Lifes a Lazy Beach...

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Off the coast of Sihanoukville on the island of Koh Rong Saleom, we stayed a few days on 'Lazy Beach', in a little wooden bungalow right on the beach front, decked out with our own hamocks, perfect! The beach was all ours as we were pretty much the only inhabitants on the island, other than a few of the Cambodian navy who owned the place. There was a great bar to chill out in and a couple of dogs to take you for a walk, Boyce and Spoon (although we did have a run in with some water buffalo).

But, before we had the chance to enjoy Lazy Beach we had a terrifying 2 hour boat trip in very, very choppy water. Waves rocked the boat side to side, forcing the boat into a 45 degree angle threatening to capsize us for most of the journey. We've never been so happy to make it to dry land. Normally when people arrive they're greeted with iced lime juice but after our cold windy journey they served us up hot cups of tea (and proper English breakfast tea it was too! Amazing!).

We took a trip to see the Navy base and their lighthouse, we had to take the boat to the other side of the island and discovered that the Navy is lacking a boat and more importantly a pier! The boat dropped anchor off shore, some people swam to the beach and others fully dressed, including ourselves, took a small dingy.
A tiny dingy combined with about 12 passengers, the shoreline and big waves equals disaster! We managed to escape with wet legs, but a couple of people fell into the sea, including a guy who complained upon entering the boat about getting his new converse trainers wet!

We walked through the small Navy base, took a trek through the jungle to reach the lighthouse. Near the lighthouse were huge gun placements ready for any impending attack! We climbed up rickety ladders to the top of the derelict lighthouse and were rewarded with sunset views across the island and back to shore.

On our last night we were advised to try out night snorkelling. Once Carla stopped screaming (she was scared of the waves crashing in the dark ) we swam underwater and watched the phosphorescence come alive, it was like watching fireworks in your hands!

Moored just off shore were a few local fisherman, they hung around waiting for good weather to head out to sea and fish. However if its bad weather they tend to stay on the boats drinking all day. They aren't allowed on the beach, but on occasion trespass, make a nuisance of themselves and have to be chased off by the dogs or failing that, the Navy! As we were leaving some of the fishing boats had rolled onto shore, a minor invasion of the island, we would've loved to have seen the outcome as they got chased off.

Love to everyone!
Lazy Jim and Carla
xxx

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