Cambodia: Kampot

We were up early the next day to catch the bus to Kampot (6.30am).  We arrived around 10am and caught a Tuk Tuk to the Bohdi Villa, where we would stay the next 4 nights.  The accommodation was really relaxing and how I imagined backpacking to be when I planned my trip.  Situated on a river about 25mins walk from the town, it was quiet, bohemian and welcoming. Basic rooms but what did you expect for $5!  The food at the accommodation was delish.  Everything I had there was good!  Actually I have to say, the food in Cambodia has been excellent, which really surprised me.  They really cater to Western tastes and their local food isn’t too shabby either.  Everyone staying at the accommodation was backpacking, and a really diverse bunch of people from all over the world (New York, Israel, Canada, Australia).  Such an interesting bunch who strangely I didn't get their contact details.  I think I knew it was just a moment in time and I’d never see these people again (apart from Sabrina of course!).  We spent 4 nights sitting in the bar area overlooking the river, sharing stories and having a laugh.  The only bummer I have to say was that about 90% of the people there were smoking in the bar area.  I had to go to bed early one night as I just couldn’t deal with it anymore.  It’s funny how you get used to smoke free public areas back home. 

Whilst in Kampot we did quite a lot of walking and the rain kept coming so it was a daily occurrence to get soaking wet and try and dry the clothes off.  My things were beginning to smell damp.  Lovely!  One day we cycled around the town and went to the market which was really interesting.  The local ladies here wear matching towelling pyjama sets but they wear them like they are daytime outfits!  I lost count of how many ladies I saw wearing them. The market was very busy and vibrant; you could do your weekly shop, get your hair done, have some clothes made and buy parts for your bike!  Interesting place and great for people watching.  We had lunch a couple of times at the Epic arts café which is a disability arts charity, funded in Cambodia and the UK. Great place if you ever go you must give it a visit, the food is delicious and of course, it's for a great cause.

One day we booked a Tuk Tuk and the driver took us to a place called Kep. Kep has a national park and is famous for crab.  We had a lovely walk around the national park (in the sunshine yeay!), and then visited the town and the crab market.  You can chose your crab in the market and have it cooked, or go to one of the many restaurants nearby.  We didn’t realise the market option existed until after we visited, so we went to a restaurant.  I had prawns in tempura batter with this yummy black pepper dip as I wasn’t keen on crab but Neeha (another Swiss girl who was staying at the hostel) tried crab. She’d never had it before and wasn’t quite sure what to do with the tongs. When she first started breaking the shell, I thought it would end up being like Pretty Woman when she struggles with the snails, but she was fine!

Whilst in Kampot we visited a local cinema and watched a documentary called ‘Small Voices’, which was about underprivileged kids in Cambodia. It was really eye opening and sad, learning about how they have nothing and have to beg for money in the streets of Phnom Phen so their families can survive.  It makes me realise how lucky we are back home.

Really enjoyed my time in Kampot.  The local people are really smiley and friendly.  I did manage to have an upset stomach for a few days whilst here (maybe the prawns?).  All part of the backpacking experience!! Onto my next and final stop in Cambodia – Siem Reap!

Cambodia: Otres, Koh Rong and Sihanoukville

Spent most of the day travelling to get to Otres.  I wanted a bit of beach time after Vietnam and PP. Now I did know when I decided to come to Cambodia that it was going to be rainy season, but being the optimistic person that I am, I thought it wouldn't affect me much.  Er yeah, the season’s in Cambodia don’t lie.  I got to the beach and it rained… and it rained.  Luckily there were a few other people at the hostel and they had a TV with LOADS of DVD’s.  I did quite a lot of chilling, trip planning, job searching, watching TV and walking down the beach when the rain wasn't too heavy.  Then after a couple of days Sabrina (from Switzerland) came to meet me.  We had met in Malaysia in June and both realised we would be in Cambodia at the same time. When she arrived the sun came out so we went for a walk down the beach and had a drink and food in one of the bars. 

