I'm sorry I'm so awful at updating this thing...but I'm not sorry that I'm having too much fun and have no time to do it!!
Let's start where I left off.
I was heading to an island off the coast of Cambodia.
That island, Koh Rong, was spectacular.
I was super burnt when we got the boat, and even though it's the calmest sea I've ever seen I felt so sea sick because I had sunstroke. Idiot that I am. Since then I have worn SPF 50 everyday, which I should've done since the start.
The island was very bare and very basic. They only had the generators running from 6pm to 11pm at most resorts. The village was just along one beach, a few resorts of bungalows went onto the hill behind but most just were on the beach.
We stayed at the first place we found, but after two nights of waking up from a) rats scrabbling round our room b) having two of my bags chewed through by rats and c) being woken up by such a violent storm that our bungalow was shaking, the window was blown off its hinges and I feared my life!
So, the next day we moved to a bungalow along the beach... Same four of us girls sharing a bungalow. This was much nicer. Right on the beach, white sand, turquoise sea. Bliss.
NOT as paradise-ish as a beach on the other side of the island called long beach. You could hike over the hill, or you could get a boat round (which we did). I have never seen a beach like this. The water was like a bath, so warm, so clear. The beach was 7km long and pretty much empty apart from a guy selling coconuts.
We spent the afternoon there. Just lovely.
We returned to our new bungalow in the evening to find a resident bat in our room.
If we don't get the plague from the rat we will get rabies from a bat!!
I spent two nights longer on the island than I'd originally planned. It was really nice as I fell in with a group of people and travelled with them for a few days.
From Koh Rong, four of us continued on to Kampot, famous for its pepper plantation.
From here, we visited, with another group of four, Bokor National Park.
Not gunna lie. Definitely THE weirdest national park I've ever been to. Only this year the road has opened up to the top of the mountain. Up there, is an abandoned village from back in the Khmer Rouge days. The church and a couple houses are covered in amazing coloured lichens but the main hill station/casino where French used to go for long weekends has been stripped clean and is even more spooky. You can't tell if it's been half built and abandoned or if it was finished and that what is left!
Also up on the top of the mountain is... A MASSIVE RESORT and CASINO. What? You may ask... As did I, many times over!! Yup, a huge big resort with extortionate restaurants, casinos, a car park for thousands of cars... And a golf course in progress. But no customers. We had lunch at the "cheap" restaurant... There were about 10 staff for each of the 8 of us. Actually, maybe more.
The creepiest thing of all about Bokor mountain was by far the fog, and how it would suddenly appear from nowhere.
I was glad to get back to our hostel and enjoy the live music and some drinks in the evening.
That was my last day with that group of people. The next day I started the several day trip to the Laos border.
A night in Phnom Penh, then a seven am bus that was to take ten hours and arrive at 2pm (that's what I was told) to Stung Treng, and hour from the Laos border... I arrived there about 8pm...
The next morning I crossed over into Laos, no thanks to the completely rude and unhelpful man on the bus who's soul purpose of working there was to help us with the crossing!!
I'm going to make some other posts... Maybe one about each week sounds a bit better (and maybe makes me look like I'm more organised rather than doing a month at a time)
Also, I have found a much better blog site, so my next trip I'll be using that one... I don't like it here!
Check the next few, coming soon!!
