After another warm night's sleep in Phnom Penh I enjoyed a late breakfast before getting picked up by a tuk-tuk to take me to the bus depot for my ride south to the beach. Even though it's only around 200 kilometres from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville, the journey still took over 6 hours. This is largely due to poor roads (rather bumpy) and plenty of slow moving moto traffic requiring the bus to drive slowly for long stretches while waiting for a safe opportunity to pass. While on the bus I engrossed myself in a book, napped, and thought about what was to come. While in Siem Reap I had met a couple of Dutch guys who told me about how easy it is for foreigners to get jobs in hostels and bars in tourist developed areas around South East Asia... even without work visas or permits. With this in mind I studied my guidebook carefully to plan my job hunt strategy.
The bus arrived in downtown Sihanoukville around 7pm when it was already dark. With my bags collected I hopped on a moto-taxi and told him to take me straight to Utopia... a highly touted party hostel near Serendipity Beach. The driver drove me right into the courtyard where one of the girls working the reception desk promptly told me they were full for the night. However, she said since they were a 24 hr. bar as well, I was welcome to crash out in one of the hammocks or couches scattered around the hostel grounds for free. I made short work of finding some foreigners to share a drink with who also let me stash my bags in their room for when I would laze in the hammocks later. Amongst the people I chatted to was an ex-employee of Utopia. I brought up the prospect of getting a job there to which she replied I could probably get a job right away, I just had to talk to Jimmy... but he was gone for the night and 2pm the next day would be the magical hour.
In the morning I collected my bags and headed back to the front desk where I quickly got a dorm bed for $3/night. It was still early by Utopia standards (around noon) so Jimmy was nowhere to be found. No problem... I took the opportunity to wander down to Serendipity Beach and check out some of the town. Sihanoukville is Cambodia's newest city having been inaugurated with the construction of the Sihanoukville Port in 1955 by King Norodom Sihanouk soon after Cambodia achieved independence from France. During the Vietnam War the city was used as an intensive military port until the Khmer Rouge successfully chased the US out of the country in 1975 during the Mayaguez Incident. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 the port became very important to the continued development of Cambodian trade and in 1999 when economic markets in Cambodia were opened up, Sihanoukville lead the way. Now it continues to be an important trade route as well as a tourist attraction due to the many beautiful (albeit trash strewn) beaches.
After meandering for a couple hours I returned to Utopia in hopes of finding the elusive Jimmy... no luck. Instead I ran into a fellow Canadian (Matt) from the Toronto/Montreal area and a British fellow called Scotty. Little did I know that we would be hanging out plenty in the weeks to come. With dark approaching fast Matt offered to show me Otres beach which was a short moto drive away. A quieter spot than Serendipity with far less trash, we enjoyed a few drinks and a couple games of pool before I decided I wanted to head back. I figured I'd walk it as it was only 4 or 5 kilometres. After about 1.5 kilometres one of my flip flops had a fatal blowout... I liked those flip flops, they had been with me for a few years and had come half way around the world... R.I.P.. On a dark road at night somewhere in Cambodia wearing only one flip flop I encountered a couple locals hanging out on their bikes near the road. After some brief negotiations I managed a ride back to Utopia.
Once there a quick stop at the "lost flip flop" basket rewarded me with some free replacement footwear. I then decided it was time to assert myself at the pool table, which I did with flair. The night progressed and still no Jimmy, but I ran into the girl who told me about him the previous night. We chatted for a bit, rounded up a bunch of her girlfriends and hopped a tuk-tuk back to Otres beach. We ended up at a trance show at the ocean side until I decided a rest may be in order. As I stepped up to the bar in Utopia for a nightcap, who should I see... the elusive Jimmy! I waved him down and introduced myself... it went something like this...
"Yo! You Jimmy?"
"Yeah, that's me."
"I'm Jon, I hear you're the man to talk to about getting a job here?"
