We spent a couple of days in Sihanoukville relaxing and organising visa's for our Vietnam leg scheduled in mid march. Sihanoukville is quite touristy area with lots of bars, resturants and many backpackers and holiday makers roaming around. The beaches were ok but nothing like home or some of the beaches Ko Chang. The night life was pretty awesome, taking time to have drinks in a few of the many bars; our favourite being monkey republic, which had beers for 75c US and two for one cocktails for 3.50. We met a retired french teacher called Alain who became very fond of Tash in a short time....shes still wiping the spit off her ear from some very wet french kisses!!
After two nights we boarded a slow boat to Ko Rong, which was eventful before we even got on the boat. After buying tickets the day before and being ensured the boat would leave at 8am, we arrived at the jetty to be informed that our boat was actually leaving from the other side of the town and at 9am (and a tuk tuk and a highly crowded bus later). We have come to realise this is the Cambodian way!!
On boarding our barely seaworthy vessel, we were then told the boat would not be going directly to Ko Rong, but would be stopping for an hour on another island thereby making the journey two hours longer. Ko Rong was stunning and remote and everyone there was so chilled out they may have well been asleep thanks to some very lax laws regarding 'happy' cookies, brownies, pizzas and shots.
During our stay we hired kayaks and paddled to an even more secluded peaceful beach called Long Beach. The paddle itself was tough as there was high winds and decent swell but we persevered and were paid off by squeaky sand, few people and nothing around. The paddle back was tiring and we managed around 10ks all up, which has resulted in tired and achy bodies today. We have also done some good beach bummimg and had a few good nights out which neither of us really wanted to end...'just one more then home' was muttered a good few times! We are more than tempted to return on our way back to Thailand in a few weeks - watch this space.
Our next stop Kampot! (We write this blog at 1.10pm whilst we wait for the '1pm' bus to Kampot!) :-)
