Monday 13th December 2004
Ratinakiri airport is literally across the road from the Mountain Guesthouse. At least the end of the runway is. The terminal, if you can call it that, is a moto ride away, so after checking out and saying my goodbyes to everyone there I jumped on the back of a moto to the "departure lounge" i.e. outside the terminal building, next to the runway! There is only about one flight a week here, so I hadn't seen or heard a plane during my stay in Ban Lung and close up the runway didn't look all that different to the roads I had been cycling on, which was concerning to say the least! After checking in with my ticket I waited a while with all the other passengers. It was more like waiting at a bus station than an airport and eventually the plane came in to land. As it hit the runway a huge plume of dust was kicked up and bellowed into the air. This was going to be a novelty!
The plane drew closer to the terminal building and the passengers alighted. It seemed to take an age waiting to board as they unpacked the luggage of the arriving passengers, packed the luggage for the departing passengers and re-fuelled. Once inside the plane it seemed like any other prop plane I had been on, so I wasn't too worried about that. I just wondered how smooth a run the plane would have on the dusty runway. Well all in all I think that the flight service from Ratanikiri is great. It all seemed to go without a hitch. We took off at 11.30am and within an hour we were touching down in Phnom Penh. By 12.30pm I was out of the terminal building in Phnom Penh and was greeted by Cheau; my moto guide when I was here before. Wow these Cambodians don't forget a potential fare. He had remembered my flight details because he was with me when I had booked my ticket. He drove me to the Eastern bus terminal where I wanted to catch a minibus to Kampot in the South. I planned to stay there for two nights taking in the scenery from Bokor Mountain whilst I was there and then move onto Sihanoukville to spend my last day in Cambodia on the beach.
On the minibus, which took ages to depart, there were mainly locals and three German girls on their way to Kep, which is on the coast. If I had more time I would have liked to go there, but seeing as I was going to see the beach at Sihanoukville I didn't feel too disappointed. I sat next to an extremely charismatic Cambodian gentleman who spoke very good English and French. He was retired, in his seventies and in sprightly good health. He used to work for a French multi-national company, which explained his mastery in foreign language. He kept offering me sweeties too, which was funny! We made one stop on the way to stretch our legs and my old mate bought me a can of Coca Cola, which was very generous of him. We arrived in Kampot first where I said my goodbyes and wished everybody luck and they continued on to Kep. I hopped on a moto and the driver took me to the Phnom Khieu hotel in town. It was a big place, but nothing to write home about and the standard $5 per night. I arranged for my moto driver to pick me up in the morning and take me to Bokor hill station, which is the main attraction in the province and went for a walk around town. Kampot seemed like a nice little place- small, but quite lively. After walking around a bit and spending some time in an internet café I walked back to the hotel as it was getting dark.
I didn't really know where to go for dinner, so I flagged down a moto driver, or rather he flagged me down, and he took me to a restaurant after I asked his advice as to a nice place to eat. He insisted I allow him to drive me back after I had finished dinner and was even prepared to wait outside while I ate and didn't mind how long it took! I had plenty of food and some beer and I got talking to a Cambodian guy called Danny who was with a group of workmates. They seemed quite well-off for Cambodians as they were buying a lot of beer and food. It turned out that they were all road construction workers, which I understand is a relatively well-paid job here. They were building a new highway, all funded by Chinese investors. He was what I would describe as a "Cool Cambodian". He'd spend a lot of time in Australia and I could hear the Aussie lilt in his accent. He kept filling up my glass with beer, so he seemed alright by me!
