Sihanoukville – April 2nd, 2017
Apr 3rd, 2017 by rallyadmin
Last night, it was about 9:00 when we got everyone on the move. Out to a bar for a few rounds of beer and back to the hotel. I know most of the group: Clemo, Pinky, Tony Brimble, Paul Bradley. We have 4 new guys: Bruce (a previous Clemo victim), Adam, Ryan and Adrian. And myself and Guv (who, as is his way, is currently at parts unknown) make up the rest of the group.
Andy is with us only in Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville where he lives and where the bikes are. He isn’t doing the trip with us. He’s actually heading back to the UK to attend to some matters. The new guys are an interesting mix.
Three of them are police men. Bruce is retired and Adam and Ryan are current. That brings us to 4 coppers. Pinky is a retired coppers, also. Bruce and Adam are experienced riders but Ryan and Adrian are novices. This will be an interesting group. I hope the novices are ready for this.
We’re up at 6 and start walking our way to the train station by 6:30. It’s about a 4 hour train ride to Sihanoukville. We board and the train leaves promptly at 7. There’s only one carriage but there’s assigned seating and the carriage isn’t full.
There are only 2 stops on the way to S’ville. Eventually, Clemo breaks out a bottle of Beefeater and I distribute my 8 cans of tonic. (I’d planned to have G&T’s waiting for the mob so I tracked down 8 cans of tonic. But they arrived too late for the arrival celebration.) It’s G & T’s all the way around. At 10 AM. How very British. Pip. Pip. The sun never sets on the British empire. Or at least the British desire for G & T’s. No ice but that doesn’t stop the 9 of us from killing the bottle in short order.
By the time we get to S’ville, the rain has started again but not with the vengeance of yesterday’s downpours. Unload from the train. Pile into 3 tuktuks. (For those who don’t know, a tuktuk is a three wheeled taxi with a motorcycle front end with a passenger cart attached behind. Ubiquitous.) Head for the hotel.
Check in at the hotel. Get our rooms. Drop the bags. Wash up. Take a shortish nap. (See previous G&T mention above.) Meet up in the bar at 6:30 for dinner.
Andy recommends that we go to an Italian restaurant just across the street from the hotel that he says has excellent pizza. He’s spot on. The pizzas are fabulous and huge. And the beer is cold. What more could we ask for? Let the group bonding begin.
A short trek later to a street littered with small party bars. I couple beers and some pool. But I’m really running out of steam. Head back to the hotel and in bed by 11:30.
Tomorrow we get the bikes from Andy and head out on the road.
Obi-wan
