We had a nice cheap breakfast at a cafe in the centre of Kampot and set out on the motorbike to explore!

First stop was the search for a pepper plantation, we'd read on travel wiki that a spot called the vine retreat had their own plantation and would show people round. It was about 5km off the main road and a really secluded place, stunning though. A nice lady showed us round the plantations and explained how they get the different colours of pepper (White, Red and Black). We decided to have a coffee in the stunning restaurant they have there, the view was amazing and the chairs very comfortable. Unfortunately the coffee wasn't actually as good as what we've become used to and soon some guests arrived and shattered the quiet calm we were enjoying. We took a quick look at the rooms and seriously debating booking in for a few days. In the end we decided to see how Sihanoukville was and decide then.

Back on the road we drove through Kep and watched the waves crashing on the sea front. We then set out looking for a back road to Ankaul beach supposidly the best in the area. We spent most of the morning trying to find the turn off and in the end had to stop and have some lunch. We came within a second of giving up and heading home when we found the right turn off. The road was very narrow and muddy and not really suitable for our little scooter. We had quite an adventure over this muddy path and almost came off several times. We went past a really weird barn with loud speakers playing what sounded bat noises, must have been some kind of bat trap.

We eventually came to a good wide gravel path and decided we would take that route home. We passed lots of houses with the obligatory kids screaming hello! at us. We carried on along an increasinly poor mud track and decided that we were never going to find this beach and turned back. We stopped at a small cafe for an iced coffee, the lady there regarded our muddy bike and legs and shaked her head and laughed with her family at us. She gave us some hard apple like fruit and a knife to eat if with, I don't think she approved of Toms knife skills though.

Fully caffinated we headed back onto the gravel road and back towards Kampot, we came round a corner to find a small village. This was when Tom noticed two dogs playing at the side of the road. Suddenly they ran into the road and one froze infront of the bike giving Tom no time to react.

The bike hit the dog square on and we slid onto the gravel side on. My memories are of seeing the dog and then seeing gravel sliding past my helmet. The first thing I saw was my hand with half of the skin missing and bone and tendons exposed. I wrapped my Hoi An shirt over it and applied pressure while calling to check Charlie was ok. We think through reconstructing the event she had landed on my back as we slid along the road. She had a couple of nasty grazes but was OK, she quickly however pointed out the deep gash in my shoulder we wrapped her Krama (Cambodian scarve) over it and she flagged down a passing motorbike who kindly drove me 100 metres down the road to a "Clinic". This was a room with a bed and a few medical supplies and a chap who turned green when he saw me. He swobbed the wounds and plugged the blood coming from my hand and shoulder with cotton wool. Charlie had managed to find someone who spoke english who had called a ambulance which took an eternity to arrive. The ambulance was a mini van with a stretcher in it driven by a few coppers. We were given the choice of the private hospital in Kampot and the general one we elected for private hoping for better treatment. The doctor there was fairly good and numbed my hand and shoulder and disinfected and dressed all my wounds. He stretched the wound on my hand closed and suchered it shut which was pretty painful! They gave me some antibiotics and told me to come back in two days to have the dressings changed.

Back at the hotel we told the parents and got the ball rolling with the insurance company and resolved to get to Phnom Penh the next day to find a more modern hospital.

Charlie spent the next morning sorting out the recovery of the bike and booking a private taxi to Phnom Penh (At great expense). We'd found a really nice looking hotel called Circa 51 which was opposite a medical centre called SOS which looked ideal for our purposes. The hotel was beautiful although we arrived too late for the medical centre so settled down for the night. The staff we fantastic and served us amazing foodin the room and were really understanding as Tom was in a lot of pain and found getting comfortable quite dificult.

We went round to the clinic in the morning and Doctor wasn't too happy with my injuries. He had X rays taken of my hand and found I had broken my 5th Metacarpal. He said we should have been in Bangkok 2 days ago and that it needed urgent opperation. He gave me morphine which was pretty good while he dressed my wounds and gave me a big drip of Antibiotics.

We quickly checked out of the hotel where they were again amazing giving us some sandwiches to take away and not charging us extra for late check out! We found a taxi to the airport and booked ourselves on the evening flight to Bangkok. This is all fairly blurry for Tom as he was fairly well dopped up on painkillers but Charlie managed to arrange a wheel chair to take us though Phnom Penh airport skipping all the ques which was pretty sweet.

Next stop Bangkok Hospital!