Back to the beaches: Sihanoukville & Koh Rong, Cambodia

Sihanukville:

We met up with 2 girls that Ally travelled through Laos with in Sihanukville. Katie and Lyndsey from Canada.. they are AWESOME! Had a super fun time with them for sure.

Sihanukville is a pretty tourist filled backpacker area in southern Cambodia. There are 2 beaches there, Serendipity Beach and Otres Beach. Serendipity is pretty full of your backpackers who want to party, a lot of Brits on Gap Year, and Otres is a bit more chilled out. I loved Otres, we visited there, but were staying in Serendipity.

On the second day, we decided to hit up the beach. We walked to Serendipity, saw that it was complete shit lol; garbage, beggars, hagglers… so we decided to take a tuk tuk to Otres and check that one out. When we got there, it felt like paradise… we went from shitty Serendipity beach and ended up in clean, white sanded and friendly Otres beach! When we got dropped off there, and immediately a guy came out of his restaurant and invited us to sit on the lounge chairs along the beach in front of his restaurant. It was soo nice.. he didn’t even ask us to buy anything or to give him money. But since he was soo sweet, we definitely bought a few things. :)

At one point we got chatting to this British guy and his gf/wife (I can’t remember which), they were walking a puppy along the beach, and anytime there’s a puppy, there’s definite means to convers. We found out that they just got here a month ago, and 2 weeks ago they bought a boat and were starting this tour of the islands just off of Sihanukville! And guess what!? Since they were just getting it started, they offered us to go the next morning for free!! A free tour! Hell yeah!!! As we were confirming, the guy asked us to not say anything about not

It was soo great! The next morning, we got picked up from our hotel by a complimentary tuk tuk that dropped us off at the meeting place for the tour! They fed us breakfast before we left and lunch on an island we went to! It was soo beautiful.. lots of pretty views, snorkeling, white sand, a little trekking, beaches, and clear blue water!

Later that day, Lyndsey and Katie left :( and Ally and I had one more night in the hotel and then we were off to Koh Rong with Kate – an English gal Ally introduced me to in Siem Reap!!

Koh Rong:

Koh Rong is supposed to be this beautiful island off of Sihanukville, and it definitely lived up to the hype. It just started being visited and built up about.. 8 months prior I think?And let me just say, I am soo happy that I made it there before tourism ruins it. On the island there is one area that has all the guesthouses and bungalows, one small little strip right on the beach. While I was there, I never heard or saw a motorbike! It was awesome. Every night, the power turns off at 10:00.

One day, we were lying on the beach and this buffalo randomly walks on by! It was soo funny!! Katie and I also trekked over to Long Beach, across the island, that we heard was supposed to be incredible. The trek was a bit tough.. a lot of big loose rocks to climb over, but when we got there, it was probably the most amazing beach I’ve ever been to. It was soo beautiful! The water was literally crystal clear. We hopped on a boat back to the other side of the island when we went back. That was a fun time getting onto lol.. we were literally pulled onto it because there was no ladder. My bottoms almost fell completely off hah!

<3 M

Next day it was back to Sihanukville, then it was off to Kampot for Ally and me!

Bamboo trains and bat caves, temples and cafes: Battambang, Cambodia

Battambang, Cambodia!

This place is a bit of a gem that wasn’t expected… After leaving Siem Reap, Ally and I headed to Battambang, and we flippin LOVED IT! I can’t even remember who/what recommended it, and to be honest, the city isn’t anything special, there wasn’t much to do but go to a few cafes (which I have to admit were great) or the market, and out hotel sucked, but what came across our paths was 100% awesome! On the way there from Siem Reap, we met James and Vicki from England, on our bus… they were soo nice and we planned to meet up because we were in different hotels. We pre-booked a hotel on hostelworld.com that was recommended by Lonely Planet… well they need to update their shit. Haha I mean nothing bad happened, I just think that my sheets were probably used the night before by someone else, and not many people spoke English, but hey.. We’re in their country. Anyway, something awesome definitely came of it.

As we were getting off the bus, I was saying to Ally, “Shit… do we even know where we’re going, or where the hotel is from here?” and I bet you can guess the answer… Nope! Well, as we were getting off the bus once we arrived, there was a dude with a sign that had my name on it! WTF!?Hah! It was awesome! He was a tuk tuk driver from the hotel and we had a free ride! No idea how they knew when we’d be arriving, but all we thought was: hell yeah!!

After we arrived at the hotel the tuk tuk driver started telling us about these temples, bat caves, and bamboo train… this wasn’t in Lonely Planet at all, and at first I was skeptical and thought, awe mann I didn’t read about this in Lonely Planet, is this some sort of scam or something to get us to pay him to take us somewhere shitty? But then he seemed pretty excited about it.. he even got his phone out and showed us these videos and pictures of bats coming out of this cave. He said he could take us from 2 until sunset to these different places, and we agreed. It wasn’t too expensive and it seemed alright.

As he was leaving, he thanked us for giving him work for the day. That really hit my heart, and it especially made me rethink my attitude from a few minutes ago. I thought it was really sweet, and it made me really think about the people rather than the system/scams again; I was very humbled, and happy about it.

