It was odd leaving the Mairood this morning, I've been there a week but it feels much longer - in a good way. But time to move on towards Vietnam and Ant and David (hooray!) via Cambodia. We trundle my bag back through the fishing village the 300 metres to the road, luckily this time on foot with a three wheeled trolley and not a mad motorbike.
Chin is driving me down to the Cambodian border, not a long trip but rather than go via the main road we take the back route next the coast. It's funny, I always thought there was nothing else between Trat and the border apart from the one flash hotel a few miles north, the Centara, but in fact it's bustling with quite a few small bungalow and hut resorts next to small white sand beaches. These never come up when you Google the area but Chin tells me they very rarely have "farangs" staying as they speak no English at all and have few Western comforts. But from the outside they look quite nice. We also pass some more small, really rough fishing villages and the rubbish dump which is just a huge landfill and an enormous blot on the landscape.
But finally time to say goodbye as I approach the Cambodian border. Having been through this a couple of times I know the terrible scams, this time I arm myself with the e visa I had done a couple of days before online. Apart from the mandatory 50p to go through the "medical check" where they wave a digital thermometer about a foot in front of your nose and pronounce you OK, I was able to wave my evisa like some Indian memshaib and the disappointed crowds parted. This must really annoy the immigration guys as apparently they charge whatever inflated price they can for visas, but not me this time. But transport from the border into Koh Kong is still extortionate compared to normal local prices, but that is because the local immigration police take a kick back from every fare. But thinking about it it's not a lot different to the huge airport taxes border scam we and foreigners have to pay at British Airports... OK that's more "official" but still a rip off!
Going for the cheaper option of a tuk tuk instead of a car I brace myself for the 12km journey to the Oasis Resort. Quite bumpy as I expected as tuk tuks here are basically a motorbike with a little unsprung cart attached to the back. But all was well until we leave the town of Koh Kong to get here. We turn off down a red dusty path and negotiate the most enormous potholes and ridges. How these things keep going I will never know, I'm surprised they don't just fall apart. But 1.6kms of bouncing later I am dropped off here. What a great place. Just five bungalows surrounding a large infinity edge pool overlooking the scrubby jungle and the Cardamom mountains in the distance for $25 US a night. Ok there's no wifi which is annoying, but still, not bad value. Run by a Brit, Jason, it's been here a few years now and it is run well. It was his dream and he built it from scratch.
But the local commune in which it's set is shocking. Apart from the unmade road which must be a nightmare in the rainy season, it's a motley collection of really ramshackle Cambodian stilt house, lots of rubbish, dust, mangy dogs and tiny children playing about in the red dirt. The water is still collected from a well at the edge. After that, this place really did seem an Oasis.
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