after Covid, portions much smaller and food tasteless. We were disappointed, but the old man who cooked here last time was no longer there and the young successor was just busy playing boss and everything seemed very listless. Too bad.
We frittered away the morning and in the afternoon the heavens opened with thunder and lightning. A bit late we found a funny pub where you can get everything from storing suitcases to „renting a room“ during the day (…I didn’t get to try EVERYTHING ;-)) …-G.); the walls were literally scribbled all over from top to bottom, saving you from having to redecorate.
This time we concentrated on markets and unusual shopping malls, most of which are located on the river, so we were able to do some nice sightseeing tours by riverboat. (And above all, once again experience Petra’s now beloved Ferris wheel …-G.)
Twice on the way back we got caught in one of the incredible downpours of the rainy season, which forced us to stand somewhere in the dark and wait, wait, wait……
In one of the big malls we finally even managed to get a shoehorn (for Gerhard’s hiking boots) and it’s unbelievable how hard they try to find something like that even in huge stores.
Everyone here still generally wears a mask, voluntarily, it’s not an issue at all, I’ve already explained the advantages for me several times, although I’m the one who always forgets to wear a mask.
We are entitled to 2 bottles of water every day here at the hotel. There are now 4 and we can’t drink that much coffee and tea either – but it’s still nice.
I didn’t miss the opportunity to visit the train station opposite the hotel. The trains head north from here. But it’s not really spectacular or exciting.
Today we met the boss of the small restaurant ( ..where you can get everything… …-G.), funny like his restaurant, and suddenly we got a big plate with the best fruits.
The next day we were there again, out of convenience and to return the favor, but we didn’t succeed, because we got another fruit plate and he ran after us with bananas „for breakfast“, because we have to get up tomorrow at 3:30 !!!! the plane leaves at 6:55 for Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
We report here on the first part of our trip:
Phnom Penh
The first impression on landing – huge areas are flooded
After a 1 ½ hour flight we were there, and learned that there is no public transportation in Phnom Penh, then that there is a bus, but it doesn’t run on Sundays. So we relaxed again with Grab, who sent us a tuck tuck, to the hotel. The hotel had a grandiose name like Palace Hotel, but we couldn’t find it. Back and forth. We dismissed the driver and after an intensive search we found a hidden corridor with the name emblazoned inconspicuously above it. Oh God, big shock, what is that! We meandered along the corridor between the old, ugly houses: oh dear, groaned Mrs., something must have gone wrong with the booking.
But suddenly the corridor opened up, letting in air and light, and we were standing in front of a beautiful, almost new building with an Asian touch: actually squeezed into the backyard with an architecture that made the building appear so light and open and large that it left our mouths agape. Unfortunately, it can’t be reproduced as there wasn’t enough space to take photos. The room was also quite large, nice and unusual. It was also quite quiet except for the mulah, who sometimes sang all day.
We can choose between 6 different breakfast options every day and at the moment I am so greedy for raw food and eat a wonderful bowl with 5 different fruits and yoghurt every morning, Gerhard sticks to scrambled eggs or omelette.
And we even had two attentive guardians!
The city lies at the confluence of the Mekong and Bassac Rivers and has an attractive promenade. The influence of the French colonial era is unmistakable. The traffic is dominated by motorcycles and tuk-tuks. Of course, there are also some interesting places that we visited. The city is characterized by buildings from the French colonial era, some of which are in excellent condition, but some of which have fallen into disrepair. Old and new are often mixed together. Here is a small impression, again with a temple, of course. We were struck by some colorful and erotic depictions in the temples. It seems that people were more open to life and the opposite sex in earlier years. But we’ll just let the pictures do the talking.
Uhhm – no, it’s not Petra with the cell phone, she’s not ready yet…. 😉
Here the sidewalks are parking spaces for motorcycles and cars, those who absolutely have to walk can use the street!
I also paid a visit to the „station“ here. Somehow it wasn’t that busy – a train probably only runs once a week, at the weekend, and it wasn’t a weekend. But already „super prepared….
And of course we were impressed by the everyday vehicles for locomotion and transportation, which also sparked our enthusiasm. I’m sure there are also a few ideas to get you started yourself. The tiny problem could be the TÜV, which is not always so flexible and practice-oriented.
The sidewalks here are just as broken as in Thailand and Malaysia, well, the king doesn’t have to walk along them. Apart from that, everything of interest is closed except for the National Museum. We first spent a lot of time researching various interesting institutions, only to find out that they were closed, the name had changed, they had moved or no longer existed. And you’re always left standing in front of closed doors without a clue. It always seems to be related to Covid. But Covid isn’t even an issue here, nobody walks around wearing a mask. But once it’s closed, no one is responsible for reopening it. So only the National Museum, well then, you should plan at least 2 hours. We were there at 10:30. At 11:30 the lights suddenly went out: Lunchtime, the museum is closed for 2 hours, but you can come back in afterwards with your tickets. How nice. It’s a MAIN CITY!!!! But the entrance fee has risen from 2$ to 10$. You don’t see any completely naked figures here – just individual naked facts.
Here you pay in USD if possible, almost all prices are marked in $, out you get the local currency Riel. 4000 riel is 1$; it took some getting used to. Fortunately, we knew this beforehand and stocked up on one-dollar bills, sometimes it doesn’t work out quite so well and then you don’t know where to put the pack of change money, you might put in $10 and get out 20,000 (riel) and that in small but pretty and new bills with the royal family on them.
And after a week, we make our way to Kampot.
The bus is already waiting.
