The bus from Cambodia to Vietnam was pretty expensive, compared to the time of driving (20$ for a journey of about 5$). But at least the roads were in good conditions… At the big international boarder crossing we had to switch the bus, as the cambodian driver didn’t have a license for his bus (I really don’t know what I paid all that money for).

After about another hour we arrived in Ha Tien. Most people use this town only as transit station to a nearby island, but as I spend enough time on the beaches in Sihanoukville, I skipped the island and decided so spend a full day in Ha Tien. It’s not really a big town and there’s not much to see, so I just started to walk around with anything in particular planned, until a motorbike driver started to talk to me and convinced me to drive to a very popular beach nearby.

The beach itself wasn’t really nice, but it was crowded with locals (I was the only westener on there). I didn’t bring any bathing pants, so just sat down in one of the beach bars, had a few beers with my driver and enjoyed the flair.

After a while my driver asked me, if I wanted to go to the next few sites. His english was too bad to explain what it was, so I just hopped on the back of his motorbike and let him surprise me. The first stop was a small hill with a restaurant on top. Nothing really interesting; a nice view to Cambodia so…

The next stop turned out to be a mix of a summer toboggan run and a rollercoaster. He told me to get in the front of the card, while he was sitting in the back. On the way up I realized, that the brake, to control the speed, was on the back seat. So when we reached the top, where we got off to visit a small view point, I switched the seat and got in the back. My driver tried to convince me to get in the front, but I friendly declined. He then tried to explain to me, how the brake works, to which I responded: I won’t brake! (Unlike the summer toboggan runs in Germany, it is physically impossible for the cards to leave the track, as they are fixed to it like a rollercoaster, so there’s no reason to break at all). He thought I was joking but didn’t want to sit in the front either, so he got himself another card.

It was a really nice ride, as I got really fast without braking at all. I would have never expected to find something like this in South East Asia. A nice surprise!

After that he drove me back to town, where he invited me to his home to have a few more beers. When it started to rain he drove me back to my hotel and as he was a nice guy, I arranged with him, that he could pick me up in the morning to drive me to the bus station.

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