"Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures..."
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| (The dusty road of Sre Ambel) |
Day 08: 30 Nov 2017 (Thursday)
Route: Koh Kong - Kampot – Prek Chak/Ha Tien - Phnom Penh
Distance: 447 km
Hotel: Boeung Meas Guesthouse, Phnom Penh
Breakfast was at the Muslim Restaurant at the Port. After refueling we started riding towards Kampot. The road was quite good with minimal traffic.
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| (The Koh Kong Bridge in the background) |
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| (The fishermen boats at the pier) |
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| (Floating restaurants along the river) |
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| (Passing through the National Park) |
The traffic became busy once we neared Sre Ambel. At the Sihanoukville/Kampot junction we nearly missed being hit by an overtaking tanker. Luckily we stopped and jumped off the bike to avoid being hit. A few locals stopped to assist and get our bike upright again.
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| (Coffee break at Sre Ambel) |
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| (The KeTaM taking a rest, too) |
From then on we rode carefully as the road was full of lorries overtaking each other recklessly without much care about other vehicles.
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| (Riding on the right side of the road) |
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| (Crossing many bridges) |
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| (Paddy drying on the hot tarmac) |
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| (A white horse statue at the roundabout) |
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| (One of the many mosques by the highway) |
Reached Kampot in time for lunch. A local guy helped us locate a Muslim Restaurant near Masjid Al-Kamar. The mosque is known to keep a dark secret on the teachings of Zahidi Sect. Since hundreds of years ago Muslims in Kampot have been devoted to this deviant teachings of the Zahidi clan leader named Tok San.
Kampot is a second district with the most Muslim population in Cambodia after the Kampung Cham district. More than 10,000 Muslim families came from Chu ethnicity, a mixed marriage between Javanese who came to trade with local women. There were efforts to focus on the development of religious education and to mobilize dakwah efforts among Muslims in Kampot, especially children through the construction of the religious schools.
After performing our prayers at the mosque we rode direct to Prek Chak, the Cambodia/Vietnam border to try our luck to enter Vietnam with our bike.
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| (Having lunch at a Muslim Restaurant in Kampot) |
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| (Performing our prayers in Masjid al-Kamar) |
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| (Once a controversial mosque in Kampot) |
At Ha Tien Vietnam border, we were allowed entry but without our bike. We had to engage a local guide if we want to ride our bike into Vietnam, which could cost us a lot.
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| (KeTaM was denied entry into Vietnam) |
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| (Prek Chak Cambodia boder) |
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| (Ha Tien Vietnam Custom and Immigration Complex) |
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| (Will enter Vietnam through other means) |
Decided to stay the night in Phnom Penh and had to ride in a massive traffic jam which started 60 km from town. Checked in Boeung Meas Guesthouse situated near Masjid Al-Serkal at USD13/night.
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| (Riding on un-tarmac short cut road) |
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(Masjid Al-Serkal next to our hotel)
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