Heaven and Hell - Koh Kong

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Day 54/55/56/57/58 Phnom Penh & Koh Kong & Bangkok

Our first night in Phnom Penh was short since we arrived in the late afternoon. But we did get a tuk tuk up to the lake and ate at the Lazy Gecko where they serve the most amazing chicken strips and fries (and have the cutest pug). S tried to add some more stuff onto her ipod but was sadly disappointed that the Boom Boom room in Phnom Penh couldn't upload MAC ipods. The cafe did have a TV room and we watch "Baby Mama" on their "Sinsung" DVD player (only the crap DVD apparently will play the pirated videos.

The next day, Rob met up with this Scottish friend that he met on his tour of Malaysia. The two of them went off to sighesee around Phnom Penh. The two of us ran errands all day - internet cafe, grocery store, etc. We didn't last that long as the city is basically a huge sauna. However, we did manage to unpack all or Rob's stuff and lay it out on his bed in color order. It was absolutely hilarious when he walked in and saw what we did. Definitely one of our best pranks yet!

That night we took them to the "Friends" restaurant that we had gone to our first time in Phnom Penh. They agreed with us that the Mekong fish with salsa verde was perhaps the best thing they had ever tasted. After pulling yet another prank and leaving the restaurant when Rob went to the bathroom, we headed back to the guesthouse for a few beers and a couple round of card games - Gin Rummy, BS (or Cheat for you British folks) and Asshole.

The next day we yet again had an early wake up call at 6AM to catch the 7:00AM bus to Koh Kong. Annoyed and tried as all hell we finally left the city at 8AM. The ride was uneventful but scenic as we drove thru the mountains. However, once in Koh Kong we weren't dropped off at the bus station. Or at least where Lonely Planet's map has the bus station. We couldn't even get a second to discuss anything as motorbike drivers just kept hassling us. It was just a precedent to what we would experience in this border town.

We finally got a driver to take us to the Blue Moon Guesthouse that got good reviews in LP. However, as we pulled up he said to S "they full". However, S has heard this before so kept walking towards the property. The women there spoke no English and then the driver said it was no longer owned by the same guy and iit s no longer a guesthouse. Not sure why he said it was full in the first place or why he took us there either, but we then told him to take us to the Bopha Koh Kong Hotel. Instead he took us to some random hotel which just infuriated S even more. The place didn't look that bad but out of principle Rob and S agreed that we shouldn't stay there and demanded the driver take us to Bopha Hotel.

Once there they charged us $20 for the room, which is more then LP said but decided to screw and just check in. We walked around trying to find the "Sauna Garden" which supposably serves food and helps with booking tours to the nearby islands. We couldn't find it so settled on grabbing lunch at Baan Peakmai restaurant which ended up being a good choice. We split a plate of pad thai, cashew chicken and beef fried rice for just $3 each. But the confusing thing about this place is that everything is in Baht (Thai money). And of course we didn't have any. So we had to convert everything which was super annoying.

We then walked around trying to figure out how we were going to get to Koh Kong island the next day. The guy at this place called "The Dugout" told us of a PADI place along the river that does trips there. WE walked over there but hte girls at the desk spoke hardly any English but we managed to understand them when they said " come back at 6PM". The sin was absolutely brutal so we decided to go back to the hotel for some AC and R&R.
into the world. We saw a sign outside our hotel restaurant advertising buses to Bangkok. G asked the women how much the ticket to Bangkok was. The women just had this blank stare on her face, slowly shook her head and said "nnnoooo". Most people that don't speak English make gestures of not understanding, but not this woman. Which of course is fine that not everyone speaks English considering we are in Cambodia but if you sell tickets to Bangkok, require payment in Baht, you'd think you would know the word "Bangkok". Steph's frustrating was with this town was starting to build. The women eventually put G on the phone with some guy who told G it was 300 Baht to Bangkok, 4 hour ride, with just one bus change at the border. We weren't ready to book as we have learned in Cambodia no bus price is set in stone. We head back to the PADI place and talked to the French owner about going to the island and waterfalls. He is running a bit of a monopoly and taking advantage of it. $22 each to go to the island (even though there were two others who would join us) and $25 to go to the waterfalls the next day. Since we have already over stretched our budget in Cambodia we decided just to do the island trip and leave for Thailand the next day.