Next day we decided to cross our fingers with the weather and head to an island called Koh Rong.  It was a nice sunny morning (maybe a little rain) and after a TukTtuk and ferry, we had arrived at paradise.  We found some cheap digs – a lovely little bungalow on a hillside which overlooked the sea  - and went for a walk along the beach.  Wow it was just stunning.  Paradise.  Picture postcard. White sand, coconut trees, turquoise seas. We sunbathed and swam and enjoyed the break from the rain. That evening back at our accommodation Sabrina was in the shower and I happened to walk outside to hang out my towel when I saw someone walking away from our balcony. I walked over and asked ‘what are you doing?’. The guy turned round and handed me Sabrina’s money wallet and said ‘sorry’ and walked off.  I took the wallet and went back into the bungalow to explain what had just happened.  I was a bit shaken and couldn't believe it had just happened.   There was some building work taking place at the accommodation next to us with lots of locals working there.  Sabrina had said some of the guys had been looking over at her earlier when she was sat outside. So Sabrina went to talk to the owner.  I said the guy had a very distinctive ladies pink floppy hat on.  The owner then asked me to identify who it was.  Everyone looked very similar so I explained about the hat.  The guy who owned the hat said he was in the shower at the time.  A likely story.  So without me identifying anyone, nothing could be done.

That night, we went for happy hour at one of the bars on the beach.  We were having a nice time minding our own business, when then these 2 guys sat down at our table.  They didn’t ask if they could join us.  They were pretty wasted and one of them didn’t speak very good English.  He was from Russia and his friend was from another Eastern European country.  The Russian man was very odd, but also quite arrogant.  In broken English he was telling us about how he was on the run from Interpol and how he owned an island near here. We thought he was speaking rubbish but we just listened (we didn't have much choice!).  Anyway they had ordered food and decided to eat it at our table – again without asking.  They didn't try and engage us in any conversation… It was all about them.  They ate their fish like animals.  It was pretty gross.  We really wanted rid of them and finally they got the hint and left.  After they left, the waitress came over and asked if we were ok and then explained that the guy did in fact own an island near there.  He is actually an ex Billionaire!  I am not kidding you.  We were then joined by a lovely Spanish couple from Barcelona who had been sat at the next table and had witnessed the whole thing.  They were very nice and we had drinks and talked the night away.  Very random night and day!

Next day we decided to go to Long beach on the other side of the island.  To get there you can either take a boat, or walk for an hour through the jungle.  Being the budget backpackers we were, we went for the walk.  It was really cool, walking through streams and making our way over big rocks.  Sweating, we finally heard the waves and saw the beach.  Wow it was stunning and there was hardly anyone around.  We walked along the beach a bit farther, sunbathed for a bit and enjoyed the beauty of the beach.  After a few hours we tried to negotiate for a boat back but the guy was taking the piss, so we decided to walk back with a nice Aussie girl we had got chatting to on the beach.  It was quite tough walking up the hill back to where we were staying.  My thighs were killing me from the walk earlier and the walk up to our bungalow!  At night we met up with the Aussie girl and some of the girls she was travelling with.  There were 6 of us girls and it was a lovely night.  Luckily the Russian guy and his mate weren't around.  We had drinks in a couple of bars, met Mr Boombastic (a local guy who was trying to get us to go on a booze cruise the next day) and a guy who looked like My name is Earl.  I then had a cheese toastie (yum!) and headed to bed around 2am.  Quite a late night for me. Good fun!

The following day I was feeling a bit hungover and it was raining again – a lot!  Proper thunderstorms.  We had a chilled day.  The electricity on the island goes off from 11am-2pm and 2am-8am so no internet for a while… the signal was pretty pants there anyway.  Good time to read and chill out.  We met the girls from the previous day and said bye as they were leaving that day.  We walked down to another beach with a new friend – a local dog that had decided to come with us.  As it was still a bit rainy, we went for a massage on the beach.  I had a Khmer massage which was really nice but painful on my already sore thighs!  We had a cheap $2 tea, a fruit shake and then packed and decided to have an early night as we were leaving the next morning.  The accommodation next door decided to play REALLY LOUD MUSIC (which was a load of rubbish).  Thankfully they didn't play it until too late and we went to sleep. 

We checked out the next day and after Sabrina nearly losing her money wallet, she had put money into the owners’ safe as there was no safe in the room.  They had signed the amounts of money on a piece of paper but when she checked out, there was $40 missing.   The owner wasn't around and the guy who was standing in wasn't having any of it.  She had to argue and threaten the police and finally after a lot of agro, she was given the money.  During the night I had been woken up with really loud thunder and lightning.  We were glad to be leaving!  Yes it is a beautiful island but don’t go there with a lot of money (which you have to as they don’t have any cash machines) or anything valuable.  We got on the boat and who was on there?  Yes the Russian guy and his mate.  Now this was about 10am … and they were drinking vodka… from the bottle!  Seriously! The boat back was quite bumpy as the sea was quite choppy.  We went via the Russian guy’s island where the boat tried to dock.  It couldn't as the sea was too choppy.  So what did the Russian guy and his mate do? That’s right, they just jumped off the boat into the water and swam to the island.  God only know’s how they made it in that state. We got to Sihanoukville and looked at the options to get us to our next destination but decided to stay the night there.  We spent the day wondering around the town (in the pissing rain), stopping off for drinks and food along the way.  We found a supermarket selling wine for $4 a bottle, so we went to drink it at the hotel balcony.  Unfortunately the bottle was some knock off wine and neither of us could get the plastic cork out of the bottle as it was glued in!  Finally after trying with the Swiss Army Knife for about 30mins, we chopped it out of the bottle.  Thank god for screw tops back home!  The wine tasted fine so we drank that and went to the bar next door.  There weren't many people around so we went to bed at midnight. Next stop, Kampot!

