Southern Cambodia - Koh Kong, Sihanoukville and Koh Rong

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The next morning we got up early and bought some sandwiches to go, and ate some thai food for breakfast on the way to the bus. We got on the bus which was waaay to cold, they really fired up that air con, I preferred the local busses in the Phillipines with open windows. We had to change bus in Trat and near the boarder to Cambodia again. At the boarder we bought a visa for around 1200 bath. Our ticket only took us the boarder, which we didnt know, since the boarder and the city had the same name. We had to pay 10 dollars for getting to the city of Koh Kong. We were very tired and angry with the drivers at the boarders, they wouldnt let us share a taxi with the other girls from our bus and they really tried scamming us big time. Here we found out that there were no longer any boats to Sihanoukville, which my father had recommended in order to stop at a small island. So we had to come up with a new plan. We found a bus to Sihanoukville the day after for 10 dollars, so we bought the tickets.

We stayed at Apex Koh Kong for the night for 10 dollars each. Great place, it had a pool and wi-fi and everything. We went for a swim and had some food.

We slept little that night - our neighbours were noisy and it had rained like crazy as well. We got up at 7 and took the bus to Sihanoukville. We had been told the day before that the Tuk Tuk for the busstation was included but the driver wanted money - it seems getting scammed is becoming part of daily life already. Stefanie and I got angry with him, but the two Swedish girls we shared it with payed him 100 bath to get him of their backs. He wanted more, but we just ignored him, he had only driven us about 3 km.

It was a very long busdrive, we were in Sihanoukville around noon. We paid 2 dollars for a bike to the hotel - Bungalow Occheutal. 7 dollars for one night. The Swedish girls ended up there too.

It started raining a lot when we sat in the restaurant and it lasted a couple of hours. When it stopped we went for a walk around the city, which was bigger than we had imagined. Later the rain started again so we decided to stay at the hotel for dinner. There were some puppies for me to play with at the restaurant.

Later we had a drink with the girls from Sweden. When the rain stopped we went to Utopia, since we had gotten some flyers from them. We had fun, but mostly making fun of all the elderly western guys trying to find a local girl. There were no one at our age. After that we went to get some massage.

The next day we slept till 10. The weather had finally cleared up so we decided to go to the beach. There were so many people trying to sell us things at the beach, it was way too much, many small 'gangster' girls dressed like they came straight out of Brooklyn. We booked tickets for Koh Rong (also called insect island - which turned out to be a very precise nickname), since this place was too touristy for us.

In the evening we had some really good Italian food and we talked to the owner who was from Italy and had a lot of animals behind the bar - heaven for me! Later we went to JJ's, in the start there were only about 4 people there, but all of the sudden it was very crowded. We ended up having a lot of fun, drinking baileys and we also met some other Danish people.

The next morning we got up at 10 again, had some breakfast and picked up our laundry. It was really nice with fresh clean clothes, we hadn't managed to wash them very well by hand on the Phillippines. The boat was supposed to leave by 1, but it didn't leave until 3. There were some really big waves so it couldnt sail very fast.

I slept all the way on the boat, and when I woke up I felt a little seasick, apparantly it had been a crazy ride for the ones awake! When we arrived the owner from Treehouse Bungalows was waiting for us (we had booked in advance), and she took us to the bungalows. It was a very secluded area, really nice and relaxing and hidden inside the jungle but still with a small private beach in front. The bungalows where all wood and some of them where built up in the trees. We just got a cheap one in the back.

The husband turned out to be from Italy and he made us the best pizzas that night. It started storming so we went to bed early, hoping it would stop the next day. The next day it was still storming. We started the day with a lime juice waiting for it to pass.

We went for a hike to a waterfall (without water), but we saw the beautiful jungle and a small village. People there were living in some small shacks and it looked like they were very poor. The sun finally came out, so we went back to the beach, which we almost had to ourselves all the time. I crawled over some rocks to the next shore, there were a lot of tombstones on the rocks, I dont know why they always put them close to the water but the dead sure get nice views here. There were a lot of insects on the rocks so I decided to take the path in the jungle on my way home.

That night we had another pizza and played some cards at the restaurant. The next day the storm had started again, so we decided to head back to Sihanoukville. We arrived around noon and decided to spend one night there before moving on into the country.

We went back to GST Guesthouse and found a room. Then we went to the beach were we met our friends from JJ's who gave us drinktickets once more. We ate at the Italian place again (4 nights in a row with Italian food, mmmmmh)... We played with his dog called Spaghetti and kittens and he gave us a free magnet, so we would remember to return next time we come to Cambodia.

We went to JJ's and once again we had a great time. We won some shirts because we drank TOO many baileys.

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