Cambodia: Ratanakiri Province 17-20 May

The final stop in Cambodia was to be Ban Lung in Ratanakiri Province, in the far north east corner and almost on the border to Laos. Stu and I wanted something a bit more rural than the other places we’d been in Cambodia, and this place sounded ideal, offering lakes and tree houses and villages. Perfect for a final stop and at last a chance to see some real Cambodian life without the tourists.

The bus journey, booked through a travel agent in Siem Riep, was comedy from the beginning. It was ‘VIP’ (code for supposedly more comfortable and upmarket bus), cost $16 and was supposed to take 12 hours. We waited outside the hostel at 6am, and got picked up by the wrong shuttle van. The mistake was realised just before boarding the wrong bus and we were rushed back to the hostel just in time to get the right shuttle. We were driven out of town to a strange bus stop on the outskirts, and piled onto a bus which was made us grin at each other in its non VIP’ness. Dripping air vents, freezing cold air con as usual (why??), seriously crazy loud, tinny Asian pop videos blasting through the speakers and people piled in the aisles sitting on bags of rice. Oh well, I’d seen worse. Around lunchtime after about 6 hours we stopped for some food and were told to get off the bus and wait for another one. It turned out to be a minivan with seats so small that my knees were crushed around my ears, I felt so sorry for the taller guys on it, and all I could think of was that there was another six hours to go. The minivan drivers are pretty maniac and go crazy fast, so everyone on the bus had hair highly raised. 

Just when we got used to the new bus, we arrived in the main bus station of a town called Kratie which is famous for dolphin watching in the Mekong. There we were told to get off and wait for the next minibus, which wasn’t going to leave until it was completely full of passengers, so we had to wait for people who turned up wanting to go to Ban Lung. It was around 3pm at this point, so we hung around the seriously local bus station which actually turned out to be a really good moment just to hang with locals in a place where next to no tourists ventured. Cambodia is a really poor country and the local station really reflected it but everyone was going about their daily business with vigour, sometimes giving us a bemused glance but mostly just scuttling by. There was a toddler at my feat playing with a plastic truck, bare bum exposed to the world and his dirty shirt trailing in the muck of the station, but as happy as could be. When the wheel of his truck broke off and rolled away, I went to fetch it and fixed it back on for him. He looked intently at me with his big brown eyes for about five seconds, and then carried on with his game with a slightly furrowed brow. His mommy smiled at me sweetly.

Kratie bus station 

We had some rice and iced tea in one of the cafe’s around the station, and still we waited. We waited and waited, and sweated and waited. Eventually, after around three hours we were told to get into the most beat up looking minivan that I’d seen yet. When you sat down on the chairs, huge clouds of dust enveloped you. We were squished in with the locals at the back, and the van pulled away. But we definitely hadn’t set off for Ban Lung yet, the minivan drove around town for another 45min picking more people, sacks of rice and anything else that could squeeze into it. Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more full, they asked the mother and baby at the front to squeeze in the seat behind because they wanted to push a motorbike... yes a full sized motorbike into the front seat of the small minivan. Just to make it extra exciting for everyone, they tied another motorbike onto the back with ropes. And it was with this load that we eventually, around 7.30pm, pulled away from Kratie for Ban Lung. Stu and I were squished into the back seat with another traveller from England, Josh, and two other local men. 

The rest of the journey was pretty eventful, stopping every now and again to drop off a bag of rice or to happily squash something or someone else in the van. If you wanted to go to the toilet, you had to climb out of the window as you couldn’t get by the tightly packed load with motorbike in the front. Man oh man, these are the bus journeys you remember and is what makes travelling what it is, eventful. The time 11pm rolled by (seventeen hours on the road) Stu, Josh and I were looking at each other with wild eyes. Eventually, eighteen hours later we arrived in Ban Lung, at midnight. The driver dropped everyone else off individually, including the motorbikes, and then drove us to a random hotel in the town somewhere where as soon as the door opened a man stuck his head in for the hotel pitch. We had already decided that we were going to stay in Tree Top Ecol Lodge, and the other two Westerners had a hotel booked already but the driver and everyone else pretended not to know where any of these places were. At this point I snapped a little (never a good thing in Asia, really doesn’t help anything) and told them... ‘WE ARE NOT STAYING AT YOUR HOTEL’. After some more mumbling and driving around they eventually dropped us off at our place.

