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| Jou |
At 10:00 Molly had her cleaning bucket on our porch and was pacing.
P- That girl had better not step one foot in this room before our 12:00 check out time! She has not cleaned our room 1 time in 2 weeks, even though we asked her to several times, and now she's going to pace around like she can't wait to get in here and clean.
G- It's just par for the course at this place.
P- I'm glad we're leaving here today.
G- Me too. I'm ready to go and sleep in a clean room, with clean sheets, air con and to not have to sleep in the mosquito net cage.
We went next door to Ritchie's and got egg salad sandwiches and cokes. At exactly 12:00 we removed our belongings from the hut and waited under one of the 'cabanas'. A tuk-tuk showed up at 12:10 to pick us up. Gladys, always worked up on travel days, especially those involving a bus ride, and already not feeling well, had her anxiety dial turned up to 20!
P- Where the hell is Jou? She assured us that a van would pick us up. I'm not paying extra for that tuk-tuk!!
G- Here she comes now.
Jou – I don't know. Wait. It's ok. It's ok. (she spoke to the tuk-tuk driver). He say van driver ask him to pick you up and take you to town and he will pick you up there. He is late.
P- And we're not paying for this tuk-tuk. It's included in the price of the ticket right?
Jou- Yes, no pay more, no pay more. It ok.
P- Alright. Thank you, Jou.
Jou- Ok. Bye.
Even though we had stayed at Mien Mien, we had bonded more with the beach hawkers. The Mien Mien crew was quite an odd, unfriendly bunch.
G- Hold your titties, Gladys. We must be running late because this mofo is going fast over these rocks.
P- I'm ok. You know how you develop sea legs when you've been on a boat for a while? Well I think I've developed tuk-tuk-titty. I've found a way to sway with the bouncing that keeps them from knocking my teeth out.
G- Well, isn't that nice?!
The tuk-tuk driver made a phone call, then dropped us off in front of a hotel.
Driver – You wait here. Van will pick you up in 15 minutes.
P- He knows where we are and he'll get us here?
Driver – Yes. You wait here. 15 minutes.
G- Ok. Thank you.
P- (to me) Great! We're just being dropped here and how do we even know if the van is going to come pick us up?
P- I'm just saying, what would we do if he didn't come to get us?
G- Then we will have been screwed, but we would just get on a different bus. Calm down.
P- Ok. You know I hate riding on these buses.
G- You make it way worse in your head than it really is. Stop thinking! You're working yourself up.
P- No, I'm not making it worse than it really is! They drive like maniacs! Way too fast on these 1 and a 1/2 lane roads.
G- On the day that we're intended to die, we will die. Now let it go. There is nothing you can do about it.
Luckily we were approached by a comedic tuk-tuk driver who struck up a conversation with us about, of course, where are we from, where have we been, where are we going. What's even more bizarre than a total stranger asking us all of these questions, information which is none of his business, we always answer them. It's a strange Asian travel thing. This temporarily took Phyls mind off of the impending bus ride.
Sure enough, just as we were told, the van pulled up, albeit 15 minutes late. Already the back compartment was full of backpacks, so I sat in the first seat, next to 2 girls, and held mine between my legs with my day pack on my lap. Phyl got into the middle seat, next to a Frenchman, and stacked her backpack and our large black bag at her feet. (Because we have been unable to mail stuff home, we are carrying an extra bag of stuff, and it is very heavy. We have got to off load this bag because it is impeding our traveling.) The back seat held 3 Australian, college age, bafoons who talked, loudly, the whole trip of being drunk, trying to get laid, and taking drugs.
At our next stop we picked up a man who sat in the passenger seat and kept his backpack between his legs. All the seats were filled, but we made a final stop and took on another man, whose backpack was shoved in the rear compartment and his seat, a plastic blue chair, was placed in a space next to Phyl's bench seat. Thankfully, we did not pick up anyone else.
The drive to Kampot, east of Sihanoukville, was pretty smooth. We put our ipod on to block out the sound of the college age baffoons and watched the green countryside go by. I looked back frequently to make sure that Phyl was ok, and she seemed to have calmed down. The bus driver was not speeding too much and was keeping the honking down to a minimum. The poor bastard on the blue, plastic chair had it the worst because his seat would threaten to fall over with every turn we rounded, and he clung to my seatback to keep himself upright. Several times, to his chagrin, he fell into Phyllis.
We walked across the street to Blissful Guesthouse, which had been recommended by the comedic tuk-tuk driver in Sihanoukville, and had a few cold beers and dinner. It was only 5:00 pm when we ate dinner, but, excited by our western choices, we made the mistake of eating a mexican dish. It was so nice to lie in bed, sans mosquito net, and watch TV! We were enjoying it very much until the heartburn and mild nauseau started. Phyl didn't lose any of her groceries, but by 2:00 am I found myself sitting on the toilet, unable to get up, with only a plastic basket type garbage can as a barf recepticle. I had no choice but to puke on the floor, but I repurposed the nether region sprayer and washed everything down the drain! I made it through the remainder of the night, nauseous, but in bed and fitfully sleeping. Phyl was knocked out and never heard a thing except the pack of dogs barking at each other outside of our window. Oh well, it was still quieter than our nights on Otres Beach.