"Yeah, that's me, what can you do Jon?"
"I can fix stuff and serve people drinks."
"How long are you planning on hanging around Jon?"
"I figure a couple weeks."
"How's graveyard shift sound to you?"
"What are the hours and what's the deal?"
"The hours are midnight to 8am, what kind of deal do you want?"
"I was thinking free accommodations, food, and drinks."
"Sounds good Jon, can you start tomorrow?"
"Done and done, I'll move my stuff into staff accommodations in the morning."
Easiest job interview ever! So began my stint as a bartender in a 24 hr. party bar in paradise. The next night was my first night on the job and I loved it... the people were friendly, the music was great, the nightly poi shows rocked, and I helped make people happy. Near the end of the night when things had quieted down considerably I noticed this young guy at the bar looking pretty intoxicated. I chatted him up and it turns out his name was Sam and he was from Courtenay just a little ways up Vancouver Island from Victoria. Small world! He was broke from a rowdy time in Vang Vieng, Laos so I tossed him a free beer and mentioned that he might want to work with me here at Utopia. A couple days later the Canuck crew was three strong behind the bar after Sam joined up and then a fellow named Asa from Toronto. Throw in a Spanish gal who went by the name of Monster, an Aussie bird named Gracie, and a Dutch fellow Skip and we had a tight crew for the next couple of weeks.
I won't bore you all with life behind a bar for a couple of weeks aside from one highlight when I had to take an inebriated Finnish guy to the clinic after he dove into the pool and split his head open on the statue in the middle. The rest was good work with good people, and good times. Somewhere along the way I befriended some Khmers who showed me some of the countryside around Sihanoukville. We rented dirt bikes and cruised up the coast along beautiful (and mostly clean) Prek Treng (aka Hun Sen) Beach before heading up a sketchy looking dirt track that took us to Kabal Chai Waterfalls. Then we rode to the other side of Sihanoukville and saw some of the natural beauty of Ream National Park before going up to Wat Ream. At the temple we had our fortunes told and partook in a "monk shower".
Even though there were stretches of literally days when I wouldn't even leave the confines of Utopia, I did manage to get out and about the city a bit. My Khmer friends showed me a bit of where they lived in the Cambodian "hood" as well as some of the market life. One thing about Khmers is that when it comes to food, they will eat just about anything and take spicy hot to whole new levels of experience, so I figured "When in Rome..." Amongst the many random meats I tried there was dog... it's kind of chewy and gamy. Apparently cat is better, but we couldn't find anyone who had some. Cambodian crab is particularly good and cheap.
After two weeks of feeling like a rock star I awoke one morning and realized I had almost run out of time on my Cambodian visa. Before I could second guess myself I hopped on a moto and headed for the Vietnamese Embassy to secure a visa for that country. Half an hour later I bought my bus ticket to Kampot for the next day. Dallying would only make me want to stay longer what with the great people I had met. The New Zealander owners of Utopia, Mark and James, even asked me to stay on indefinitely... I still wonder if maybe I should have just stayed there another two weeks, the living was, after all, free. I gave my notice, packed my bags, and worked my last night as a bartender in paradise... in the morning after my shift I remembered to run around to snap a few photos, but they are all very last minute. With no sleep I dragged my bags to the curb and awaited my minibus to Kampot on my way to Vietnam.
An hour or two later I was woken up by passengers trying to crawl over me to get out of the bus in downtown Kampot. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, hauled my stuff to the curb, and opened up my guidebook to find a place to stay. As I perused the pages I remembered a conversation I had had with a patron at the bar in Utopia one night. They told me that if I wanted a nice chill time in Kampot to check out a place along the Kampong Bay River called Bodhi Villa. I just wanted to sleep, so I hailed a moto and off we went. When I rolled into the guesthouse they informed that they were full up for the day, but that I might enjoy the place next door called Samon's Village, so over I went. It turned out to be a pretty sweet place. The owner, Samon, created the place as a miniature eco-village complete with vegetable gardens, chickens, and several local families living and working there. He told me it was a step for him on the journey to setting up a larger scale type eco-village where people could continue to practice traditional Khmer lifestyles and practices without being subsumed by western consumerism. I have to admit it sounded like a pretty noble plan, although I couldn't help but remember that the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot espoused a similar philosophy before the regime turned vicious... food for thought.
