Back in the saddle again....

For those of you still with us, I'll try and pick up more or less where we left off, which was recoveing from the flu in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. After spending the morning of the 27th runing around trying to get a Vietnamese Visa (for some reason known only to Vietnamese bureacrats, they dont issue tourist visas at the border, only at the embasy), we decided not to see Ream National Park, because it was on our route for the next day and mostly because we didnt feel like riding 20 miles that afternoon. Instead we went back to the beach, which was really excellent--the kind of beach experience we'de miss out on a little in Thailand--white sand, blue sky, not too many tour-ons once you walked a little ways down the beach. We walked and layed around on the beach most of the afternoon, then finished it off with a couple beers at sunset, along with some BBQd squid and "lobster" (looks more like Mantis Shrimp to me, but it was still hella tasty)--it was pretty idyllic. They really know how to do seafood here and its all very fresh; I think Ive eaten several schools of squid so far on this trip.
I think both Ev and I finally found the "beach time" we were looking for, so much so that we contemplated staying longer, but feeling a little pressed for time and eager to get back on the bikes, we rolled on the next day...

Getting back on the bikes felt good, we were well-rested and felt strong. A little saddle-sore after a couple weeks off, but good all in all. We rolled about 15 miles to Ream National Park early on the morning of the 28th, and got a guide for a short hike up to a waterfall. Nothing too spectacular, but we climbed up on a fairly good hill and could see out over a lot of Cambodian coastline and islands. The big thing with this national park is the mangrove forest, and we both regretted not having the several hours neccesary to explore them by boat---but we still had about 65 miles to go that day and it was already noon. The rest of the ride was really nice; mostly flat and on a good paved road through lots of little fishing villages. The route took us SE right along the coast through lots of mangove forest and tide marshes. Very pretty with lotsa super friendly people. We got to our destination, the city of Kep, at sunset, just in time for a beer overlooking the ocean and the whole coastline we had ridden that day. Found a nice hotel near the beach, had an AMAZING piazza at this restaraunt run by a crazy old Hungarian dude and passed out.

We were both pretty gassed from the big ride the day before, so the next day we slept in late, then checked out the beach town of Kep. Kep seems to be where the Cambodians come on beach holiday, and this time of year (the rainy, off-season) it was pretty sleepy, which was just fine with us. We stuffed our faces with amazing cheap seafood (BBQd fish, fried noodles with shrimp, etc), explored the small (but developing) town and lounged on the mostly empty beach. Unfortunately, the wind blows all the time here this time of year; not enough to be unpleasent when you're chillin on the sand, but enough to get the ocean kicked up and a little turbid so that snorkling is not very good. Both of us were jonesing for some pretty corals and reef fish, but I think we'll have to come back at a different time of year for that one. We are definetly planning our return already.

Allright, Ill leave you in Evan's capable hands for the next installment.
See you soon!
Miles