Tree House Eco Lodge was in the Lonely Planet (usually I avoid accommodation recommended in there) but sounded so cool I really wanted to stay. Bungalows and walkways set up in the trees, all made of beautiful wood so you felt like a monkey living in the canopy. It was $15 for a three person bungalow and $10 for two a person, so Josh, Stu and I shared one. It was so idealic, really well made wooden bungalows with big comfy beds, high ceilings, and a bathroom that was only half covered so you could shower with the sound of frogs and trees in the wind. It had a balcony looking out into the canopy too. I had to wake the managing the place up, sleeping under a mosquito net in the main reception area because it was so late, but he happily led us in the dark with torches to our house. There weren’t three happier people in all of Cambodia to be getting into bed that night!

Tree Top Eco Lodge - Ban Lung

Tree Top Eco Lodge - Ban Lung

Tree Top Eco Lodge - Ban Lung

Tree Top Eco Lodge - Ban Lung

 There is a restaurant and main decking area that looks over some forest and a ravine, and we woke up the next day very happy to have some breakfast in this most chilled of places. The breakfasts were around $3 each, so pricier than normal for Cambodia. Main meals were around $4 I think. We decided to go to Yeak Laom Volcanic Lake that day and met an Austrian girl who had been before, so we set off to hire bikes. Walking out the bungalows brought you straight into the fully Cambodian town of Ban Lung. It was low season so really hardly any tourists around at all, which was fantastic. We hired three bikes for $4 for the day, and went off to the lake. It’s a volcanic lake, so created when an ancient volcano erupted and then left a huge round dent in the earth. The road there is properly paved, and really easy to cycle. Maybe a tiny bit hilly for those that hadn’t done any real exercise for months (me).  It cost around $3 for a ticket to enter and to park your bicycle. This is was a bit of a tourist destinations for Cambodians and so had some food stalls as you came up to the gate, with some really cute excited kids all milling around to see the Falangs (white people). The walk around the lake is really pretty and easy too, about 3km all the way round, the path surrounded by long thin bamboo forest. They have designated areas for swimming but we just found a secret little spot somewhere shaded by bamboo and away from people and got straight in. The water is so much warmer than you expect it to be, and very clean and blue. It’s a perfectly round, flat lake and so very easy and lovely to dip in. There was a convenient leaning tree there for us to climb up and jump off of too. 

Yeak Laom Volcanic Lake

Yeak Laom Volcanic Lake

Yeak Laom Volcanic Lake

On the cycle home we stopped off at the small lake in the town at a place that was famous for coconut shakes, but they didn’t have any coconut that day. Still, we had a seriously delicious fish Cambodian curry, spicy with lots of coconut in it, and some iced fresh lemon juice. We had a little cycle around the town, with people smiling and waving at us as we went by, especially the children. Out of the main tourist towns, they are still so excited to see Westerners. Before we left that morning, we saw the family running Tree Top Eco Lodge eating some amazing looking food, and so we asked them if they could make it for us for dinner. It was traditional Cambodian feast, with very fresh fish soup, some spicy tangy fish kind of dip, fresh vegetables in some tangy flavouring and lots of rice. It was seriously delicious.

Another thing to see in Ban Lung is the waterfalls just outside of town. Most people decide to motorbike there but we wanted to cycle, but by the end of the day we could see why people use motorbikes. The Austrian girl came with us too. It was scorching hot, and we got lost more than once down some side roads leading into rural villages. We spent ages looking for this one waterfall, but that was okay because just riding through the villages was so fun, with everyone smiling and waving and little kids really getting excited and running down the road after us. The villages are so simple, just wooden huts raised on stilts from the rain in monsoon season. Chickens, pigs and dogs wander around freely, and there are no paved roads. In some places the sticky red earth made huge crevices in the road which made it a little difficult to cycle. Because it took us so long to find the waterfall down came the full force of the afternoon rain. I love travelling in the low, wet season. The rain cools you down and freshens everything up, and there are way less people around. We took refuge in a tiny village shop, and again the family were so curious and friendly, inviting us to come inside and hide from the rain, talking to us in Cambodian and us back to them in English buying sweet popped rice snacks. Eventually we fell into silence and just waited for the rain to pass, watching some village residents walk or ride by looking curiously in at us.  

