I left Phnom Penh after my stopover with a small bus to the province of Kampot. After getting in touch with the city the first night I was keen to try something completely new. I went out in the morning to find myself a serious dirt bike. I am eager to cross Vietnam on a motorbike and without proper driving lessons this would soon become a jeopardy style adventure.

I found a place where the owner rented out Honda 250 XR dirt bikes. The rental set me back 20 USD and an additional 4 USD for filling the empty fuel tank. I did my research in the morning watching Youtube videos of how to shift, brake, start and stop the bike. As I have driven several scooters (also manual shifting ones) in previous visits to south-east asia most concepts came with no surprise. Only the slightly heavier weight and the higher position on the bike made me feel a little excited.

I pushed the bike all the way out of town only to find me unable to start it. As I found out half an hour and a lot of sweat later there is a kill switch that stops all operations. Now I know.

After getting back to the waste field outside of town I started my first driving lesson. I was driving in first gear to get a feeling for getting this dreaded thing rolling and also did some proper exams on how to brake using the foot and handlebar brakes. After a while I was able to shift to second gear. And man, I must have smiled all over my face. That was fun.

After cruising the field for 3 hours with short breaks of 15 mins to relax my muscles and let the synapsis ingest what they’ve just learned I went back to my hostel to have a cold coke and some lunch.

In the afternoon I went to the countryside. The bike ventured down some small dirty roads with almost no traffic. I learned to move off on a steep sandy hill (not so easy) and had great fun driving around in some of the more remote locations.

Unfortunately my Kampot bike adventures ended sooner then expected. B.A. called me at night because she was not doing well in Sihanoukville. A night in great despair, 2 hour bus ride and 2 infusions later I was able to pick her up with a serious Salmonella infection. She’s doing better, but still we have to keep our heads down for the next days.

To be continued…