So where do I begin? Late last year? Earlier this year? Probably 8th February 2017 is a good date to start with… start of what? A new adventure or maybe a new experience… if I may…
Wednesday 8th Feb seemed to be the start date for my short stint in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. While its not yet official, I’ve been asked by my bosses to support the operations at Sihanoukvolle for 12 months. Short period? Hurmmm… So on 8th Feb day I flew to PNH and took an almost five hour taxi ride to Sihanoukville. My “short stint” began the very next day…
Anyway this is not about my work life. But then, my new life experience will be intertwined with that official duty… when it does become official in a few week. Until then its “out-station” lifestyle for me – staying in hotel and eating at restaurants and such.
Holiday Villa Nattaya is where my colleagues and I would put up whenever we visited Sihanoukville. It offers comfortable and clean accomodation plus safe surroundings. But kore importantly their Lagenda Restaurant is a halal eating place. And the GM of this hotel, Captain Charles, is a Malaysian and is also a biker!
The Captain’s Honda VTX1800
Today when I got back to the hotel from work, I met up with another very friendly biker whom is also the hotel’s owner’s son (is this correct grammar?) Harris lives in Kampot and rides the Valadero 1000. After introducing myself and telling him that I own a GSA back home, I asked if I could sit on his bike. Well… bike camarederie gave me more than that. He insisted that I gave the bike a spin around the block! So that I did. And it made me miss my bike…. huhuhuhu… the last time I rode my GSA was quite a while back…
After, the Captain also insisted that I try his VTX… of course I obliged 🙂
We continued our conversation at the hotel’s terrace cafe, having teh tarik (yes, the hotel serves this Malaysian signature tea… albeit slightly different in taste).
Immediately after, the strangest thing happened. As were talking about our bikes, a rider on GSA-LC stopped just outside the hotel entrance… and Harris spontaneously rushed to him. The rider made his way to park his bike and joined us at the cafe.
Norris with his 2015 GSA-LC…
Zihao Ni, or Norris as he exclaimed when we asked if he had an English name, came all the way from Chengdu China. He has been on his solo adventure for 21 days then, coming in to Cambodia from Laos. He wanted to go to Malaysia and Singapore, but a recent ruling by Thailand government barring any vehicle from China entering Thailand has rendered Norris restless. And as he related, he had to pay USD300 to officials at the Laos-Cambodia border for “entry fee”. This of course is not an official fee.
L-R: Norris, Harris, me, Hafiz (my officemate) & Captain.
Anyway we continued to talk as if we have known each other a very long time. It was getting close to 11.00pm when we call it a day. Everyone needed to retire early – myself and Hafiz leaving for airport at 5.30am in the morning; The Captain and Harris will be leaving about the sane time… going to the Patta Bike Week happening over the weekend. Zihao Ni was just tired from his all day ride.
And by the way, he checked in to this hotel with a “biker’s special rate” by courtesy of the good Captain…
beareye ! 