Motorbiking the Mekong and exploring Phu Quoc Island

5 March 2017

We left Saigon today for the beginning of our motorcycle adventure in Vietnam. The initial stages of the drive were pretty hideous. It was slow going and there was a lot of traffic to contend with. Once we got an hour or so out of Saigon though the riding became easier and there was even the chance to stop and look at the occasional view. 

We stopped at our first (of many) hammock cafe. These are a great invention - the name really says it all. Open air cafes, set up on the side of the road with a bunch of tiny tables and some hammocks. They serve delicious Vietnamese iced coffee (heavy on the condensed milk) and you can rest out of the heat of the sun for as long as you need. 

Mark making the most of the hammock cafe

After the coffee stop we carried on south towards the Mekong delta. We were hooning along quite nicely until we had our first breakdown. My accelerator cable snapped. Conveniently it did this right outside a hammock cafe. The lady from the cafe promptly got on the phone to alert the local mechanic we had a problem. Mark then cobbled together a fix involving a spare hair tie [and leatherman grabbing the cut end of the cable and yanking on it to accelerate while steering with my left hand, this was one time when the bikes being a bit gutless was useful... -M] to nurse the bike the kilometre back down the road to the mechanic. It was all fixed fairly promptly but by now it was dark.We spent the night at our first nha nghi - a Vietnamese guest house. We managed to communicate with the proprietor through a combination of Google translate and charades.

For those interested in the numbers: we travelled 105km today in the four hours of driving time.

6 March 2017 

We continued our drive through the Mekong. Apparently the scenery was so good that we didn't take any photos of it. 

We criss crossed over the Mekong as we went. In addition to many bridges, the route we took  included two river crossings by ferry.  There are vehicle ferries that just shuttle backwards and forwards across the river all day. You purchase your ticket (about 25 cents each) and drive straight on, then a matter of minutes later you are driving off on the other side - The crossings are about 500 metres wide. There are vendors wandering around selling delicious treats - like a coconut sponge cake thing that we had on one of the ferries.

Mark plus safety gear on the Mekong ferry

As we travelled south we stopped off at the Ba Chuc memorial. Ba Chuc was the scene of a massacre in 1978 when Khmer Rouge soldiers came across the border from Cambodia and killed all but two of the 3,000 odd villagers over a twelve day period. It was another grim reminder of what is still fairly recent history.

By the end of the day we had made it all the way to Ha Tien, which is where you catch the ferry to Phu Quoc Island.  It was a massive drive - 210km in 8 hours of driving. We were shattered and vowed never to drive for so long again on this trip. 

Oasis bar in town was recommended as having an expat owner who was a fount of knowledge about the area. We headed there and had a lovely evening with a British / Mexican couple who had spent the last few months cycling around Vietnam.

7 March 2017

The night before Mark spied that Oasis bar served big breakfasts, with real bacon imported from the UK so we headed back there this morning for breakfast. After a number of breakfasts consisting of noodle soup he was craving something a bit more substantial.

Fully refuelled we headed to the ferry terminal to catch the ferry across to Phu Quoc Island. We were on the slow vehicle ferry which was about three and a half hours. The ferry included complimentary full volume Vietnamese pop music - Mark's favourite. [This culture has some serious shortcomings -M]

Once we made it to the Island we sought out Winston's burgers. Said to be the best burgers on the island. They were amazing. The owner, Winston imports beef and potatoes especially to make the burgers and fries. The Key Lime Pie and chocolate shake got the seal of approval too!

After a bit of a drive around the island we headed to our accommodation. Tonight we were staying in a tree house. It was pretty cool.

Our luxury tree house accommodation

8 March 2017

We wandered from our tree house down to the beach for a swim before heading away for some site seeing on the island today. First on the list was the fish sauce factory. It smelled exactly how you would expect a fish sauce factory to smell. 

The odour of thousands of fermenting fish..

Then there was some clambering on rocks that needed to be done.

Action Frank!

We headed right up to the north of the Island and stayed at one of the more expensive places we have stayed at for the whole trip. It was a massive disappointment but we won't moan here. The sunset from the beach just down the road was beautiful though. Right next door to the place we were staying they were in the process of building a flash new hotel. Although there were still plenty of unfinished parts they had finished the infinity pool and landscaping around it. 

Ideal honeymoon location?