The village police station 

Waiting in the shop for the rain to pass

Village cycling

The waterfall was pretty when we eventually found it, water cascading from quite a height and if you stood under it then it stung you with its force, which Stu found out. The area is great to wander around in, very green and luscious. On the way back, we rode past a giant field with some trucks overturning and working the red, clayish ground. There were some small boys playing near the road so we stopped to wave at them and get some cute pictures. Stu took out his huge camera and one of the boys just burst out crying, while the others gathered around us excitedly and posed for pictures. It was really cute, poor little thing, obviously scared of these Falang Westerners with a big black piece of machinery in his face. The other little boys ran over to him and tried to cover his mouth to stop him from crying. Really sweet. We rode away waving as he was obviously scared of us.

Poor little one at the back about to cry

We got back very hot and sunburnt, after a really happy day. The little girls of the family came out to the deck back at the Lodge, with two fat cute puppies for us to look at. One of them was really nimble with Stu’s camera, she was a great little photographer and somehow knew how to work his massive fancy camera. She must have learnt it from tourists visiting there. We watched a huge purple flashing storm roll over the valley towards us, taking pictures and playing with the puppies.

The next day we were to cross the border into Laos by bus. We booked it through Lodge, straight to Don Det in the 4000 islands. I was genuinely sad to leave Cambodia, I keep saying how much it surprised me how different the experience was to how I was expecting it. I highly recommend going off the beaten track into some rural areas. The towns and villages are really friendly, and you hardly need to speak the same language to communicate which I’m learning more and more on my journey.

Cambodia: Siem Riep & Angkor Wat 13-16 May

ANGKOR! One of the most iconic places in South East Asia, the seat of the old Khmer Empire. Over a thousand temples once adorned this great city, the biggest and best restored being Angkor Wat. And little ol' me was going to see it with my very own eyes, excitement abound! We set off bright and early on the day bus from Sihanoukville to Siem Riep. I thought that I’d lost my headphones so I had no music for the 14 hour trip which believe me is tragic when you’re in it. We had a little more difficulty getting ready than usual as the night before Emily and I had stayed out a wee bit late and things got chaotic when we had our night swim in our clothes and got back to the bungalow dorms in the pitch black and decided to hang out all our clothes on the balcony. I definitely left my favourite new purchase behind there, a shirt by Rogue MusicCambodia. We were also feeling rougher than a gorillas elbow and so a long bumpy ride wasn't filling us with a feeling of wellbeing. And that, kids, is why you should have a good night sleep before a big day of travel.

The bus left at 7.30am from Sihanoukville and can be easily booked at any hostel - $12 for a '12 hour trip with a change of bus at Phnom Pen around 1pm.

The bus to Phnom Pen was great, comfy with lots of room with beautiful scenery along the way. We passed by the same street food stalls as on the way there but decided against once again getting the fire grilled banana sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves ... although this is an excellent Cambodian street food option if you need some serious carbohydrate loading. Say, for instance if you need to run for six days across the Serengeti Desert with some San bushmen on a hunt. But there was the favourite sliced sweet juicy pineapple and crunchy not quite ripe mango. Once in Phnom Pen we jumped on the next bus to Siem Riep, but this one was packed and so we had some pretty uncomfortable moments. Emily and I were right at the back (playing bumper cars with our skulls) and squished in with an interesting array of travellers. Some middle aged Russian men, a monk or two and some Cambodian teenagers. The air con unit was on the back wall and so was blasting a consistent cold stream of recycled air right down our necks so that we had to wrap both of us in her shawl with our noses sticking out. Stu was having a real tough time too as a small monk lady had bought some Durian fruit, the smell of which makes some people feel so sickly that they have a gag reflex when they smell it. She occasionally opened the bag and the smell would waft through the bus being generously distributed by the air con right into everyone’s nostrils, until poor Stu’s face started alternating between green and white. The bus ride went on and on and on, the roads were really bad in some places, with whole parts of it missing with some form of road works going on. It became dark and hour after hour passed, me with no music for me and freezing air con up my neck and a big Russian man trying not to spread out next to me, and the sickly smell and the bumping, ah the bus rides of SE Asia how we love and hate you!  Huge drops of rain and darkness fell, and we stopped for some more crouching toilet action and snack buying at a stall somewhere when the loudest (okay sometimes I tend to exaggerate, but this time I swear I’m not) most electrifying crashing smashing lighting and thunder clap ripped all our nerves apart. The hairs on the back of the neck stood up, it was as if the lightning bolt had hit the tin roof we were standing under. Just when everyone was opening their eyes and de-clutching themselves from strangers they’d grabbed in fright, another came as loud and bright. BOOOOOOM CLAP CRACKLE CRASH. Lighting striking within 20m of us I’m certain. Awesome.