That evening there was a Khmer buffet for dinner followed by a couple of local bands playing traditional Khmer music. I fell asleep in my hut next to the river with a belly full of delicious food and my head swimming with marvelous melodies from the band as they wound down their last set of the evening. In the morning I set out to get the next step of my journey sorted as I only had 3 1/2 days left on my Cambodian visa. I moto'd into town and did a little research. Instead of simply taking a bus to Kep, the town closest to the Vietnamese border with guesthouses, I decided to take a country tour which ended in Kep, but instead of going back to Kampot with the tour, I'd just stay in Kep. Sweet! I headed back to my tranquil village and relaxed with my book and MP3 player next to the river for the rest of the day.
The next morning I had an early start getting into town and on the minibus for the day's tour. Our first stop were some salt fields outside of town. Cambodia doesn't have any salt mineral deposits, so they have to harvest salt from sea water. Through a series of canals from the ocean a few kilometres away, sea water is directed into fields cleared and leveled to hold the water. As the water is left in the sun it evaporates leaving behind salt crystals. The salt is then collected and bagged before either being sent directly to markets or to processing plants where it can be further refined into proper table salt. Our next stop along our country tour took us through some rural Cambodian villages and farmland to get to the temple cave of Phnom Chhngok. The cave houses a 7th century shrine to Shiva which has been well protected by the fact that it is in a cave. After a look at the shrine, our guide took us for a little bit of spelunking through the limestone mountain before exiting back on some farm fields.
A short ride down some bumpy back country roads brought us to a Muslim fishing village and crab farm. Like the salt fields, the fishing village accesses the ocean through several kilometres of canals which the fishermen float their boats up and down. Because fish are easier to catch when it's dark, these fishermen head for the sea at dusk and return home at dawn with their catch. Their families then process the fish and take them to market during the day while the fishermen sleep through the morning. Attached to the fishing village is a crab farm. It looks much like the salt fields only they make sure the water levels remain stable through a series of pumping stations.
Back in the minibus we drove for awhile before we reached the outskirts of the seaside town of Kep. Before heading into Kep we detoured into the surrounding hills to visit a pepper farm. Pepper grown in this region is world renowned and sought after by gourmet chefs. During French colonial times it was said that no self-respecting French household would be without its Kampot pepper. What makes Kampot pepper so good is the unique soil conditions in this part of Cambodia as well as the traditional ways in which the pepper plants are grown and harvested. The particular farm we visited also grew several types of fruits including durian, mangoes, and papayas.
We finally rolled into Kep in time for a fresh crab lunch at the crab market. Apparently Kep used to be quite a place when the French were around. Ever since, though, it's kind of lost its edge. No matter, the last stop on this day's tour was Koh Thonsay (Rabbit Island). This island is only 2 square kilometres in area with a limited number of huts along its one main beach. I showed up during the week when there were very few people around. Fine by me, I more or less had a tropical beach in paradise all to myself for the afternoon and evening.
In the late morning of the next day, after a lazy start to the day on the beach swimming and tanning, I found a boat to take me back to Kep. There I quickly booked a bus for Ho Chi Minh the next day (the last day of my visa) and then walked to a sweet little guesthouse nearby. I spent the rest of the day chatting with other travelers and enjoying the free fish massage offered in the guesthouse. What a great finish to an amazing time in the country of Cambodia. I miss that place and those people already! Next up... Vietnam...