9 March 2017

More exploring of the island today. We drove right up to the north around the coast. It was interesting driving around the island and is a place that would be worth coming back to in a few years to see how it has changed. Unfortunately it may not be for the better. There is immense amounts of development going on. Hotels were going up all over the island and there was very little unspoilt beach access. After we left the coast we headed inland through a jungle road. It was a great drive, the jungle made it nice and cool and we were just about the only ones on the road.  

We went from the worst accommodation on the trip to the best. We were staying in the middle of a small family run orchard, which just had two bungalows for guests. When we arrived in the afternoon the owner rushed around making us a delicious lemon drink from fresh lemons out of the orchard.

And there were romantic towel swans.

10 March 2017

We had well and truly explored the northern end of the island, so today we took the bikes to explore the southern part of it. First we had the most delicious omelet we have had on the trip. Full of delicious fresh vegetables. Its the small things! The Island's original airport has been mothballed after a new airport was built. They have opened up access to the runway and it is now one of the roads across town. It was pretty cool hooning as fast as our little bikes would take us backwards and forwards along the runway.  

Mark found some rocks to clamber on

We went to one of the last beaches that does not yet have mega hotel development on it. When you looked at the beach from afar it was absolutely stunning. As you got closer you could see the rubbish everywhere. Mark went snorkelling and was surrounded by plastic bags as he explored.

Almost perfect beach

Since it had been a few days since we had had any bike related dramas it was about time something broke! As I drove along the road my bike had a habit of just losing power and the engine dying. After coming to a halt the bike would be a bit of a mission to start and then you would be off, fine for a while before going through the same process again. Just in case it was operator error I swapped bikes with Mark, thankfully (!) the bike continued to have the same symptoms when he rode it. It was getting towards darkness so we decided we would continue the drive back to our accommodation with these slightly infuriating stops along the way to try and make it back before dark. This process was kind of working until my failing bike got a flat tire. We were right near a mechanic so that was handy. Trying to explain the intermittent cutting out of the engine was more complicated than we had time for in the failing light.We went for the easier fix of the flat tire. Which was all going quite well until just as we went to pull out into the road the mechanic stopped us. The tire was flat again. They had managed to pierce the inner tube as they reinstalled it. Second time lucky we were on our way. By driving really slowly Mark managed to nurse the bike back to our accommodation for the night. [This problem with that bike would continue on and off for quite a while. 10 points to anyone who can figure it out faster than I did - M].

11 March 2017

The first stop for today was another mechanic. Mark performed his very best charades to describe the problem the bike was suffering - this included demonstrations of full throttle, after five minutes, engine dies, hard to start. First the mechanic just put the bike on the centre stand and revved the shit out of it. He couldn't seem to find a problem when he tried that specialist diagnostic technique. Then he took it for a short drive. He drove it and came back - no problem. Mark trying his charades again - emphasis on the five minutes before the problem starts. Eventually the mechanic accepted there may actually be a problem. He tried one fix and was happy. Mark took the bike for a test drive. The mechanic was rolling his eyes about how long Mark was away testing the bike for, he had tested it (by taking it 100 metres) and was happy. Mark came back shaking his head - the bike was still broken. Through some more trial and error eventually he cleaned the carburettor. Success! We were off again.

No caption necessary...

We caught the ferry back to the mainland this afternoon. While we were on the ferry the family in front of us shared the food they had with them. They were eating these green noodles that you poured a coconut milk mixture over the top of and mixed it all together. It was sugary and syrupy and made your teeth ache almost instantly. Delicious!

Mark enjoying the sweet noodle concoction

We had arrived to Rach Gia, another town on the Mekong. Unfortunately just down the road from the ferry terminal I had a small crash with another bike. I went through the roundabout a bit fast and so did he and we collided. [Frank was applying NZ road rules, not Vietnamese. If you're going to insist on having the right of way and drive fast without looking, you need to at least lean on your horn... -M] Nothing hurt and there was no damage to either bike - it was slow enough that I put my feet down and didn't drop the bike. Nonetheless it wasn't a great start to the afternoon's journey.

We ended up in Vi Thanh, a random Mekong delta town for the night. There was not much there but we went for a bit of a wander by the riverside to find dinner. We ended up at a little road side stall where the lady prepared all of the ingredients for us to make fresh spring rolls. (Almost as good as yours Ian and Leeyan)

12 March 2017
The Nha Nghi we were staying at last night was run by a family with a young boy who seemed very excited and intrigued to have random foreigners staying. So intrigued that as Mark was in the toilet there was a little face peeping through the window!