Eventually after around 15 hours we reached Siem Riep, green from Durian smell gagging, with blue icicle noses from aircon. We were all pretty knackered and a tad grumpy. We found a city map and were going to do the usual; find the cheap backpacker hub and the cheapest-without-being-hideous accommodation. I felt pretty bleary eyed and had no will to argue with the tuk-tuk ‘where you staying’ touts waiting outside the bus, so we were led docilely by one of them into the arms of Walter. Walter was going to take us into town and help us look for a hostel for around $3. He was so lovely and friendly, getting us through the muddy car park through all the motorbikes and busses and helping us into his little tuk-tuk.As soon as we were all in he turned to us from his driver’s seat and said words to this affect in the most earnest and likeable way possible... ‘I’m Walter, and I really want to be your tuk-tuk driver while you’re in Siem Riep. I can speak good English, and I know Angkor Wat really well’. He gave such a great little opening speech and was such a genuinely sweet man that I was sold instantly; he would take us around Angkor Wat all day until after sunset for $15, $5 each for a whole day’s work. 

Walter

Stu in Walter's tuk-tuk

I began to convince the other two to go for it, and it turned out great as you really need some kind of transport around Angkor. It’s much too big to do on foot, and if you want to do the whole day there then bicycles are an option, but you’ll probably really struggle from heat fatigue. After his introduction and pitch, he as promised took us on a mission to find a place to stay, whizzing past a street with some fancy looking boutique hotels with colourful and quirky restaurants that we gazed at longingly as he sped us to the budget areas. One had dorms beds for $8 (really expensive for Cambodia) and another had dorm beds for $2 each but it turned out they were mattresses on the floor in the hot, leaky roof of a six story building (no elevator, seriously poky stairs). In the same building they had a hotel quality triple room for $10, so $3.33 each and the difference we had with that extra $1 each was quite unbelievable. It’s called The Backpacker Hostel Siem Riep. There is internet with computers downstairs and decent wifi, also cheap breakfasts and beer available in their mini restaurant, and a five minute walk to the centre.

Chilling at The Backpacker Hostel Siem Riep

Siem Riep is actually quite a quirky, small and cute town which I wasn’t expecting for some reason. There is a small river running through it, some good markets selling cheap clothes and anything else and some decent cheap places to eat. Obviously it’s really touristic, with a big street just full of Western bars and restaurants, but go down some side streets you can eat well for $1.50. I really liked the atmosphere too; Cambodians are so friendly and just great to be around in general. They actually seem to like tourists and care about what experience they are having, instead of seeing them as a nuisance to bear. They’ve been through so much historically as a people but are still so open, jovial and hard working. From other accounts I’d heard of Cambodia I really wasn’t expecting to love the country and people so much, but the more time I spent there the more I did. Walter was a perfect example. He was there at 9am sharp to pick us up the next day. He spoke lovingly of his wife and daughter, brought some ice water for our day and stopped and explained things whenever we needed him too. We drove to Angkor Wat through the pretty parts of town, passing the blind masseuse house (where the blind are taught to give massages, and apparently these are some of the best massages you can come by) and other landmarks of the town, down the small highway to Angkor Wat. There was a highly organised ticket gate where there was a friendly worker for every step. A photo pass card was issued and we were told they were our passports for the next three days. One day for $20, and three days for $40. Walter then took us through and there we were, in the giant grounds of Angkor.