The bus arrived in downtown Sihanoukville around 7pm when it was already dark. With my bags collected I hopped on a moto-taxi and told him to take me straight to Utopia... a highly touted party hostel near Serendipity Beach. The driver drove me right into the courtyard where one of the girls working the reception desk promptly told me they were full for the night. However, she said since they were a 24 hr. bar as well, I was welcome to crash out in one of the hammocks or couches scattered around the hostel grounds for free. I made short work of finding some foreigners to share a drink with who also let me stash my bags in their room for when I would laze in the hammocks later. Amongst the people I chatted to was an ex-employee of Utopia. I brought up the prospect of getting a job there to which she replied I could probably get a job right away, I just had to talk to Jimmy... but he was gone for the night and 2pm the next day would be the magical hour.
In the morning I collected my bags and headed back to the front desk where I quickly got a dorm bed for $3/night. It was still early by Utopia standards (around noon) so Jimmy was nowhere to be found. No problem... I took the opportunity to wander down to Serendipity Beach and check out some of the town. Sihanoukville is Cambodia's newest city having been inaugurated with the construction of the Sihanoukville Port in 1955 by King Norodom Sihanouk soon after Cambodia achieved independence from France. During the Vietnam War the city was used as an intensive military port until the Khmer Rouge successfully chased the US out of the country in 1975 during the Mayaguez Incident. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 the port became very important to the continued development of Cambodian trade and in 1999 when economic markets in Cambodia were opened up, Sihanoukville lead the way. Now it continues to be an important trade route as well as a tourist attraction due to the many beautiful (albeit trash strewn) beaches.
After meandering for a couple hours I returned to Utopia in hopes of finding the elusive Jimmy... no luck. Instead I ran into a fellow Canadian (Matt) from the Toronto/Montreal area and a British fellow called Scotty. Little did I know that we would be hanging out plenty in the weeks to come. With dark approaching fast Matt offered to show me Otres beach which was a short moto drive away. A quieter spot than Serendipity with far less trash, we enjoyed a few drinks and a couple games of pool before I decided I wanted to head back. I figured I'd walk it as it was only 4 or 5 kilometres. After about 1.5 kilometres one of my flip flops had a fatal blowout... I liked those flip flops, they had been with me for a few years and had come half way around the world... R.I.P.. On a dark road at night somewhere in Cambodia wearing only one flip flop I encountered a couple locals hanging out on their bikes near the road. After some brief negotiations I managed a ride back to Utopia.
Once there a quick stop at the "lost flip flop" basket rewarded me with some free replacement footwear. I then decided it was time to assert myself at the pool table, which I did with flair. The night progressed and still no Jimmy, but I ran into the girl who told me about him the previous night. We chatted for a bit, rounded up a bunch of her girlfriends and hopped a tuk-tuk back to Otres beach. We ended up at a trance show at the ocean side until I decided a rest may be in order. As I stepped up to the bar in Utopia for a nightcap, who should I see... the elusive Jimmy! I waved him down and introduced myself... it went something like this...
"Yo! You Jimmy?"
"Yeah, that's me."
"I'm Jon, I hear you're the man to talk to about getting a job here?"
"Yeah, that's me, what can you do Jon?"
"I can fix stuff and serve people drinks."
"How long are you planning on hanging around Jon?"
"I figure a couple weeks."
"How's graveyard shift sound to you?"
"What are the hours and what's the deal?"
"The hours are midnight to 8am, what kind of deal do you want?"
"I was thinking free accommodations, food, and drinks."
"Sounds good Jon, can you start tomorrow?"
"Done and done, I'll move my stuff into staff accommodations in the morning."
