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Published: January 24th 2010
It has been a long time ago since the last update. Our apologies. We are currently in Bangkok at Anna's relatives. Tomorrow we are leaving for Burma. As you see, there are no pictures. We lost all our pictures from Cambodia and half of the pictures from Laos and are now waiting for some people we've met to send us some pictures. How we lost the pictures.... that we'll tell you in our next entry on Laos.
Sihanoukville and Bamboo Island Our travels in Cambodia started with a 2 day bus journey from Bangkok to Sihanoukville on Cambodia's west coast. The bus package included an overnight staying in a nice hotel in Cambodia's border town of Koh Kong, from where we took a bus, which of course had some engine problems. We arrived in
Sihanoukville early afternoon. Sihanoukville was basically a stopover for us to get to Bamboo Island, since we both have been in Sihanoukville before. We were disappointed to see that the wet season cut away a big strip of beach. Nevertheless we managed to find a beach spot a bit further down, where we had sunset drinks.
The next day another disappointment for me. After we
arrived by boat on Bamboo Island, the first thing I noticed was that the place I stayed at last year was closed down and the beach on that side of the island was vanished as well. Therefore we took our backpacks and walked across the island in 10 minutes to discover that the beach at that end was in perfect shape. We booked ourselves a hut on the beach next to the only restaurant (monopoly) at that end of the island. We stayed three days there. We did nothing but hanging around in the hammocks, reading, listening music, playing games and had a bit expensive but good meals in the attached restaurant overlooking the sea. When we got back to main land, we stayed one more night in Sihanoukville, during which we rented a whole 'movie theater'. The low season didn't give enough customers. We saw
The Boat that Rocked in a movie room which we had for ourselves.
Kampot, Bolor Hill Station We stayed on the west coast and went a bit further south to Kampot. From there Anna booked a hike to climb up to
Bokor Hill Station. The station was build as a resort for the French during their colonial rule
and was abondoned in the late 40's. Nowadays the remainders of a Church, hotel and casino can still be seen up the hill. The setting is awesome and mysterious and is even used to shoot some movies. Because of road works, the hill can temporarily only be accessed by a tough hike. Luckily I saw Bokor Hill Station last year, so I didn't have to do the hike. While Anna was climbing I rented a push bike and went around the laid back town and spend time writing our latest update on Malaysia.
Kep and Rabbit Island From Kampot, we went to the coastal town of Kep. The place is small village with most of all expensive resorts, where most French expats spend their big money. For backpackers the village is less interesting. The best thing in town was a Hungarian man who'd build his own unique restaurant and who made us the best (Hungarian) pizza we had so far. The town, might be not that interesting, but the scenery just out of town was great. We rented a motorbike for one day and went around, visiting a coffee plantation, a few holy hills with Buddhas and stupas on
it and as always we had flat tire experience.
The following day we took a short boat ride to Rabbit Island or
Koh Tonsay. This island is one of Cambodia's best. On one single strip of beach are a few basic bungalow rentals and a few restaurants offering the nicest food. All still ran by Khmer people and no visible influence from western investors can be found here. There is no traffic and the white sand invites you to walk on bare feet all day when you are not in your hammock enjoying a Angkor beer or fruit shake. Apart from relaxing, there is not much else to do. We did walk around the island one day (45 minutes) to see some communities of local people who are living on the other (less sandy) beaches.We enjoyed this relaxing island for 3 days.
Along the Mekong River: Phnom Penh, Kampong Cham and Kratie Arriving in the chaotic city of Phnom Penh was not new to us since we both have been there 2 years ago. We decided to stay there 2 days. We used the time to do some washing, try to exchange books and writing travelblog. We also went
to the Russian Market for a few hours where we bought some 'Christmas cards' and other souvenirs.
Kampong Cham is a city with a laid back atmosphere situated 3 hrs by bus north-east of Phnom Penh where only a hand full of tourists found their way from the usual Angkor Wat-Phnom Penh-Sihanoukville destinations. In town is not too much to see accept for it’s local market. The surroundings are beautiful so we biked around there. For 2 days we rented motorbikes and went around within a 50 km radius from Kampung Cham: We saw the country side with it's small villages and friendly people. Following some dusty dirt roads, we found some villages who make a living by traditional weaving. Furthermore we saw a lot of temples and Pagoda's and we visited a NGO supported eco-village.
The city of Kratie on the Mekong north of Kampung Cham is in a way similar to Kampung Cham only with a bit more tourists who all want to see the fresh water dolphins. Again we rented motorbikes and went along the Mekong to see some temples, villages and to try if we could spot dolphins from the road in stead of
taking an expensive boat trip. It turned out we couldn’t spot any, but we knew we would get better views up in Northern Cambodia later on!
Ban Lung - Ratanakiri Dusty Ban Lung is the capital of
Ratanakiri Province in north-eastern Cambodia. This region is often referred to as the Wild West of Cambodia. Ban Lung was our base from which we explored the surroundings by pushbike, motorbike and by foot (trekking). Using our bikes we visited a few beautiful waterfalls and a stunning lake in which we could take a refreshing dive to wash off the Cambodian snow (red dust from the unsealed roads).
Getting ourselves organised for the trekking wasn’t straight forward. After we did some shopping we found out that most agencies offer very cheap three day trekkings. We heard from some people who came back from trekking that their quality is not always that good and the area not as remote and authentic as they were promised. We wanted to do a proper trekking and were willing to pay a bit more for quality and therefore wanted to book at
Dutch Couple and Co. In order to cut down the costs, for 2 days we were fully committed
to find some other people who wanted to join. In the end we were so desperate, that we asked random tourists if they would like to join our trekking. Luckily we found Eli and Katie!
The trekking was amazing. For three days we walked through different types of vegetation, waded through rivers, camped on the riverbanks in our hammocks. We visited a couple of tiny slash-and-burn settlements where the people are not used to seeing foreigners (unlike in other more commercial trekkings, where they try to sell things and where the kids are begging). We had campfires and watched amazing starry skies. During lunch our guide catched a frog which we ate later that evening. One night I had to get out of my hammock to go to the toilet (read anywhere in the forest). I lost my orientation and couldn’t find the way back in the pitch black. After some screams, I heard someone answering from the camp 20 meters away.
Preah Rumkel After reading a brochure from
mekongdiscoverytrail.com we wanted to stay at Preah Rumkel, which is situated on the Mekong river close to the Laos border. Preah Rumkel is a small of the beaten track
village, which is ready made for eco tourism. We stayed in a homestay for 2 nights - 1 day in this village, where we were the only tourists. When we arrived there by boat, we hired pushbikes and went around the village. They cooked delicious food for us and we shared local ricewine. We had to take bucket showers while were being watched at. The next day we went by boat with our guides to some waterfalls and had lunch there. On the way back we spotted the fresh water dolphins. One evening we went to the local school where the kids were being thaught English by our guides and we spoke English with them. All in all we had a memorable time there and we’d recommend everyone to go to this special place.
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Susan
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Update
Hi Sounds like you are still having a ball. I read your entry with envy. I can´t wait to get back to South East Asia. I head back to London this weekend. It has been six months now and the money has run out. Mainly because of the United States and Galapagos. Still, it was ll worth it. I hope that nothing bad happened to your camera. We were mugged in Peru and lost our camera, phone, watch and cash. Luckily, they gave me my passports and bank cards back. Travel safe and I look forward to the Laos entry. Sue