Walter drove us in his tuk-tuk down wide avenues lined with tall ancient trees, to the sparkling water of the moat and then up to the first temple. I didn’t expect it to be so luscious, green and forest-like, and this was almost one of the best things about it. It was like being in the past, no plastic rubbish anywhere, no coffee shops or any permanent structures other than the small food shacks, no brand names, just ancient, natural beauty. 

The roads into Angkor

The roads of Angkor - this girl must have been around 4 years old 

The first temple we went to had a great big pond, almost a lake, which was said to be one of the king’s swimming pools. We did see some children splashing around in it, but they looked so tiny and lost in such a huge expanse of water, and so funny that this was made to be a swimming pool. I could name all the temples we went to but it’s meaningless unless you’re there. But what I can say is that they are utterly awesome, majestic, ancient masterpieces. It feels like you’re on a film set, that it can’t be real. Everything you imagine about Angkor is exactly there but intensified. The scale is staggering, when you look at the size of each stone and imagine the weight of each and every one and the manpower it must have taken to even complete one wall, let alone gigantic expansive temples, pillars, walls, carvings, stairs. The temples are spread out around an area of 1000 square kilometres, so you have to drive to each one. At its peak, Angkor had a million citizens, none of which lived in the temples but on the surrounding land. 

My first gate at Angkor

Bayon temple in Angkor Thom - my favourite

Bayon Temple Angkor Thom

Monks in Angkor Thom

View from Angkor Thom

Bayon Temple Angkor Thom

Carvings

We walked around in awe, jumping over and under the enormous worn stones and just being generally gobsmacked by it all. And I the stunning trees! Towering and ancient with fat long roots draped and wrapped around the very tops of walls or higher parts of the temples, and it made you really wander how on earth they started growing there. They were like gnarled, robed, wooden monks draping themselves over the ruins. To me it felt like if you stood long enough near one a tendril would slowly come out and hook around you and hold onto you until you had changed and grown into a mystic tree too. Walter took us to the main eating square to his friend’s stall where he ate with us but ordered something that wasn’t on the tourist menu, which Stu had and it was delicious and spicy. I asked Walter his advice on something that I’d really wanted to do, which was stay in Angkor Wat after dark and sleep there in one of the temples. He said that police check the whole area after dark, but it is such a massive place I was convinced that they couldn’t check everywhere, and just the experience of sleeping in such a powerful and mystical place was enough to tut away any objections. All the police would do anyway is march you out. I was determined to try it, but one thing did put a damper on those plans and that was the enormous monsoon like downpours that happened every evening around 6pm, which would have drowned anyone sleeping in the temples and made for a very chilly, wet evening. So, I didn’t end up doing it in the end but I regret it because it’s nothing a good poncho wouldn’t solve, and what is being wet and cold compared to sleeping in Angkor Wat?

Angkor trees

Angkor trees

Angkor trees

We got seriously hot and sticky exploring all of Angkor Thom that afternoon, and after climbing right to the top of a temple we found some monks who wanted to have us in their photos, and Stu got a hug from one of them. I think they were travelling to Angkor from somewhere quite far. In the evening Walter took us to a Wat on a hill where we could watch the sunset. It was a little bit of a climb, but a lot of other people had the same idea. There were kids selling beer at the bottom of the hill ‘enjoy cold beer at sunset!’ There were also elephant rides up the hill for $20 and the elephants did look very sweet, but I can’t stand those seating wracks they tie onto their backs. 

Stu's pic - getting a hug from a monk :)

The Wat was very beautiful, looking out over the luscious green trees sprawling out around us, with a peak of Angkor Thom poking out from the trees. Unfortunately it was rainy season and so massive grey clouds covered the horizon, but it was great to sit up there anyway. They started kicking people out before 6.30pm though which was just as the sun started to make a peak out the clouds and give us a cascade of colours. They obviously didn't want anyone walking down the hill in the dark.We saw it from our tuk-tuk though as we were whizzing home, a beautiful orange and pink sunset through the trees. We also saw a huge purple storm rolling over the opposite horizon towards us, the wind picked up and the heavy smell of rain made us zoom towards the town even faster. Sure enough, as every day in the rainy season there was a downpour of big, fat tropical droplets. Siem Riep doesn’t seem that prepared for rain which is weird since the monsoon comes every year. The roads flood with no drains visible, and motorbikes and people start disappearing up to their waists as they wade down the street. 