We made a number of stops on our drive north today. Mark has been interested in the goings on of how stuff works here in Vietnam in comparison with back home. We have seen many people driving around with large blocks of ice on their scooter and delivering them to various stores or people with fresh products at the markets. Then as we drove along the road - an ice factory. We had a peek in the factory and Mark wandered around the back, finding a large freezer system. There was a pretty neat system involving lots of chutes for getting the ice from the side of the road into the barges in the river too. We went across the Mekong with two more of the little river ferry crossings and we also stopped to marvel at a really large bridge across the Mekong.

 

[There are scooters, scooter-towed trailers,  and the occasional ox cart carrying these ice blocks around everywhere, and chucking one of them in a cooler is the primary form of refrigeration for most food places, and, with a handy hammer, the source of all the ice for our drinks. The ice factory was pretty cool too, massive heat pumping apparatus, but I'm wary of turning this blog into a tour of Vietnamese industry, even if our actual journey sometimes is.... -M]

Us, bikes and really large bridge - not pictured: Mekong river

In amongst all of this sightseeing we also managed to fit in another visit to the mechanic, as my intermittent stopping issue reared its head again. This time the mechanic was a bit more on to it and via a team effort with Mark the problem was identified as a blocked petcock - I've learnt more than I ever wanted to know about bikes already.  

We were only about 40km south of Saigon towards the end of the day, but we knew that at least the last 30km would be really difficult with all of the traffic so we stopped at another Nha Nghi  on the highway for the night. We think it offered additional services - what we thought was a very cheap price for the room for the night was actually the hourly rate, when the exterior lights came on with a soft pink glow that was also a hint - the mirror running along the length of the bed was what finely made the penny drop though!

13 March 2017

Delicious breakfast banh mi on the side of the highway.

 We drove the final hour or so into Saigon this morning - it was as horrible as expected. Mark then had a lovely time at the "chemical market". In addition to selling chemicals there were also a number of other useful items he found that would improve our bikes. These included blue LED lights and a fire extinguisher (are we the only backpackers with cheap shitty bikes that carry a fire extinguisher?) [Also bungee cords, wire, electrical wire, a variety of tools, etc. One of us has to take an interest in seeing the bikes will hold together long enough to get to Hanoi. and maybe have some sweet boy racer lights while doing it -M

After having had the bikes for a week we could also identify several improvements they needed. Mark had extra padding added into his seat and I got a lockable top box for extra storage. We spent the rest of the day wandering around Saigon and preparing for the rest of our travels north. 

Buying motorbikes in Saigon

Fair warning, this has more detail on the process of buying the bikes than you probably want to know unless you're about to do the same thing.

The bus dropped us in the central backpacker area of Saigon, which was just where we wanted to be to buy bikes. Our plan for the next two months was to buy cheap shitty motorbikes in Saigon and ride them the length of the country, and then sell them to some other random backpackers in Hanoi. This has become a pretty popular way of seeing Vietnam, with plenty of people looking to buy and sell at both ends. 

Of course, this means that the crappy Chinese knockoff bikes have spent their lives racking up miles going up and down the country on bad roads with too much luggage being driven and cared for by people who've probably never ridden a motorbike before. Everything on offer is pretty much a time bomb, it's just a matter of trying to find one where the fuse will last long enough to sell it to the next sucker. There's a mechanic every few hundred metres throughout most of the country though, and they're used to working on similar POS bikes, so it all works out in the end. Going rate is backpacker-backpacker about $300 USD, give or take. 

our 100 & 110 cc "Honda" Wins. Max speed about 70 kmh, downhill. Guess who got stuck carrying all the luggage?

First day we went for a bit of a wander around the city, some pretty nice gardens & so on, but stinking hot on foot. All my photos from today are of "bike for sale" posters for later reference unfortunately: we were here to do a job. When we went out for dinner we came past a couple selling their bikes, and I hopped on for my first test ride in Saigon traffic. At night. 

This was a good exercise in lowering my expectations. Both bikes had dramatically loose swing arm bearings, which effectively created an exciting new joint in the middle of the bike and meant I looked like a kid on their first ride without training wheels as I wobbled my way down the street. I wouldn't have touched this with a ten foot pole in NZ, and we ended up looking at bikes with even more serious problems later on! 

