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Published: December 22nd 2013
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Rabbit Island
Our beach huts Hello again! After leaving the nice plush hotel in Kep we headed to the port of Kep to catch a boat over to the tiny island of Koh Tonsay (rabbit island). We hung around for an hour or so watching the goings on on the pier, waiting for Alexi and Flo to turn up and then negotiated a price for the boat. A short half an hour boat ride later we were dropped off at the island's beach which consists of little more than a few bamboo huts and some shacks that serve beer and basic food. We quickly dumped our stuff at our bungalow and went for a stroll along the beach, settling down for a few cold beers as the sun went down over the beautiful view.
Early next morning we grabbed the boat back to Kep and jumped on a bus to head further up North to the city of Pursat. After 8 hours in an ice cold air conditioned bus and a quick stop in Phnom Penh, we arrived at the bustling town centre. Eagle eyed Kat was quick off the mark and saved the day after we nearly didn't get off in time and would
have ended up in Battambang if she had not asked the driver where we were. Pursat which can only be described as a large motorway intersection town is the stopping off point for people to take a trip to the floating villages of Kampong Luong. Going on the recommendation of Lonely Planet we stayed and had dinner at a hotel that apparently boasted the best French fries ever. We were not disappointed!
The day after we woke up to a really grey day outside and some drizzling rain, the coldest and wettest weather that we've seen in Cambodia so far... We walked into town and bartered a price for a tuk tuk for the day to srive us to Kampong Luong about 45 minutes to an hour away. It proved to be an extremely cold ride as neither of us had prepared ourselves for just how wet and miserable it was, especially Nick, who decided to wear shorts... A hot fried banana breakfast en route from a roadside vendor went down a treat and eventually we arrived at the village. After chartering a boat for an hour to drive us around, we started our trip round the most incredible
little community ever! Kampong Luong is an entire town that has everything that you would expect; a school, doctors, church, mechanics, bars, bakeries, shops and houses but all floating on the Tonle Sap lake. The majority of the population is of Vietnamese descent and fish the lake as the primary source of income. Our cameras definitely got a working out that morning as there was
so much to see and the authenticity was beyond anything that we'd seen so far!
Next morning, we jumped on a bus early in the morning to get to Battambang. The bus ride was painful to say the least, even though it was still pretty cold and grey outside they insisted on having the air con on full and the standard Khmer karaoke videos at full blast. Never have we heard so much cow bell used in pop songs... Kat was not amused as she had had no sleep that night as she'd been up writing her essay for uni. She wrapped her head in a blanket to block out the cow bell (which is surprisingly piercing) and tried to get some sleep. Arriving in Battambang late morning we walked around trying to find
a guesthouse but they all proved to be really expensive. We bumped into a Danish family who had had the same problem and suggested we try agoda.com as they had been saving lots on pre booking places on there. We sat down at a lovely little cafe and had breakfast whilst booking a room at a hotel for a discounted price of around $6 a night! We are currently living there on the 3rd floor, right in the centre of town.
Battambang is a great little city along the banks of a river and has an amazing selection of cafes, restaurants and bars to while away the hours. Since being here we have tried pretty much all of 'the book's' recommendations. Kat had her essay to finish off for the 20th and so she has been spending a lot of time in the room doing that. After covering 7 cities in just over a week we were pretty exhausted so being based here has been awesome to just relax and unwind for a bit. On the second day here, Nick hired a motorbike driver for the day to take him out into the countryside and to little villages etc.
The driver, "Mr Ben" didn't really speak any English (and didn't take me to any fancy dress shops) but was brilliant and took me to all sorts of out of the way places. I stopped off a a little Khmer Cham (Khmer Muslim) fishing village along the river that was amazing! The people there invited me in for drinks and I took portraits of them going about their daily lives. Also on the way I stopped at a pagoda and chatted to some monks for a while, walked across some pretty sketchy rope bridge style bridges which wobbled precariously as you went, lots of small villages and fields where people were harvesting rice. It was an awesome day (although I got pretty sunburnt sitting on the back of the motorbike all day and looked like a lobster by the time I returned) and I took a ridiculous amount of photos! That night we met up with Alexi and Flo for the last time before they headed off to Thailand, Indonesia and then to live in Australia. It's been really great to have been able to meet up with them as each of our trips has progressed!
4 days later
and we're still here enjoying, eating, drinking, sleeping and relaxing in the sun. The town is the perfect combination of busyness and chilled out with the right amount of tourists, although we have heard from people that it is unusually quiet for this time of year. Last night we went for an incredible night at La Villa, a hotel and restaurant set in a stunning French colonial villa along the river. It is so well kept and decorated in the original beautiful 20s style. Cocktails, wine and delicious food were consumed and it has definitely been one of the best meals we have had since being away. Tomorrow we are off to see the local Bamboo train just outside the city and then we're off to Siem Reap for Christmas!
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