Cambodia
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2005
1
16
19
Trip End
Ongoing
Phnom Phen,
Cambodia
Sunday, August 6, 2006
It has been great to catch up with a number of people that have come over to S.E.Asia (Mark Dunning, Susan Marshall, Sandy Kinghorn, Aussie Peter and Andy Bloomfield (and family), it was great to see you all again.
Mark was first to come and after spending a few days in Chiang Mai we flew over to Cambodia and spent most of our time wandering around Ankor Wat and Phnom Phen, we managed to fit in a couple of beers as well, lets just say that there are not too many bars in Cambodia that we have not been too.
On Susan's visit I ended up riding my bike to Phnom Phen, Cambodia via Pattaya and meeting her at the airport in PP, it was a great ride, lots of dirt tracks and river crossing, some of which I had to put the bike on a raft to get across
1-2-3 Smile
. We traveled from PP to Ankor Wat (I rode and Susan took the bus), spent a few days there and then headed back to Thailand. The rode to Thailand was fine on the bike, about 4 hours over rough dirt road but apparently the bus trip was not that enjoyable, 8 hours to travel 150 kms. Sorry about that Susan. Once back in Thailand Susan and I went up North and hiked up to an Akha village through small villages and gunja fields, it was some serious trekking and we really had to push our way through the jungle. It should have been a two hour hike but ended in about 6 hours, took a wrong turn. Sorry about that.I went down to Phuket for my birthday and met up with an Aussie mate, I had a horrible flu at the time but we managed to have a great time. There was one night that I am not going to give the details of here but it was one of the funniest nights I have ever had. Good luck back in Oz mate, no doubt I will see you over here again in the near future.
Hooked up with Sandy and we went to meet Andy in Hua Hin. Hua Hin is a pretty modern place by Thailand standards but still has a layback atmosphere. I have never seen a man sing 'Like a virgin' before but Sandy did a great version in front of a packed house at the Hilton Hotel, needless to say that there were Sambuca shots involved
Angkor wat
. Sandy also won the go-carting, whith Andy second and me finishing in last position, but I must say that I was in the lead when my card ran out of petrol.Sandy came with me back to Chiang Mai and we did a fair bit of riding (XR 250's), it was in the middle of the wet season so the tracks were very muddy and slippery, we both had a few falls but none that hurt anything apart from our pride. I take it sandy enjoyed the riding as when he got back to Oz he bought himself a brand new KTM.
I spent a couple of weeks in Australia and it was great to see all my family again, for most of you it has been 6 years since we have been together. It was great to meet my new nieces and nephews and hopefully it will not be another 6 years before we see each other again.
Some of you probably realize that I should have been back in the UK working by now as my 12 month career break came to an end. While I had a few discussion with the team at Xerox I soon came to the decision that the time was not right for me to return just yet. After 12 months living with people that their number 1 priority in life is having enough food for the day, going back to make money for a company that sells printers does not really excite me at this stage.
So, I am taking the bike to Southern Laos and Northern Thailand in a few days and from there, well, who knows...........
OK, I think we are all up to date now.
Keep in touch.