The next day we found an ad from a Dutch couple that had just been down the country two-up, and that ended up being the bike for me. The side luggage racks were pretty rare, and the steering on these things is already dangerously light without also cantilevering all your luggage out past the end of the bike on huge extended rear racks as most people do. It also came with a 12V USB charger already wired in, key for being able to navigate with my shitty phone battery. Not all of the lights worked, but I was sure this would be an easy fix.

With one bike achieved, we celebrated by heading up to a rooftop bar for a drink, and then retreating to more affordable dingy back-alleys for dinner. We saw our smoothies made in front of us, and I finally realised how much sugar was being dumped into the drinks I'd been quaffing nonstop, whoops...

It took a few days to find a bike for Frank. We bargained too hard and lost one decent bike, weren't wiling to pay the extortionate $450 demanded by an Israeli guy for his bike (admittedly a nice one:  the only working speedometer I've seen on one of these bikes, amongst other things.)

We finally picked up a bike for her from a Vietnamese Mechanical Engineer who had allegedly had it for two years and just used for road trips (almost all bikes are automatic or semi-automatic transmission because no self-respecting Vietnamese person wants to have to use a manual clutch in city traffic: it makes it too hard to use your cellphone, or eat your lunch, or hold your extra luggage in place, the Wins are some of the few standard transmission bikes around)

We also checked out the War Remnants Museum (nee "Exhibition House for Crimes of War and Aggression", nee "Exhibition House for US and Puppet Crimes", as relations with the US steadily improved.) Here we learned that the North Vietnamese were wonderful and never hurt anyone and the only bad things that happened during the war were the West's fault. The name might have changed, but the editorial mission hasn't. I hope western museums don't look this one-eyed to foreign audiences...

Safety Gear

Not Pictured: boots, and NZ motorcross pants

To go with the bikes, we realised we should probably upgrade from the rice-paper-thin fashion accessories the Dutchies had been wearing as helmets and we got with the bike. There were a hell of a lot of places selling lids I wouldn't trust to protect my dog for dirt cheap, and one place selling European helmets for more than we paid for our bikes. We ended up buying moderately higher quality helmets, that looked and felt much safer to my eye, but still open-faced and not western certified. We figured we'd die of heatstroke in full-face helmets, were going to be going not much above bicycle speeds, and were still many times safer than most. (One popular local style is basically rugby headgear, and costs about $2).

I picked up the armoured mesh shirts you see above after an awful, awful drive across the city through rush hour traffic via a couple of closed shops and helpful redirections from bystanders. They're not as hot as a proper motorcycle jacket, but, along with the pants, still hot as hell when you're not moving. Hopefully we're getting some level of protection here, because we're certainly paying a sweat penalty compared to all the other backpackers (let alone locals!) in jandals and shorts.

With bikes and gear acquired, we were finally ready to hit the road!

Koh Rong Samloen & Phnom Penh

So we've been a bit slack with the blog and have a wee backlog to clear, so I'll be a bit more concise hopefully. This is the second half of our stay in Cambodia.

20th to 27th February 2017

This was the finish of our epic 17 hour journey from Siem Reap to the island of Koh Rong Samloen. We had a good overnight bus with lie-flat beds to Phnom Penh, (well, I slept well, Frank needed a few lazy island days to recover apparently), and then switched to a mini-bus to Sihanoukville. Then we fended off the obligatory hordes of Tuk-tuk drivers and sweated our way 800 metres to the pier and extremely welcome sea breeze. [F - The overnight bus dropped us to Phnom Penh at 4.00am. While we waited for the mini-bus we had plenty of time to people watch. Nearby were a family of four, with two early teenage aged daughters. They were trying to get a tuk tuk to their hotel. As usual the tuk tuk driver took his chances and quoted a higher price US$10. Dad was clearly determined not to be overcharged so he said no and got the family to sit down at a table, outside in the rain, as a negotiating tactic. The tuk tuk driver went away. After a bit of a wait he came back US$8? Dad had the most smug self satisfied look on his face as he glanced over at Mum to confirm they should lock in the reduced price. The look Mum gave him, after he had made the family sit out in the rain at 4.00am for the sake of $2, should have turned him to ash.] 

