Reception kindly arranged some transport back to the bus stop for us and we were deposited by a mini bus half full of people – this apparently was the bus to the border! Tickets were purchased and we climbed aboard. By the time we reached the border we had lost half of our passengers to various stops along the way. Kris didn't have a visa which wasn't a problem as they issued them at the crossing. I showed my visa, paused for my photo and walked on . Kris filled in the various forms then discovered he was 200 Bart short for the fee! I only had dollars on me as we hadn't wanted to change too much money this close to the change of currency over the border. Kris asked a taxi driver where he could change money and discovered it was in town 7km away inside Cambodia! The Taxi driver then offered to lend us the 200 Bart if we took his taxi to town so we could change money. As we were going that way anyway it seemed a good enough deal and having confirmed his price, money changed hands and Kris got his Visa!
In town we stopped at the money changer, paid off our Taxi man and crossed the road to The Dugout Hotel. The place had been recommended by Simon, Kris's boss and the rooms were gorgeous! A tiny plunge pool stood at the centre of the courtyard with about five rooms surrounding it. Shining tiles adorned the walls and floor, green palms and plants climbed the pillars, all for $8. We ate lunch in their restaurant as the Owner, a lovely guy from New Zealand arrange for someone to come over to sort boat tickets for journey to Sihanoukville.
The daily boat used to be the only way to get to Sihanoukville but in the past year or so they had built a road through the jungle and now three buses a day did the journey in two hours. At a fraction of the price of the boat it was killing the boat trip which now only ran periodically. As it happened it was running the next day and as everyone watched on in wonderment, having explained many times to me that the bus was faster, cheaper and had Air Conditioning, I bought our tickets for the BOAT!!! It was my holiday and I wanted to go on a BOAT!! Our man arranged to pick us up from The Dugout at 7.45 the next morning and was gone.
We now had all afternoon to explore the town, which we quickly discovered consisted of four roads in a square!!! The sea ran down one road but it wasn't the sort of beach you could walk along, in fact the town was placed at the end of what looked like a huge estuary with the actual sea maybe a mile further along the coast. We spotted the jetty where our boat would leave from and turned right, back into 'town'. The roads were deserted. As we walked along we found a German Bar called Ottos hidden in the row of houses. It had an upstairs balcony and offered food, drinks, books and rooms. We drank iced lemon, played cards, told more stories and enjoyed the peace.
Having become bored of the 'peace' we were heading back to the Dugout when Kris notices two huge Welsh Flags hanging in the bar across the road. We quickly detoured our journey and finding a large pool table cooled by large overhead fans, settled once again into comfy chairs with some iced lemon and a beer. Fat Sam, as the place was called, was asleep upstairs having just returned from a trip to Wales that morning! This was worth waiting for so we chatted to a guy from Scotland who now lived in Cambodia and another guy who had also settled in the country until Sam emerged.
Living up to his name Fat Sam waded into our mists about two hours later. Yes he knew Machynlleth, he was from Tregaron. He'd been the chef at the big hotel there for years and was fluent in Welsh as were his Cambodian children! He had been holidaying in Thailand and Cambodia for years and had met his wife about five years ago. They had married in Wales at the Hotel where he worked but had decided after a year to return to Cambodia and start up their own business. Moving from their first bar to this one a year ago, things were going from strength to strength. The menu was simple and good, we had ordered jacket potatoes and salad just before Sam had come down, Kristofer confusing the girl totally by asking for tuna AND cheese instead of one OR the other.
The afternoon flew by as we exchanged names of people we both knew. It really is a small world these days. We were still there as darkness fell and were joined by a couple in their late 20s who were also staying at the Dugout. They were at the end of their third month of travelling and were full of interesting stories. When they discovered we had been on Holiday Showdown plus the fact that I had the DVD with me, a laptop was produced and much to Kris's dismay we all watched it again!! He did get some beer out of it so it wasn't all bad.
Sam's real name is Malcolm Edwards and his niece, Christine, had come over to stay with him for the next three months. We had a wonderful night with them all, drinking, laughing, talking about meditation and philosophy as well as travel. It was well past midnight when I made my excuses and headed back to our room to catch up on my writings and packing. Kris arrived after 1am, we were due to be picked up for the boat in 6 hours!!
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