So we threw down the $22 each and headed to the internet cafe so we could all catch up on emails and Rob could call his Nana since it was her birthday. Kev and S were hungry so the four of us stopped at Bob's Bar to get some chips and beers and play a few rounds of pool. Rob and G started out strong both games but Kev somehow managed to come back and even it out with only one or two balls remaining. And both times, S was the pinch hitter and easily put away the eight ball. So it was a victorious night for Kev and S!!!! We then talked and played some more pool with 3 Germans that we had met till about 11PM. We called it a night as we had to be at the PADI place at 7:30 AM.

There is nothing the two of us hate more then getting up early, so we were not pleased to wake up yet again at the crack of dawn. We all stumpled out of bed and Rob couldn't even get too mad that G had painted his toe nails red while he was sleeping. We stopped to get breakfast at the restaurant right next to the PADI place where we invited Volker - a German that would be coming with us on the boat trip - to eat with us. We were the only customers but the guy acted like we were so putting him out by ordering off the menu. Even though they had "baguettes" and "milk" on the menu they apparently didn't have those items that day. It seriously took Steph 10 minutes to get ice coffee. Also to just drive it home, there was this really obnoxious guy that must have been staying there that just started talking (inappropriately loud for it being so early) to us about nonsense - his ex-wife, missing the children going to school, big breasted women. Needless to say the two us were not amused. Our food - french toast - was surprisingly pretty good but we didn't end up paying our bill till 8AM. The PADI guy was quite annoyed but since it was 5 out of the 6 people on the boat trip, we didn't feel too bad

The boat ride took 2 hours and we went via a mangrove sanctuary. Koh Kong island was absolutely pristine, well at least "Beach 3" where we stopped at for snorkeling. It wasn't the most amazing snorkeling but probably the best we've seen so far on this trip. There were some cute little schools of fish and tons of mollusk shells and coral. After an hour or so the four us retreated to the beach for some snacks and laid around with Volker for the better part of the day. We all did manage to get back into the water and play around for a bit - chicken fights, basket tosses, dolphin impersonations. Around 2:30, we all piled back into the boat and head back to the mainland. It was a peaceful ride for the most part but toward the end of it the sea was really chopping and G got abruptly woken up by a huge slash of water.

Later that night the 6 of us from the boat trip (there was an English gentleman with us but he didn't talk much during the day) met up for dinner. It was a great night of drinking - well not Steph as her stomach was not doing so well - and playing cards. We said our goodbyes and attempted to shop around for bus tickets to Bangkok but we got quoted 500 & 700 Baht, which was outrageous. So we decided we would just buy from our hotel. We called it a night as we were all suffering from a bit of sunburn.

The next morning we slept in as we were all exhausted form the continuous early mornings. Around noon we finally rolled out of our room. We contacted the guy via phone and he said he would be right there with the tickets. Of course the price was now 500 Baht. We all just decided to bite the bullet and get the tickets. You are able to hire a tuk tuk for cheap to the border and get a minibus to Trat and then another bus to Bangkok for 240 Baht, but we didn't want to deal with the hassle. The sign said the bus leaves at 2PM, but after we bought the tickets, he said to be at the bus station at 12:30, which was in 20 minutes and we hadn't eaten. (Plus the other day he said the bus would pick us up from the hotel). He did promise us that we would go direct from the border to Bangkok and we would be there by 6PM. Then to top it all off, we the two of handed him dollars he scuffed and demanded Baht. It was the tip of the iceberg for Steph as she stormed off to the hotel to get change as the guy refused to give us any back.