Breakfast on the go in Phnom Penh

The ferry with good reviews was booked out, so we went with the one that was notorious for overbooking and having standing room only boats or leaving people behind. Sure enough, we ended up standing at the back of the boat getting blasted with spray.

Hebe was really upset with this arrangement.

The ferry first went to the busier island, Koh Rong, where everyone on our boat except the three of us were going. I had to climb out and convince them to load our bags back on to the boat and take us to where we were actually supposed to be going. [F - Koh Rong Samloen was a great little island. There was a "main road", actually the sandy beachfront where most of the hostels and restaurants were located. Then there were little tracks back from the beach towards the centre of the island which headed towards the villages where the locals lived. With no roads as we know it, it was pretty impressive seeing people manhandle scooters laden with bags of concrete, ice and other supplies through the soft sand to get to where they needed to go.]

I was pleased to be on the island.

The next four days we basically lounged around doing nothing, while Hebe went on adventure swims and short walks and I snorkelled several hundred metres to Snake Island and explored it and then was massively sunburned and stayed inside/ in the shade for the next week. We mostly stayed in a small concrete jail cell/ bunker furnished with two beds, a fan, and a  bathroom with no door. (note lack of mozzie nets, windows or walls that reached the ceiling). Eh, it was $12 a night and you weren't indoors much anyway. (unless you got mega-sunburned...)

Photos of island life

Intense game of checkers

Sunset view from the checkers table. We came back to this place a number of times...

Comfy chairs acquired, smoothies were drank and books were read.

"There's no frigging place to hang anything in this shithole of a room" so off to do some productive beach-combing.

Arts and crafts success!

Some of us couldn't cope with the isolation very well.

I dealt with it by recreating Renaissance paintings.

Frank with enormous breakfasts at one of the two (!) Turkish restaurants on our tiny Cambodian island village.

Frigging squeaky fan kept us awake until I fixed it. Honestly the hotel should have been paying me to stay there.

View from the pier. Not pictured: tons of fish easily visible just below.

And it was finally time to leave, to share my newly created island fashions with the world.

Not pictured: 

Epic thunder and lightning storm one night. Hebe and I went out to experience the storm. I nearly got blown off the pier, and a tree was blown down onto the path in the few minutes between the two of us following it to the sunset bar so we could watch the fishing fleet in the bay scurrying back and forth as they dragged anchor towards the rocks, lit up by enormous sky-wide blasts of cloud lightning every few seconds and half-deafened by the thunder and wind.

The other people on our boat back to the mainland who got left behind due to not enough room on the boat. Hope they didn't have a flight to catch...

Phnom Penh

Then we were on the bus back to PP for Hebe to fly back to real life. We had noodles made in front of us for tea, wandered around the museum in the morning, and sent her on her way. The next morning we sent our passports away to get visas for Vietnam, and had a sobering day touring around the killing fields and old torture prison site of the Khmer Rouge (who killed a quarter of the population when they took power in the 70's). It's crazy to think that they were still killing people and being backed by the US as the legitimate government of the country in my lifetime, and the current ruler of the country is an ex Khmer-Rouge leader as well...

We decompressed from that with NZ-quality burgers (I've decided to embrace eating western food on the occasions when I can get it at decent quality, I'm too old to be ashamed of not being 100% authentic.) The next morning, we hopped on another bus to take us across to Ho Chi Minh City (nee Saigon). 

Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor

16 - 19 February 2017

Our first full day in Siem Reap so we got up and went wandering around the town. Mark had fond memories from our trip five years ago of 50 cent beer that came with free popcorn so he was on the hunt for more of the same. Perhaps we were on a fools errand. We did find a lunch place with a sign that there was free popcorn - but it never eventuated. 

Mark's cousin Hebe was arriving from Singapore to spend the next ten days with us in Cambodia so we headed back to our guest house to meet up with her. Once Hebe had safely arrived we went out for a drink and dinner. Dinner was awesome Indian food at the restaurant of a guy who had moved to Cambodia from Mumbai.

Sweet matching t-shirts team Gilmour

17 February 2017

Today we hired a tuk tuk and driver for the day to take us around the "small circuit" of temples at Angkor.
 

 

Over the course of the day we visited Angkor Wat, Bayon and Ta Prohm.

While our driver waited for us he slept in a hammock in the back of his tuk tuk

 
Angkor Wat is the most famous and features on the Cambodian flag. The view as you walk on the bridge over the moat towards the temple is spectacular. 