Cambodia: Phnom Penh (PP) - WARNING. Graphic pics

Woke up at 5.20am to catch the bus to PP. I hadn’t slept that well as it was weird to be back in a hostel again.  The bus journey and crossing the border was pretty painless (apart from being ripped off by $25 for processing charges…. Couldn’t argue as I was on my own, grrr), and I arrived into PP around 1.30pm.  Met a nice young couple from Yorkshire (David and Freya) on the bus and we went to the hotel together in a Tuk Tuk.  The hostel was really nice, with friendly staff and dark rooms (good night’s sleep!). Had a fairly relaxed rest of the day.  Met a nice girl from Mexico at the hostel (can’t remember her name) and we decided to take advantage of the happy hour/s drinks offers, $2 cocktails thank you! We had some food and chatted about our travels. I was back on my backpacking trip!

Next morning I met David and Freya as we had booked a Tuk Tuk to take us to some of the sights in PP.  The Mexican girl and an Aussie couple (Rachel and Dean) had also booked a Tuk Tuk so we went together.  In the morning we went to the Killing Fields. I don’t think I was in the right frame of mind to go here, after saying bye to Anthony just 2 days earlier.  Also I do tend to live in a rose tinted glasses view of the world, so what I learned with me that day will stay with me for life.  I don’t want to go too much into the detail as I don’t want to relive the experience, but it was just horrific and even more horrendous is that it happened in my life time.   The Killing Fields memorial was very well thought through, with audio headphones so you could listen to stories about what happened.  After lunch we then went to Tuol Slegn Museum (S21 Prison).  This was also just awful, with some graphic pictures that even now 2 months later, are hard to erase from my mind.  We paid for a guide and he was so knowledgeable about the history, having worked there for 30 years.  Then we met one of the only 7 survivors.  It was hard to hold back the tears.  3 million Cambodians died out of a population of 8m, killed by their own people.  It’s just awful.  I did read a book a few weeks later which I bought in Cambodia called ‘First they killed my father’.  Really gripping book but again, it just made me feel pretty sad that things like this go on in this world and not even that long ago. 

That evening I was feeling pretty low.  All of us felt the same.  So we met at the bar for happy hour drinks to cheer ourselves up.  Then we headed to a pizza place where the guys had a ‘happy’ pizza.  Watching them getting stoned cheered me up a bit.  Lots of giggles!

The next couple of days in PP were spent sightseeing and doing a bit of shopping in the markets.  Went to the Russian and Central market.  The Russian market was ace!  Really busy with lots of little nooks and crannies, and bargains to be had.  They sell off all the clothes that are made in Cambodia that perhaps have the wrong label, or don’t meet the retailer’s standards.  Got a Zara & H&M jumper for £3-£4 each!  And some nice bikinis for £3 each.  Bargain!  I visited a small cinema which was cool, situated above a bar owned by an English guy.  There were mattresses in the front you could chill on (I opted for a seat otherwise I would have fallen asleep!).  I had a popcorn and coke combo and it was only a few quid for the lot.  Love Cambodia for its cheapness! The film I watched was called Boyhood.  Really enjoyed it. 

I also met up with Andy Mccallum and his wife and son.  I’d not see Andy since 2003 when we spent NYE together in Thailand with Hazel (that was a good night!).  He hadn’t changed a bit and it was great to see a friendly face J.  I spent 4 nights in PP and by the end, I was ready to leave.  The Tuk Tuk drivers hassle you soooooooooooooooo much here.  You can actually buy a t-shirt in the market which says ‘No Tuk Tuk Today or Tomorrow’!  There is a lot of poverty here too, rubbish lying in the street and people begging for money. Definitely the poorest country I’ve been to so far.  Next stop, the beach!