1st – 5th November 

If I thought I was a little behind on my blogs before, then I’ve reeeeeeeally outdone myself now! Having had my Tommy with me for a month I’ve spent my journeys chatting and having fun with my hubby to be, so now that I’ve tearily had to say goodbye to him, again, I’m using my longest flight leg from Sydney to Santiago to catch up, even if just a wee bit! (And finally now being able to post in Uruguay!)

Koh Rong Samleon

So here I cast my rather terrible memory back to my last few days in Cambodia. Although a loooooong journey out of my way, I’d been recommended the Koh Rong islands off the south west coast of Cambodia. After an ok overnight bus journey, I arrived and booked my ferry over to Koh Rong Samleon, the smaller and ‘less touristic’ of the 2 islands (although I’m not entirely sure that’s the case anymore). I arrived at the bus station early morning, so I made friends with a couple waiting for a boat too and we grabbed coffee and breakfast. Of course this took longer than anticipated and we ended up running for our ferry with a breakfast take away. Much to everyone else’s surprise I ate my omelette sandwich with chilli & lime on the rocky ferry boat over to the island, stomach of steal 💪.

It was hot on the island and trekking through the sand with a big backpack on was a sweaty affair. At least I thought ahead with wearing flip flops! I reached the second Onederz hostel of my travels, a newly built addition to the accommodation on the island that had only opened in August and was still under a bit of construction. Still it was an amazing upgrade from the usual basic island accommodation I’d experienced! Comfy beds in nice doors, good bathrooms and cleaners constantly going round trying to minimise the amount of sand that gets everywhere.

I arrived at the desk to a bit of an incident. There were some rubber gloves being demanded and a couple of very pissed off girls. It turns out piss was the issue, a very drunk Liverpudlian from the night before had woke up during the night and peed all over the dorm room 🤢😂 – had to be a Brit of course. And we wonder where our bad overseas rep comes from!! I thought oh great here we go, party hostel problems. But actually it was just him and the time I had there was very chilled.

Chilled Island Life

I’d been keeping in touch with Simon to meet up whilst we were both still in Cambodia, he was already on the island when I arrived. He’d made a few friends already, so after check in & a drink we took a stroll to the nice beach over the side of the island, where we all had a swim & a sunbathe.

The day was pretty chilled with a leisurely walk back and a beer before dinner. Simon & I decided to try out a highly rated Turkish restaurant a short walk up from where we were staying (we both agreed that the local food was over priced and not very authentic here) and what a great decision! We had a mixed Mediterranean plater with fresh Turkish bread made in a wood fire oven, it was delicious! 

We then met up with a couple of girls from earlier for some beers, it’s a hard life I know 😏.

Island Hike

The next day started with a leisurely breakfast of delicious fruit, yoghurt & granola. We’d decided to be a little more active today and planned a hike to the lighthouse on the end of the island, so before lunch time we set off down the beach and through the rainforest. It was a lovely walk and the views from the lighthouse were stunning!! 

Instead of walking straight back we did a loop round another way, which took us along a secluded beach on the north end of the island, followed by trekking through a not so obvious path. We passed some cool temple type statues! The thing that struck me the most was the contrast between the natural beauty of the island and the ever increasing man made destruction. The beautiful white sand secluded beach was riddled with plastic and huge areas of the rainforest were being chopped down for development on the island. Very sad and I can’t help battling with the guilty conscience that it’s the demand from tourists like myself that’s fuelling this destruction….. 😞

The walk all in all was a good 3+ hours in the heat so a nice chill on the beach was deserved! The sea was beautiful to swim in 😊. We bumped into the Spanish couple  that had been on the elephant project! (Who both had injuries from a scooter accidents 😱 – death traps!) – small world!

Sunset

After getting back having a chill and showering, me and a couple of the girls wanted to go check out the sunset. So we trekked back over to the beach on the west side of the island to catch the amazing beautiful view (just in time!). 

Back to Turkish

When we got back Simon had pretty much convinced half the hostel residents that the Turkish restaurant was amazing and THE place to eat out, so a group of 20+ of us rocked up, to which the owner was extremely grateful. I wanted to try the Turkish pizza tonight 😋.

