Mud, salt, crab, and yet more mud

So after a few days of city life in phnom penh, I figured that it was time to get out to countryside... So I hoped on a nice bus and rode down to the river town to kampot... After a bit of searching in the dark for a place to lay my head down for the night, with the help of my drug dealing moto driver, I finally came to find a nice little place off the main drag... I spent the night laying in a hammock listening to my books on tape before retiring to my mozy net covered bed.  The next morning I strode down the waterfront to a motorbike shop, hopped on, and started driving to the seaside... Thankfully it had rained the night before, so all my fears of cruzing down a dusty dirt road were for not... Instead I should have prayed for dust as opposed to the alternative, mud.  Lots and lots and lots of mud.  After about twenty miles and managing to get around as many large construction trucks such fling up copious amounts of mud, I pulled out onto a side road and realized that of the 8 choices at the roundabout said twenty miles back in town, I had chosen poorly... So back I went through a fine mud misting.   When got back to my starting location, I was pretty concerned that the heavens were about to open up because it was so damn dark outside.  I took of my sunnys to have a better look at things, and lo, I was blinded by light!... I peered down at my goggles to see that their mirror surface was nearly completely hidden under mud, as was my entire person... I had a good laugh of the sight that I made... Big bearded white man covered in mud!  (you have to realize that I haven't seen another gringo in this town yet)... After another 20 miles or so up the right road, I came upon the sea, and oh how joyous was my heart at this meeting.  I was shocked at how emotional I was at such a sight and can only attribute it to the fact that after living next to it for four years and being gone from home for a great length of time, my heart was overcome by the familiar sights, sounds, and of course smells.  I parked my moto and dove straight into the sea, clothed as I was.  Never have I felt the waters so warm in all my life.  It was like a hot bath which has been allowed to cool for half an hour or so... I scrubbed the mud from my face and clothes noticed that my stomach was rumbling and that I had not eaten a meal in 2 days (it is almost as if I simply forget to eat entirely, or that I mean to but put it off in order to do something else and then forget about it).  So I popped up the beach a ways until I hit the crab market where I sat down and had easily one of the ten best meals of my life... Flavor I cannot begin to described overwhelmed me... Crab fried with vegetables and herbs in a slightly sweet curry that tasted nothing like curry, but rather like a pleasure greater than that of Paris an Hellen their first night in Troy...  I am talking about PASSION in my MOUTH!  An now I sit here, at that restaurant, with the ocean wind in my hair, listening to the sounds of the waves lap up underneath my seat, watching little fishing boats putter up the coast... I realize now that I better not find a Cambodian girlfriend while I am here, because if I do, I might not be leaving any time soon.

The next day I woke up early before dawn to the sound of creation, or rather what I imagine it sounded like 5,000 years ago when god made everything... I say, the heavens were dropping a remarkable amount of water on my tin roof and oh how the win howled from the south and east... A tarried there in an uneasy sleep for some time until mid morning when the Storm broke rain curtain pealed away like silver glass to reveal a far green country... It was then that I decided to head up the mountainside... After a three dollar "road fee" to the nice police men, I was off up the hill into Bokor National Park.  I got about ten km before I hit "road closed for construction sign" and there was a string across the road, lowered for all save me... I blatantly tried to bribe the guys but u think their lack of English made it particularly hard... I went so far as to plop down a ten spot and push it toward the string operator and point to me going through (thats serious bribe money here, for perspective it only costs about five bucks for a hit here, and I am talking about killing a person, drug are way cheaper according to the nice drug dealer who tries to sell me stuff every time I step out my guesthouse door)... But alas I was to no avail, i found out later that since the road is being worked on by some big company, apparently if and westerner gets hurt the guys who saw him that day never see another day, that way any bad press about the accident never happens because no one is around to sing the tale... I ruv this county!... So, with the day still ahead of me and a full tank of gas in my moto, I went cruzing down to the seaside again to see about some new cruzing roads and maybe a fried crab or two... In Kep, I found a trail onto Kep National Forest... And I cruzed through through the jungle mountainside on little more than a dear trail... Needless to say it was pretty bitchin... Think of the Napali Coast Trail, add in about an extra foot or so of clearance, and you'll have a good idea... I am once again sitting at my little shack restaurant, having polished off a few more crustacean, drinking my tea, and looking forward to my ride back to my hammock and maybe a 4 dollar massage if I get to feeling really loose with my pocket book... A very great "unsuccessful" day indeed!