Kampot
After some deliberation, we left the east behind and headed straight to Kampot in the local minibus to a new guesthouse to pay homage to the world’s best and most expensive pepper. It is mostly grown organically and tastes truly unique. Kampot is also on the river. We strolled through the town, which is also known for its well-preserved houses from the French era.
The organized tour through the tourist office (it really existed here) was done with a tuk tuk and the driver couldn’t speak English, as promised and it started to rain, everything was soaking wet after a short while but we lasted 6 hours, even the tuk tuk raced up the mountains and through the water. And again there were an amazing number of people on the road, without raincoats or umbrellas they raced up and down the mountains, at least we had „raincoats“ (plastic tarpaulins) with us, but they started to tear in the wind, but we saw everything we wanted, as far as we could see in the rain.
We had to skip the pepper tour the next day, which was a shame, but the typhoon from the south was making itself felt.
Koh Rong Sanleum
We are going to Sihanoukville tomorrow and want to take a ferry from there to a small island, then almost 4 km through the jungle to the other side to straw-covered huts. It’s supposed to be quite arduous, but we want to test our fitness again. We are curious. (You could also take the regular ferry around the whole island ……..)
This morning, breakfast packed, coffee and water too. In the meantime we have learned that the guesthouse is owned by 3 brothers and a sister. This morning the 3rd brother turned up and kindly drove us to the bus port. The bus is supposed to leave at 9 and arrive in Sihanoukville at 12:30. There the bus driver was supposed to take care of the ferry ticket for us to Koh Rong Sanleum. From everything we had heard, we thought we were the only ones traveling to this area under these circumstances. The travel agency called the driver twice in between to see if he was still going. To our astonishment, the bus was full to the last seat, including a Swedish couple who wanted to go to one of the islands. The road was easy to drive AND THEN IT WENT OFF: it’s impossible to describe what the „road“ was like: it could only have been caused by the bombing raids by the Americans, who rained bombs all over the country. Even today, people are still warned not to leave the road just to pee. At first you laugh and find it funny how the cars, vans and even trucks balance around there, I just wondered how the cars manage these jumps without breaking. And the road was very busy and it was pouring with rain.
Soon it was just annoying and we couldn’t understand why nothing was being done. After hours and 20km of hole after hole, it was over and, amazingly, we arrived after 3 ½ hours, only to be told that the police had banned all ferries for the next 4 days due to the effects of the typhoon that had just hit Cambodia and the south of Thailand coming from Vietnam.
So we sit (or rather stand… …-G) for hours in the shed at the landing stage, waiting for the storm rain to subside and looking for a hotel. The disappointment was great. But we were lucky and found a great hotel, first class and just enjoyed a large, comfortable room, with 5 (FIVE) seats, one of those new or former grand hotels that are no longer profitable, with very young people at reception who are nice but otherwise have no idea and don’t understand anything.
The ashtray is obviously intended to make it clear what the smoking ban refers to !??
The only thing missing from this great hotel: there is no cafe and therefore no breakfast, not even nearby. Fortunately, there are some groceries almost opposite. So today we have fruit and oatmeal ( from Finland !!!!, but organic), ( …and tomorrow fruit and oatmeal ( from Finland !!!!, but organic), and then fruit and oatmeal ( from Finland !!!!, but organic …-G. ), with almond milk and honey.
Today we want to head to the beach. It’s just starting to pour and Gerhard thinks the beach will soon stretch as far as here anyway.
There was no beach anyway, everything was occupied by Chinese and covered in ruined buildings. The streets that lead to the sea on the city map have now been built over or are in the process of being built over. The mayor has probably sold his soul to clever Chinese profiteers and everyone is angry (i.e. the locals …-G.).
Souhanoukville used to be famous, infamous because of the many casinos in the town. These still exist, but are run-down and closed.
We then found the remains of the former beach at a Chinese restaurant, only to be surprised by the rain again and where we were still able to take a look at the sea, on which we actually wanted to sail to the island. An obviously empty ferry shows us what it would have looked like.
View from the hotel room – a new heavy downpour every 15 minutes
The streets are relatively newly built with wide sidewalks that can accommodate a lot of garbage. The sidewalk is somewhat dangerous for pedestrians, as it is used by motorcycles and tuk-tuks and many of the paving slabs are now broken. The city is also special because of the countless ruined buildings. But we also want to share this with you – the charm of ugliness!
An unbelievable number of scaffolding towers up into the sky here, but as nobody speaks English, we can’t find out why. We assume that there was a building freeze when the mayor sold the city center and the whole beach to the Chinese and it was no longer interesting for the hotels to build here if no one came to the beach, and the Chinese have their own hotels. They also built many casinos, which are now closed because they were banned from above. (It is completely incomprehensible how a city can be allowed to fall into such disrepair. It must be a case of corruption involving huge sums of money. Some of the cranes are still standing, which were probably disposed of in the same way. The contrast between some of the completed buildings and the ruins in between is incredible. …-G. ) The whole thing does not exactly contribute to international understanding, even though the Chinese built and donated a super highway to the Cambodians „To seal the friendship between the two peoples“ is written on the bridges.
Sihanoukville, the stopover on the way over the Cardamon Mountains to Battambang. Then came the surprise that there was no longer a train through the mountains, nobody knew why, but there was. There was only one option: back to Phnom Penh and from there.
Due to time constraints, we can only tell you about this in the second part of our Cambodia trip!
Link to the next page cambodia–2-e
The inserted travel routes were created with Google Maps.
Translated with DeepL.com