Easiest job interview ever! So began my stint as a bartender in a 24 hr. party bar in paradise. The next night was my first night on the job and I loved it... the people were friendly, the music was great, the nightly poi shows rocked, and I helped make people happy. Near the end of the night when things had quieted down considerably I noticed this young guy at the bar looking pretty intoxicated. I chatted him up and it turns out his name was Sam and he was from Courtenay just a little ways up Vancouver Island from Victoria. Small world! He was broke from a rowdy time in Vang Vieng, Laos so I tossed him a free beer and mentioned that he might want to work with me here at Utopia. A couple days later the Canuck crew was three strong behind the bar after Sam joined up and then a fellow named Asa from Toronto. Throw in a Spanish gal who went by the name of Monster, an Aussie bird named Gracie, and a Dutch fellow Skip and we had a tight crew for the next couple of weeks.
I won't bore you all with life behind a bar for a couple of weeks aside from one highlight when I had to take an inebriated Finnish guy to the clinic after he dove into the pool and split his head open on the statue in the middle. The rest was good work with good people, and good times. Somewhere along the way I befriended some Khmers who showed me some of the countryside around Sihanoukville. We rented dirt bikes and cruised up the coast along beautiful (and mostly clean) Prek Treng (aka Hun Sen) Beach before heading up a sketchy looking dirt track that took us to Kabal Chai Waterfalls. Then we rode to the other side of Sihanoukville and saw some of the natural beauty of Ream National Park before going up to Wat Ream. At the temple we had our fortunes told and partook in a "monk shower".
Even though there were stretches of literally days when I wouldn't even leave the confines of Utopia, I did manage to get out and about the city a bit. My Khmer friends showed me a bit of where they lived in the Cambodian "hood" as well as some of the market life. One thing about Khmers is that when it comes to food, they will eat just about anything and take spicy hot to whole new levels of experience, so I figured "When in Rome..." Amongst the many random meats I tried there was dog... it's kind of chewy and gamy. Apparently cat is better, but we couldn't find anyone who had some. Cambodian crab is particularly good and cheap.
After two weeks of feeling like a rock star I awoke one morning and realized I had almost run out of time on my Cambodian visa. Before I could second guess myself I hopped on a moto and headed for the Vietnamese Embassy to secure a visa for that country. Half an hour later I bought my bus ticket to Kampot for the next day. Dallying would only make me want to stay longer what with the great people I had met. The New Zealander owners of Utopia, Mark and James, even asked me to stay on indefinitely... I still wonder if maybe I should have just stayed there another two weeks, the living was, after all, free. I gave my notice, packed my bags, and worked my last night as a bartender in paradise... in the morning after my shift I remembered to run around to snap a few photos, but they are all very last minute. With no sleep I dragged my bags to the curb and awaited my minibus to Kampot on my way to Vietnam.
An hour or two later I was woken up by passengers trying to crawl over me to get out of the bus in downtown Kampot. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes, hauled my stuff to the curb, and opened up my guidebook to find a place to stay. As I perused the pages I remembered a conversation I had had with a patron at the bar in Utopia one night. They told me that if I wanted a nice chill time in Kampot to check out a place along the Kampong Bay River called Bodhi Villa. I just wanted to sleep, so I hailed a moto and off we went. When I rolled into the guesthouse they informed that they were full up for the day, but that I might enjoy the place next door called Samon's Village, so over I went. It turned out to be a pretty sweet place. The owner, Samon, created the place as a miniature eco-village complete with vegetable gardens, chickens, and several local families living and working there. He told me it was a step for him on the journey to setting up a larger scale type eco-village where people could continue to practice traditional Khmer lifestyles and practices without being subsumed by western consumerism. I have to admit it sounded like a pretty noble plan, although I couldn't help but remember that the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot espoused a similar philosophy before the regime turned vicious... food for thought.
That evening there was a Khmer buffet for dinner followed by a couple of local bands playing traditional Khmer music. I fell asleep in my hut next to the river with a belly full of delicious food and my head swimming with marvelous melodies from the band as they wound down their last set of the evening. In the morning I set out to get the next step of my journey sorted as I only had 3 1/2 days left on my Cambodian visa. I moto'd into town and did a little research. Instead of simply taking a bus to Kep, the town closest to the Vietnamese border with guesthouses, I decided to take a country tour which ended in Kep, but instead of going back to Kampot with the tour, I'd just stay in Kep. Sweet! I headed back to my tranquil village and relaxed with my book and MP3 player next to the river for the rest of the day.
