Cambodia part VI: Swimming pool

The 9th of January we took the ferry back to Sihanoukville where the same driver that drove us down there picked us up to go back to Phnom Penh. We'd booked the last two nights of the holiday at a quite fancy hotel with a rooftop swimming pool. Still it did cost maybe a fifth of what something similar would cost in London.

Our plan was to go shopping the last day but both the Russian Market and the Central Market were closed so we ended up going to the newly built Aeon Mall. Still didn't buy anything except for food. But no shopping is better then buying loads of unnecessary shit that you don't need so whatevs.

Overall we had an amazing trip, the general feeling right afterwards (and still) is most of all that it was way too short, and I guess that is a very good rating. The only thing I did regret a bit is that we missed Angkor Wat, but we're saving that for the future.

Cambodia part V: A Storm in paradise

After the nightmarish 24 hours spent taking turns with Peter on the toilet after our food poisoning session we took the early morning boat back to Koh Rong Sanloem, but this time to Saracen Bay. The bad luck continued though, this time in terms of a storm with waves higher then I've ever seen and a motor failure before we got there. Once there the storm continued for two days, making the water unfit for swimming. Instead we spent the days hiking a long the beach and a tiny bit into the jungle, and reading a lot. I read Mary Kubica's Good Girl which I got from P:s mum, then I found an old Julia Hamilton thriller at the hostel which I later switched for Amitav Ghosh's Sea Of Poppies which I still haven't finished but really like so far. 

Cambodia IV: Tourist Attack

In the evening of the 2nd of January we took a boat over to Tui Beach at Koh Rong main island which I think someone described as Thailand in the 90's. If that means lots of young tourists, pub crawls, beer pong tournaments and endless happy hours that person was right. After the calm and quiet of M'Pai Bay we weren't quite convinced but then we found a pretty amazing place at the far end of the beach and decided to stay. We didn't do much activities other then some paddle boarding cause unfortunately we got food poisoned, probably by a not quite cooked tuna. This will hunt me forever since grilled tuna steak used to be my favorite luxury thing to eat. Now even the bare thought of it makes me feel all queezy. 

Cambodia part III: M'Pai Bay

On the morning of the 31st of January we took the boat from Sihanoukville to Koh Rong Sanloem and M'Pai Bay where we stayed for two nights. M'Pai Bay is the most magical place where you feel like you're almost alone in the middle of the ocean. The village is basically just a handful of houses and hostels scattered by the beach and there is probably more stray dogs then there are people. We swam, got sun burnt, snorkeled around a small reef, paddled kayak in the sunset and had some of our best meals of our whole trip at the two restaurants at the pier.

Cambodia part II: A Taxi to the ocean

Just after breakfast the second day in Cambodia we'd arranged for a taxi to take us four hours south of Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville and the coast. A four hour taxi you might wonder, but taxi is a cheap and easy way to get around even for longer distances in Cambodia since there's not really any public transports. We payed less then £20 each and got there much faster then we would've with one of the buses.

We'd heard that Serendipity beach in Sihanoukville were supposed to be full of tourists and that the smaller Otres beach were much nicer so that's where we headed. Rumours had it and Otres beach were in fact very calm and beautiful. We only stayed one night cause we were so eager to get out to the Koh Rong islands but we could have stayed much longer. However, we did spend the rest of the afternoon sunbathing, swimming, taking cheese pictures of the sunset and having fresh grilled king prawns for dinner.

Cambodia part I: Phnom Penh

Due to a delayed flight from Guangzhou in China we didn't arrive in Phnom Penh until three in the morning the 29th which did cause some trouble with our hostel booking, but after what felt like endless knocking on the door we finally got let in to our room. Knackered from 24 hours of traveling and a beer at the closest bar we fell asleep as soon as we laid down our heads and woke up with no jet lag at all in the morning. What was a bit hard though was the change in temperature, from London's 10 degrees to Phnom Penh's 35 (in the shade that is). Not saying I didn't preferred the latter, cause I did. As I'm writing this I'm back in our ice cold flat, wearing three layers of jumpers and a blanket, still shivering.

We only spent one day in Phnom Penh at first on which we saw the Russian Market and did some shopping (a bucket hat for me and fake Birkenstocks for P), the Royal Palace, a temple and the riverside. We chose not to go and see the Killing fields or the Genocide museum which are the two main events in Phnom Penh. Mainly because we were not sure how we felt about making such horrible events into tourist attractions. I mean, of course it's important to remember and to know your history but to go there as a tourist with your camera and be all horrified and... I don't know, it's just something about it that doesn't feel quite right.

Our plan was to spend one day in Phnom Penh and then head north to Angkor Wat, then south to the shore, but the heat made us change our plans and go straight to the beach.

To be continued.