Battambang and Krong Koh Kong

---

Sorry for the long absence...finally we have good enough Internet to update you all!

After our sightseeing in Angkor (pics are now up), we caught the boat to Battambang. The boat wasn't quite what we expected and was pretty cramped for a 9 hour journey! However, the route we took was amazing, going through little water ways and floating villages, with some amazing bird watching along the way. 

We spent a day here, exploring the surrounding villages with the help of our tuk-tuk driver/travel guide Tony! He took us around rural Cambodia where we got to see the chilli and peanut farms in action, along with a journey on the "bamboo train" (bamboo raft loosely attached to a set of wheels) that the locals use to transport cargo across town! Eventhough we were both feeling quite ill, we decided to make our way to Krong Koh Kong on the night bus.

Battambang to Krong Koh Kong is only about 100km south, but the roads are pretty dyer or non-existent in this area of Cambodia, so we had to travel via Phnom Penh to reach our destination. We were told that we would be staying on the same bus the whole journey, but we were woken up at 4am to be dumped on a side street corner in Phnom Penh where we had to wait 4 hours in the dark for the connecting bus. After a 17 hour ride in total, we finally arrived in Krong Koh Kong. 

As we approached "KKK", the landscape became very mountainous with dense forest surrounding the roadside. This is what the rest of Cambodia must have looked like before the loggers made their mark! The town is normally used as a base to visit the beautiful mangrove forests and islands. We cycled to Pream Krasoap Wildlife Resort on our first day, which is an extensive area of mangrove forests that you can explore via a 1km walkway. That evening we witnessed our first thunderstorm of the trip, which was pretty impressive but also worried us a little, as we had already booked a boat trip to a nearby island the next day!

To our annoyance, the next morning dark, grey clouds covered the sky and the sea was pretty choppy! This remained the case for the whole 2 and a half hour boat ride, but as if by magic, the clouds disappeared as we arrived at the island. It ended up being an amazing day, with the beach being one of the best we've ever seen. We were on a deserted stretch of white sandy beach, with a beautiful blue lagoon that met with the jungle in the background! We spent our time snorkeling around the corals, seeing some cool fish, and had the most impressive seafood BBQ for lunch! True tropical paradise!

---