The food was great again and we had he added bonus of a visit to our table from about 8 puppies!!! They were only a few weeks and so cuddly & cute!! 

A walk up the beach then a couple more beers on the hostel’s rooftop bar rounded off my final evening on the island. 

Nick & Vix’s Wedding!!

It was so important to ensure I had good WiFi on the evening of Saturday 3rd November to watch Nick & Vix’s wedding over FaceTime!! I didn’t do a great job at ensuring that, but I did have a little!

I didn’t do too much in the morning. Just managed to nearly miss the ferry back as no one seemed to have a clue which pier it was going from as several were closed due to choppy conditions. Walking miles up the beach under the hot sun with my backpack got me there with minutes to spare 🥵.

I then had a bit of time before my bus, so dumped my bag and had a wonder to find a restaurant for lunch that did fish loc lac – this is a national dish of Cambodia usually made with beef, but there were some restaurants that did a fish version down on the coast, it was yummy!

I grabbed a quick shower at the bus office before boarding the coach for my 6 hour journey, supposedly with WiFi onboard, which of course was crap. So I had to rely on my SIM card signal when it was time for the wedding. Even a little blurred the ceremony was beautiful!! I was thrilled to be a part of their special day in some way. Also got to watch the cake cutting later on 😊. Congrats guys!

Back in Phnom Penh

Simon and I had booked the same hostel again in Phnom Penh on recommendation, it was great with a pool and a bar/ restaurant. I signed in and planned to put my name down to visit the killing fields the next day, but the bus was full. So I wrote my name down on the chalk board to see if anyone wanted to share a tuk tuk (Simon had already been).

That evening Simon & I had a couple of beers and had a chat with Tiego from Portugal before hitting the hay.

The Killing Fields

Luckily by the morning 2 people had signed up to join me to visit the killing fields and S21, so I met up with a French couple after breakfast and went out for probably the most sobering and depressing end to Cambodia I could have given myself, great planning. 👍

From 1975 to 1979 Cambodia was taken over by dictator Pol Pot under the Khmer Rouge regime. Pol Pot’s vision was to cleanse Cambodia of all the city folk with their new technology and harmful lifestyles and take the country back to a simple farming culture. He convinced many young rural kids to sign up to the regime saying they were the future of the new race. He wanted to wipe out all the populations from the city or who didn’t fit into his new vision for the country. His methods were brutal, tens of thousands of people were either detained at S21 (a former school turned detention centre) or taken straight to the killing fields where they were murdered in gruesome ways, or both. By the end of his reign the regime had killed around one third of the population in Cambodia at the time. Men, woman, children, babies, it was one of the hardest days to take in. These 4 years caused the downfall of the country, much of which is now in poverty. As I walked round both the killing fields and the S21 listening to the headphone guide I realised how lucky I am to have grown up in the country and era I have, as well as how scary it is to think that history keeps repeating itself and how barbaric humans can be.

Final night shenanigans 

Arriving back at the hostel I had a swim in the pool and Simon and I, plus Tiego and a girl from my dorm went out for a few beers and to the night market for food – I needed a cheery last night after that emotionally exhausting day!

We sat by the Mekong for the final time, the river I love, and had a few beers. We met a family there, the guy being from the UK, got chatting and had some more beers that they kindly shared. They invited us to come have dinner with them and their 2 adorable girls. I had yummy fish amok for my final dinner (my fave in Cambodia) and we had yet some more beers! They offered to pay for everyone’s dinner, we said no but the guy kindly insisted! He’s blatantly pretty well off, so this made me feel less guilty.

They left and we went to the outdoor night market for some street food. Not the best I’d had in Asia, but the experience of sitting on the floor on carpets in the middle of the stalls was cool!

The next day Simon left early for his bus to Batam Bang, so we said our final goodbyes. I then did a bit of last min shopping in the big bustling central market for a cheap phone case, neck pillow and trainers, of course I also got some authentic food too, which was lush! All cheap as chips.

Then it was a final PassApp to the airport and goodbye Cambodia!