The next morning I had an early start getting into town and on the minibus for the day's tour. Our first stop were some salt fields outside of town. Cambodia doesn't have any salt mineral deposits, so they have to harvest salt from sea water. Through a series of canals from the ocean a few kilometres away, sea water is directed into fields cleared and leveled to hold the water. As the water is left in the sun it evaporates leaving behind salt crystals. The salt is then collected and bagged before either being sent directly to markets or to processing plants where it can be further refined into proper table salt. Our next stop along our country tour took us through some rural Cambodian villages and farmland to get to the temple cave of Phnom Chhngok. The cave houses a 7th century shrine to Shiva which has been well protected by the fact that it is in a cave. After a look at the shrine, our guide took us for a little bit of spelunking through the limestone mountain before exiting back on some farm fields.
A short ride down some bumpy back country roads brought us to a Muslim fishing village and crab farm. Like the salt fields, the fishing village accesses the ocean through several kilometres of canals which the fishermen float their boats up and down. Because fish are easier to catch when it's dark, these fishermen head for the sea at dusk and return home at dawn with their catch. Their families then process the fish and take them to market during the day while the fishermen sleep through the morning. Attached to the fishing village is a crab farm. It looks much like the salt fields only they make sure the water levels remain stable through a series of pumping stations.
Back in the minibus we drove for awhile before we reached the outskirts of the seaside town of Kep. Before heading into Kep we detoured into the surrounding hills to visit a pepper farm. Pepper grown in this region is world renowned and sought after by gourmet chefs. During French colonial times it was said that no self-respecting French household would be without its Kampot pepper. What makes Kampot pepper so good is the unique soil conditions in this part of Cambodia as well as the traditional ways in which the pepper plants are grown and harvested. The particular farm we visited also grew several types of fruits including durian, mangoes, and papayas.
We finally rolled into Kep in time for a fresh crab lunch at the crab market. Apparently Kep used to be quite a place when the French were around. Ever since, though, it's kind of lost its edge. No matter, the last stop on this day's tour was Koh Thonsay (Rabbit Island). This island is only 2 square kilometres in area with a limited number of huts along its one main beach. I showed up during the week when there were very few people around. Fine by me, I more or less had a tropical beach in paradise all to myself for the afternoon and evening.
In the late morning of the next day, after a lazy start to the day on the beach swimming and tanning, I found a boat to take me back to Kep. There I quickly booked a bus for Ho Chi Minh the next day (the last day of my visa) and then walked to a sweet little guesthouse nearby. I spent the rest of the day chatting with other travelers and enjoying the free fish massage offered in the guesthouse. What a great finish to an amazing time in the country of Cambodia. I miss that place and those people already! Next up... Vietnam...
omg,it looks beautiful. :o I wish I was there it looked so nice and hot out, where their many nice people there? And have you been to a place yet where their hasn't been that many nice people? have fun jonnybear! :D
ReplyDelete- SessyMangos:]✌
is the guy that split his head open OK?
Deletesee ya later,
Tspikes
@ SessyMangos - Yeah... Cambodia really grabbed my heart and yes, it was always HOT and muggy. Oddly enough, it seemed to get hottest out around 10:30pm. Yes, most everybody was awesome in Cambodia... as for not so nice people, check out my Vietnam blog post.
Delete@ Tspikes - Yeah, the fellow who split his head open turned up at the bar the next day and bought me a drink for taking care of him. He ended up with two stitches in the top of his head.
Deleteit looks so cool their. I want to go their some day!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteAJ
@ AJ - There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to make it to Southeast Asia one day. When I get back I'll be sure to give you some pointers on how to get around and what to see ;)
Delete