Did some Apsaras escape from the temple?

From there we headed to Bayon. Bayon is within Angkor Thom - Great Angkor. There are five gates into the city - North, South, East, West and Ghost. Leading up to the gates there is a depiction of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk - a legendary tug of war between 54 demons and 54 gods. Then as you approach, the gate towers over you. Bayon temple itself was built by King Jayavarman VII and contains 216 faces. There is said to be some similarity between those 216 faces and the King.

Apparently none of us managed to photograh Bayon, so here's the gate instead.

After a late lunch we finished off the day at Ta Prohm - otherwise known as the Tomb Raider temple. The temple has been taken over by the jungle and is more like what those who discovered the temples would have found. The tree roots and branches made for good climbing for Mark and Hebe. I stayed on the ground level.

Hebe after (through much trial and error) finding a tree no one would yell at her for climbing

Adventurous Frank....

18 February 2017

Mark and I hired a scooter and went out exploring temples again while Hebe stayed at the guest house to work on her holiday homework and explore the town a bit.

Mark had done some research so we had the names of some off the beaten track temples to try and discover. We had success. At one of the temples there was just one other couple - although they were there with a massive camera set-up as they took photos for a virtual reality app they were creating. [He asked how we'd managed to find it as it was quite an "exclusive temple" -Mark]

The Northern gate - perhaps they knew what was to come

While we were at the North gate of Angkor Thom, Mark consulted his map app and confidently proclaimed that there was a path around the exterior of the city walls that would take us to the East gate. He set off on the scooter down the path for a few hundred metres and then came back confirming that it was indeed a path.  There was a good path for a while but then it deteriorated. I got off the back of the scooter and Mark rode on, bush bashing as he went. At one point we had to lift the scooter over a fallen tree. [At one point I had to wait for Frank to catch up and help lift the scooter over an especially large fallen tree with more undergrowth than usual around it. There were a lot more of them... - M]

As I was walking along the disappearing "path" there were some workmen on the top of the wall. They cheerfully yelled a hello to me. They then pointed towards Mark and the scooter and laughed hysterically amongst themselves. After a good twenty minutes Mark conceded - arguably we should have turned back at the point that the path deteriorated.... [On looking more carefully at the map afterwards, the path did indeed stop at about the time it became a mix of cow tracks and wishful thinking. Oops. -M]

The beginning of the path - I was too grumpy to take a picture of the path later on

After promises that there would be no further off roading we continue to explore the temples for the remainder of the day.

There were trees taking over temples

We climbed steep stairs

 

We sat thoughtfully in windows

19 February 2017

We headed out to a Mexican restaurant for a birthday breakfast. After breakfast we took the scooter and got further afield. We were headed for Beng Mealea - about one and a half hours out of Siem Reap. En route we stopped at Prasat Bakong. 

Beng Mealea was similar to Ta Prohm, overgrown with trees everywhere, but bigger and was said to have less tourists. We found it to have large Chinese tour groups that constantly yelled at each other. There were lots of no climbing signs and any [most, not all! -M] climbing Mark did manage to achieve resulted in eagle eyed tour guides or temple guards yelling at him to get down. 

From Beng Mealea we travelled to Banteay Srei. To avoid the main roads we worked out a route that would take us there through villages and farm land. I was navigating. I am not very good at navigating. We ended up on some very small sandy paths until eventually Mark took over navigation and got us back on a decent road. At least we were successful in our plan to stay away from the main road. 

Once we got there, Banteay Srei was my favourite of all of the temples. There were incredibly intricate carvings all over the temple. We were there right towards the end of the day and it was quiet. 

It's hard to capture how amazing this was

Once we were back in town we headed out for a birthday dinner. Five years ago, when we were in Siem Reap, our trip coincided with Mark's birthday. We went to a Swensens ice-cream parlour to get a giant ice-cream to celebrate his birthday, spending our last few dollars in the process. Since our trip this time coincided with my birthday we decided we should make a tradition of birthday ice-creams from Swensens. It was delicious!

Mark's ginormous ice-cream in foreground

After ice-cream we headed to the bus station - we were catching the night bus to Phnom Penh and then onto Sihanoukville for some eagerly anticipated beach time. The night bus in Cambodia has proper lie flat bunk beds so we were hopeful of a decent night's rest before five days of relaxing beach time.