When we met up again at 2:00, he first gave us a little city tour.. he was such a sweet, nice guy. He was telling us about the history and facts of the city, he stopped at this statue so we could take a photo, then he took us to the bamboo train. I was a little confused because I figured it was just that: a train made out of bamboo. I figured it must run about once or twice an hour… hah, silly me. If a train is just something that rides on a track, then this was a train alright.. otherwise it was a flat bamboo apparatus that rides on a train track. This think felt like a full on roller coaster with no safety precautions! It was soo unbelievably fun, and soo unsafe!! But this is Asia, and a lot of shit that’s done here, is unsafe at home. . there are no safety standards, only fun! It was just Ally, the driver, and I on this thing, and it sure was bumpy! It took us to this small village about 30-45 minutes down the track. At one point we saw one stopped in front of us, and there was one in front of them coming from the opposite direction.. there is only one track, what must one do?? Nothing but only take it apart quick, remove it from the track, and allow the other to go past! Then put it back together and carry on! Hah! I freaking LOVED it! It was such a shockingly awesome day! When we got to the village, this little girl took us to a rice factory and showed us around, and then of course to her mother’s shop just outside. We held strong though and didn’t buy anything.

After returning back to the tuk tuk, our guy took us to the mountain with the bat cave, temples, and killing caves. It wasn’t time yet, which was intended, so he told us to walk to the top and there are killing caves to see and many temples. It was a bit tiring and hot and sweaty getting to the top.. we were a little resentful of the people on the back of motorbikes that had passed us.. but at least we got to really enjoy the scenery and deserved to make it to the top.

We saw some Buddha’s and some temples, but what we really wanted to see was these killing caves.. which after about 30 minutes of looking for them at the top, we eventually found. All we knew was what our guy told us.. it was really quite strange and sad. Apparently during their war (never learned about this back home – which pisses me off quite a bit), they used to us these caves to kill (clearly the name says that, I know). What they did was drop people to their death from the top (the ground), to the bottom where there were pretty jagged rocks that killed them. When we went it, it was basically one big grave; they had some of the skeletons in this cage thing that they opened up when we came down, to always remind them of the horrors that happened there and how terrible they were. It was pretty intense.

It was then time to head back down. As we were walking, we knew we were close because we started seeing some bats flyin around. Then more started streaming out.. then even more!! We (all the backpackers who also heard about all this from some tuk tuk drivers) stood there in awe and just watched. It was sooo COOL! I totally didn’t expect it to be that cool! Neither of us did! Then our guy took us to another area where we got a better view of them and with the sunset in the background! Their numbers really started to pick up too.. there was literally a thick stream of bats flying across the sky, and at one point, our guy came over and told us to watch what the noise does; then he made this noise in his hands and all the bats, together, started moving to another part of the sky above us away from the noise, because of their echolocation!

Ally and I both agree that it is probably one of the coolest natural occurrences we’ve ever seen with our own eyes.. millions of bats fly out of the cave every night..

We had such an amazing day, and were soo happy. :)

Its seriously the best feeling when you don’t have any expectations for something and it turns out the be good.. because then it ends up being amazing!! And! The best part is that it was all spur of the moment.

I’m not really sure why people come to Battambang, there really isn’t much else that special about the city other than some cafes and French architecture, and Lonely Planet didn’t say much about it.. but I’m sure glad we came!

<3 M

Next stop: Phnom Penh – the capital of Cambodia!! …another surprise!!

It's waayyy too easy to stay here... Capital of Cambodia; Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh!

Cambodia is just full of surprises.. we booked at the White Rabbit, after many deliberations between the other good ones in the city, and within the first hour we ran into Alma! A girl from Finland who we met at the Lounge!! Hah! Right as she was telling someone about always running into people that she met from there.. she then turned around and we saw each other! It was soo great. Seriously the Lounge was some magical traveler connecter.

We meant to stay about 2 nights because we heard Phnom Penh wasn’t anything too great.. well, it’s going to start being a trend in the next few entries.. we stayed 4 or 5 hah! The first night a few of us went to Top Banana, a nice bar a close walk away. Ally was feeling sick, so he didn’t make it, but Alma (Finnish), a gal living there named Madeline (American), Tim (American), Vincent (American - part owner of the hostel), and I (American) all went there.. the most Americans I’ve been around in months!! Twas a blast.

The next day Ally and I went to the killing fields with Dave, a guy from England staying at our hostel. It was tough. Very disturbing.. I mentioned in another entry about the genocide that happened over here, and how we were never taught the history of it. The killing fields were where huge numbers of people, men, women, children, infants, were killed and buried by the Khmer Rouge regime. This occurred incredibly recently from 1975 to 1979 at the end of the Cambodian Civil War. There are a number of different killing field sites around Cambodia. The one we went to was really well done, we paid for an audio guide tour and probably spent about 3 hours there listening, seeing, learning, and hearing all about this time and the fields. Being there felt like I was in a concentration camp again. It was absolutely horrible, but well worth going.