Waiting for sunset

We had a day off the next day for market browsing, general layabout-ing and then in the evening a posh buffet and a traditional Aspara dance that we had booked for $12. It was in a hall with a roof and no sides, and a pretty stage in the centre where Aspara dancers and musicians entertained us while we tucked into a pan-Asian buffet. I had two full plates and desert, and we had a jolly night in the hall packed full of a strange variety of tourists, mostly big tour groups which were hilarious to watch. Please, please don’t ever make me travel in a big tour group. During the show the heavens opened and the hardest monsoon downpour I had yet to see came down, and was so loud on the roof that we couldn’t hear any music at all. Sheets of water started coming through the sides of the hall, and everyone had that ‘whoa’ look on their faces. But the dancers went on stoically, and at the end they let people go up on stage to have a picture. It was a zipped down with plastic tuk-tuk ride back into town where we went to Pub Street, an aptly named street full of Western pubs, where all the Westerners in Siem Riep hang out. 

Aspara banqueting hall 

Our third day was for sunrise at AngkorWat. We still hadn’t seen this biggest and most famous of temples yet, and it was great to wake up at 4.30am and wait outside in the dark, the excitement was like being a child again. Many people did the same thing, which made me more regretful that I hadn’t tried to sleep there, but the rain at night really would have made it gruelling. We came to Angkor Wat in the dark, and found a perch on one of the smaller temples. It was really exciting to see this huge, ominous structure emerge out of the dark and mist to reveal itself to us. Unfortunately again, because of the clouds we didn’t see the actual orange orb of the sun rising up over the temple, but the silvery morning light highlighting the temple’s details was magical. Once we were certain the sun was actually up, we made our way inside and went separate ways to ogle at things at our leisure. Inside the temple was actually really quiet, and I spent a happy hour just gazing at the carvings and structures and wandering around. At one point I went into a big square with some steps going down into a pit, and I asked the old mad standing there to take a picture of me. He then quite gruffly made me stand in an alcove in the wall, but I had no idea what he was doing or why he was manoeuvring me there. It turned out he wanted to show me that when I banged my chest in this alcove it made the strangest of echoes. It also turned out he wanted some Riels for his time which I was happy to give him, the old beggar who tramped Angkor Wat.

Stu's pic - Emily and I waiting for sunrise at Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat, early morning

Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat, early morning

Angkor Wat

We stayed four nights and three full days in Siem Riep, two at Angkor Wat and one pottering around the town. I recommend getting the three day pass which would cost the same as two days, trying to rush around Angkor Wat in one day just isn’t the same. The pass cost $40, the accommodation was $10 in a basic but good room (shared between three) and you can get good cheap food in Siem Riep. I love the people of Cambodia and there was none of the pushy, aggressive begging I had heard about, maybe because it was low season but I can’t imagine it being so different in high season. There is a mad club there for Cambodians mostly, which was rocking on a Tuesday night and had lazers and a DJ and for some reason we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside, maybe the decor was top secret. All in all, I really enjoyed Siem Riep and of course Angkor Wat is an otherworldly experience that you cannot miss if you are in that part of the world.

One of Stu's cool pics - Emily and I overcoming the rain on the streets of Siem Riep

Stu and I booked a bus out of there on the fourth morning, for 6am to Ban Lung in Ratanakiri province. Emily was heading back to Phnom Pen for her flight home, and oh what fun we all had so it was sad to see her go.  The bus was $16 and was supposed to take 10 hours, but that is another story altogether. Be careful that you get picked up by the right bus operator from your hostel, we got into some other pick up and almost missed the correct one for our bus. They had to whizz us back to the hostel and we made it just in time.


Here are all the Cambodia pics. 