We then hurried our asses to the station and order breakfast that hadn't come as the bus was pulling in. We just made it with a take away box full of scrambled eggs and toast. We boarded the bus and it took off and soon realized there was only 2 empty seats and of them was soaked with water). Kev sat in the only unoccupied seat and the three of us crowded around the back door near the toilet. Granted it was only 12K to the border, but still can you image paying $15 and not even getting a seat!

When we got to the border we rushed to the custom windows as we weren't assigned seat s on the mini bus either and didn't want to be stuck in the aisle again. However, the minibuses leave when enough people have crossed the border that are heading to each destinations. So we ended up waiting arund for 30 minutes of so for a "Bangkok" bus to be full. We got seats so all was good and we were excited to get to bangkok in just a few hours.

However, after driving about an hour our driver pulled into a gas station and we all want to the bathroom. When we came out our stuff was being transfered into a new minibus. We then waited around for 45 minutes for 3 more people. It was 4PM by this time and we asked the guy when we would be getting into Bangkok and he said 9PM as we had 5 more our of driving. It wasn't just Steph that freaked, even Rob started to yell at the driver as he just sat around smoking his cigarettes. It was just one thing after another. The 3 new people eventually showed up and we all piled back into the bus. We then stopped again about 2 hour later for another bathroom break. As we got out this English guy realized that he left his bag with his wallet and passport in the other minibus. The driver attempted to call the other driver but mumbled a few words to him and hung up. He then turned to the English guy and said "driver doesn't have it." It was obvious the other driver didn't even look, so Rob called his Thai friend An and she spoke with the driver. It was a lot of back and forth but once the English dude offer $100 for his passport things started moving quickly. After about 30 minutes we were back on the road. The driver got a call about an hour later that the driver's phone rang and yelled to the English guy "How much?". We couldn't believe it, they weren't saying if they had it or not until they heard the monetary value he was offering. After repeating "$100", the driver hung up and said, "yeah he has it." The poor guy had to go back to Trat that night to get it (he was leaving the following day to fly back to England).

We eventually pulled onto Ko San road at 9PM with no where to stay as Rob and Kev were going to stay out of the city with An their Thai friend. So there we were walking the crowded street of Ko San at night on a Saturday. We found this place was only 20 Baht a night. However it was a place right out of "Hostel" There were stains on the wall and "Hitler" written on the wall with swastikas. We quickly left that place and tried a few others that were asking outrageous prices. So we tried to get a taxi to take us to places we had found on the internet. We soon found out the driver had no idea where he was going. A tuk tuk driver saw us stopped on the road yelling at our driver and offer to help. He took us to a tourist information office and they booked us a room in Chinatown for $30 a night. The room was nothing like the brochure but since we were only there for one night, we just rolled our eyes and went to sleep (well ate some McDonalds first).


Our start in Bangkok started off rocky but it son got much much better - more about that later!!!!

xxx
S & G

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Photos

Deserted Island
A whole deserted lagoon all to ourselves!

Bus Toilet
"Piss only Please"

Baan Peakmai
G, S, Kev and Rob eating lunch.

Porn Marina
the favorite brand of Koh Kong

Our boat
Getting ready to leave for the boat show.

Sleeping
S and Kev sleeping on the boat ride over to Koh Kong Island.

S sunbathing
Enjoying the sunshine!

Crystal Clear Water
A view from our boat.

Kev and Rob
On the boat ride back

G, S. and Volgert
Chatting on the boat

Comments

[Tara- G's cousin]

I miss you!
Oh my god I can't believe they treated you and that poor English guy like that! WTF? I guess that is a big X on the map for future traveling.

[james]

His fault
It his own fault, being stupid enough to leave his passport and other valuables on the minibus without checking? He was an idiot iand got off lucky for only $100. Any reasonable traveler knows to keep that stuff with you at all times.

[kim hong]

i like ur trip
i am interesting ur trip to koh kong. I hope one day i'll got there too.