SON OF A BEACH!

In yesterday's posting I forgot to mention that the olde tyme backpacker beach at the end of our road is Serendipity Beach. But this whole area is ringed with islands, coves, and other beaches besides Serendip. So today we rented a Suzuki 125 motorbike (only $5 for 24 hours!!) and cruised around to all the other sandy spots. The names are Occheteal, Otras, Independence, Victory, Hawaii, and Sokha but what's amazing is that combined there is capacity here for hundreds of thousands of vacationers. So much gorgeous scenery, so much room for all.

We roared and bumped out to the east end first. Decrepit bridges, laundry hung by the same garbage as everywhere else here, tranquil shady shores, and somewhere(!) to blame if something wasn't right. A dragon tail pointed the way west but we had 2 bad incidents there. First I got waved over by cops who wanted to see my Cambodian Driver's Licence. Yeah, right. They extorted $10 and told me to go home. Then an hour later we ran out of gas (none of the gauges worked) and had to walk the bike to the nearest plastic bottle of gas at the side of the road. Don't try this at home, we would call it a Molotov Cocktail!

Back on the road we admired a modern arching bridge to a nearby island. But when we got to it, it was closed --- the Russian developers had ran out of money and only left this guard to wave us off. All of this watched by a water buffalo in the (duh) water --- real or stone?? But the beaches just kept appearing, like white carpets in front of blue sea floors.  Warm water swimming on a day when we read that it is brutally cold back home.

It's Friday night and the beach is packed with winers and diners. We went to the Happy Buddha, happy ourselves to have discovered a place to stay longer next time. With my Cambodian Driver's Licence!