Cambodia: South West Coast: 8-12 May

The bus from Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) left around 6.30am. One of the really funny things that happen in SE Asia when you book a bus through a travel agent/hotel is; a minibus will pick you up from your hotel and ride around the whole town picking people up taking ages and then take you to the bus which was a two minute walk around from where you were originally picked up from the first place. The bus ride to Cambodia is actually not at all bad, getting to the border around 11am. They collect $25 for the visa from you on the bus ($20 for the actual visa officially, $5 probably for the driver’s new SUV fund) and take all the westerners passports to the desk where they fill out all the forms and you pretty much just have to walk through to the Cambodian side after having your fingerprints taken. As soon as you get into the Cambodian side the higher level of poverty is apparent immediately. The roads are more beat up as are the houses and shop fronts along the side of them, and the people are too. The bus got to Phnom Penh around 1pm where we were catching another bus to Sihanoukville. I wanted to get some island beach time in before setting off inland.

Emily and I at Phnom Penh Station - picture by Stu

Dealing with currency and money is kind of complicated in Cambodia. You can pay for anything in USD (as long as the notes aren’t at all ripped), but anything lower than $1 is dealt with in Riel. 4000 Riel is $1, so if you pay for something with $10 note you get change back in $ and Riel so the chances of getting less back than you should have are high if you’re doing a speedy transaction, but this didn’t happen to me once that I know of so its definitely not like everyone is trying to scam you at all.

This is what I was told from a variety of sources to expect from Cambodia: Massive poverty, people begging sometimes aggressively and small children grabbing onto you or your things and shouting back when you get mad at them. Oppressively hot. Corrupt government officials making life hard for the general populace and sometimes tourists through scamming and therefore not being the friendliest of people, more out to get your money. But it could not have been a more opposite experience, and I’d actually say that Cambodia is less like all these things than some of the other countries I’ve visited. The first experience of friendliness and efficiency is when we got off at the busy bus station in Phnom Pen. There were chickens, food stalls, people, bags and bustling everywhere, but when someone working there found out we were in time to take an earlier bus he practically poll vaulted over it all across the station to get us a new ticket for the next available bus. There was a definite feeling of organisation and helpfulness which I wasn’t expecting from the accounts I had.

We took the next six hour bus to Sihanoukville on the tip of the South West coast of Cambodia. This is the second most popular destination after Siem Riep and so is packed with tourists and didn’t seem anything special to me, at least not at Serendipity beach which has truly been overtaken by the hoards. But, a good place to meet other backpackers and have a gay ol’ time. I was told that five years ago this was a peaceful beautiful haven with some shacks and a couple of restaurants, well not anymore! There’s a beach, and tons of bars and hotels and it feels like a bit of a dirty tourist trap to me. I have heard that there’s still a mini stronghold of the original hippie expats running business to support the local community, but you’d have to wade through a lot to find that. I don’t know what the rest of Sihanoukville is like though as I only saw Serendipity beach, but I did hear there were still some peaceful pretty spots around the area. One good thing about the place though is they had dorm rooms for $1 a night, and you could eat a good meal for around $1.50. We just stayed at the first place that had a vacancy for $3 a night for a dorm and $8 for a bungalow – Big Easy. Standard Western backpacking place, quite happening and some good Western food, but the staff seemed stoned most of the time and didn’t really seem to have a grip on things. The bungalows were okay but the dorms bathrooms were really grimy and smelly and were kind of poky and hot. They had electricity blackouts both nights we stayed in the accommodation but the bar kept going, you could order food and get wifi 24hrs. The food is kind of pricey in the Western places so find some street food for sure, and boy the beer is cheap. Around $50c for a brew (of unspecified quality), and most places in town offering free shots, buckets, beers... basically the place is one big piss up so avoid the streets at night if this isn’t your thing.

Serendipity Beach Sihanoukville

There was no time wasted in booking a two hour boat ride to Koh Rong for $9.50 for early next morning. This was the place I was aiming for, one of the ‘soonest to be overdeveloped’ islands in SE Asia. We got there just in time before all the crazy development started in earnest it seemed, because there was some frantic construction going on during our stay. But now there is still one tiny ferry and only two daily boats. It’s a pristine, white sanded, turqoise watered island paradise and if you’re looking for chillaxville, this is it. There are around four places offering bungalows, and two restaurants on the beach and a tiny ‘village’ on the beach for the local workers and that’s pretty much it. When we got off the boat we were greeted by the manager of Coco’s who welcomed us and offered some lemonade and an introduction to the island a few steps away at their restaurant which was a nice landing. Pretty good business for them too as they can then show you around their bungalow accommodation before you see any others, which is right next to the small pier. I think that the bungalow managers might have some kind of gentlemen’s agreement to take it in turns to greet a boat arriving as I saw someone else do it for the next one. The bungalows on the island are on the expensive side, around $20 and they can go up to $50 or more, but on the pier as you get off the boat is Koh Rong Dive Centre offering rooms for three people for $5 each which was definitely the cheapest accommodation we could see on the island. It was really basic with an outside shared bathroom, and also it backed onto the only two bars that stayed open until 3am each night and there were no windows, not a lot of sleep going on until after then unless you have heavy duty earplugs. We were so laid back and chilled out after our days lazing around there though that we were tucked in and comatose babies early each night. The dive centre offers two fun dives for around $60 and will take you to 12 meters without certification; Emily did this for the day and had a really good time. They teach you beginner skills and then down to 12 meters you go, but the dive sites are a long way off from being the best in this part of the world.

Koh Rong - it won't be like this for long

Emily on the boat to Koh Rong

The main pier, Koh Rong 

Accommodation at Koh Rong Dive Centre on the pier

We really wanted to stay at Tree House bungalows but they were totally booked up and even though it was low season, awesome little bungalows built on stilts that felt like you were living in a tree house right on a beautiful secluded beach. The sand is pure white and the water so warm and clean you can see right to the bottom even at 4m deep. The sea is calm and flat, so you can float on your back on the warm shocking blue water of the gulf of Thailand for ages and never move position. We attempted to swim to a tiny island with a monastery on it with snorkels, but the visibility was actually really poor that day and we couldn’t see a thing through the clouded water (probably kicked up by some far off storm) so we turned back and swam around the rocks near the shore hoping to get some use out of the snorkels and flippers that we’d hired for $5 each that day.  We ate honestly the most delicious seafood barbecue I’ve ever had from Coco’s every night, and ate so much of it that we got a free plate from the restaurant probably just for raving about it so much! Prawns, red snapper, tuna, with tangy lemony dressing and delicious grilled vegetables and fire baked potatoes with garlic butter, so yum.

Pure white beach

Treehouse Bungalows

Snorkelling

Another great place to get horizontal and fatten up is Paradise Bungalow restaurant. Apparently these guys were the first to set up bungalows on the island and their hillside, rustic, breezy, solid wood decked restaurant is the perfect place to read a book, play with a puppy and drink fruit shakes while you gaze over the blue sea and lose jaw control. There is also a walk you can do to the other side of the island over the hill, to a 7km untouched stretch of beach but it got so sweltering hot by 9am each morning that we couldn’t do anything other than dash into the water and then onto a comfy mat under cover. Also, a very important factor, there are SANDFLIES! Yes, the devil in the form of a 1mm insect, if you are prone to their attacks (like me) when you lie on the beach for three seconds you will be covered in bites, unless you lace yourself in Deet. Three days and two nights was definitely enough for me on Koh Rong... it’s a beautiful quiet island, but the diving and snorkelling isn’t quite there and so really other than walking (but too hot for this in May) there is nothing else to do but relax. This place will be teeming with travellers and bars and all that comes with them in a year or less, I can guarantee it, so close to Sihanoukville and now its properly on the tourist radar. Get there while it still looks like this...

Paradise restaurant

On returning to Sihanoukville on the morning boat we did a little more exploring around town, and then had a bit of a night out as a final farewell to the place. Well, it’s rude not to at $50c a beer! There was such a strange mix of people about, including some Cambodian lady-boys who were in dresses but then looked like they could beat you up in a blink if you messed with their pool table. The beach front was a bit nuts, with loads of Western guys and ladies of the night pounding the same SE Asia 2008 playlist so we didn’t stick around for long, although I met a really nice guy who was half South African half Zimbabwean and we reminisced for a while before we made a swift escape from the place and into the pool of Utopia backpackers for a late night swim because well, it was hot and we could. And that was Sihanoukville for me and my first taste of Cambodia. I was itching to get to Angkor Wat, and so we got the early bus out of there in the morning.