That night a bunch of us from the hostel, had a big night out.. which led to many new friends, pubs/bars, drinks, tuk tuk rides, and seeing the sunset in the morning! It was a blast.. The next day was a pretty lazy one full of nothing but blogging, reading and hanging out at the hostel for a lot of people.

One of the days, Dave and I went to the palace/temples in the city and hung out for the day.. he’s quite an awesome dude. Then that night, a bunch of us met up with 2 people Ally travelled with and went out to eat with them.

We also went to this market in the city one night that had bamboo mats all around, and people would buy food and just sit and hang out in the center on the mats.. it was soo great! We got ice cream! :) and watched some Cambodian live entertainment.. bet you can imagine how AWESOME that is!……………….

Then we headed off to Sihanukville.. Next stop: BEACH!!

<3 M

Oh!  I forgot to mention, one night we were watching a movie and there were these nuts that were shaped like MUSTACHES!! 
...that's all.

Distant Memories:

Hot showers...

Walking down the street without being hasseled for a tuk tuk...

Throwing toilet paper in the actual toilet...

Sitting on an actual toilet...

Opening my mouth in the shower...

Brushing my teeth with the water...

Makeup...

A hair dryer and straightener...

Being served meals at the same time as everyone else at the table...

Not seeing naked little kids walking through restaurants, or anywhere really....

The smell of my laundry detergent...

Coins...

Trash cans...

Dogs on leashes.. actually, domesticated dogs in general...

Not bartering for everything...

Normal sized chairs...

Aaand...

Traffic patterns.

Almost died on a boat in the ocean during a storm just off of Lembongan Island, Bali, Malaysia

Our first night in Bali, we stayed in the Kuta Beach area.  We weren't too keen on the whole tourist Aussie parties going on there (it's comparable to what Cancun is for the US), so we just hung around on our own.  I tried satay!  Which is basically chicken skewers lathered in peanut sauce grilled until amazing.  We then met some locals at a tatoo place.. I really wanna get my nose pierced, twice on the same side, I'm not sure how my future employers will like that.. but if the opportunity presents itself, I'm not sure I'll turn it down again.. it was cool though, all of us just hanging out on the steps, with the locals, of this tatoo place.

Our accommodation is pretty great too.. when we arrived, we found that we had a 6 bed Villa!  ..an entire house for us!  We were meeting Karim's friends he met just before we met at the Lounge in Koh Samui. Their names are Sammi and Cody, and they were from America too!  Cody is from Cali, and Sammi is from Texas.

The next day we headed to Lembongan Island. It was pretty awesome!  We spent 4 nights there, it had a pool, and a beach, but you couldn't really swim in the ocean, because there were soo many local boats around.  The pool was really awesome though!!  And we found a really local and cheap place to eat too!

One of the days we rented motorbikes and rode all over the island.  We also crossed this really dodgy suspension bridge, it moved as we drove over it.. hah! We found our way to a cliff diving area!!  I was soo pumped, because that's definitely something I want to do while I'm out here.. unfortunately there is a "but" though... The waves were way too strong that day  :(  so we couldn't jump. But we did get to see some locals catching crabs! That was pretty cool.

We also saw a lot of great views of the island and it's beaches. We stopped and spent some time at this one beach called Dream Beach. It was gorgeous!!  The color of the water was brilliantly blue, there were rocks surrounding it as well which provided amazing scenery, but the waves were insanely strong!  Sammi and I were sitting on the beach when a wave came and literally dragged us into the water!!  Needless to say, we definitely had to shower by the pool to get all the sand off, before moving on with our day.

We also went to this one view point called Devil's Tear. Gorgeous blue waters, awesome rocks to climb around on, and a killer view. I stopped the bike and walked out on the rock/cliff. I had to be careful though, the waves came in pretty strong there and would sometimes cause an insanely high splash that could grab you if you get too close.. It was soo beautiful!!! Being above the water and being able to look down at the waves crashing into the rocks beneath me, was really incredible 

The next day we went snorkeling!  We lathered up the sun block and then headed out early in the morning on a local boat. Unfortunately, it ended up we really didn't need the sun screen after all though... The skies turned quick, and became pretty overcast. The coral and fish were still very colorful, but after stopping at about 3 areas to snorkel, the waves really started picking up.  There was an older German lady, grey hair and wrinkly and had to have been about 65/70 years old, on the boat with us who was a CHAMP; she wanted to keep going onto the next area when all of us, 25 and under, were 100% up for heading back, because the amount that the boat was rocking was insane!  I think we went one more stop and then skidadled out of there!

On the way back to our resort, the rain was coming down!!!  I mean, cats and dogs style.. It was utterly pouring!  Any chance of saving our things from getting wet was absolutely lost, but luckily I put my camera in a plastic bag before we left, because we were all soaking by the end of this adventure..

At one point, I had a moment. And many might not understand what this means, but it's when you think to yourself, wow.. this is honesty happening to me right now, and it could happen in moments you never thought would happen to you, but for me, usually it happens in amazing moments, like randomly seeing this amazing band in Australia, sleeping in a swag, being surrounded by people from soo many different places, seeing an amazingly beautiful mountain, snowboarding on a glacier, or simply doing something you never thought you'd do..

Well this moment to me.. was hilarious. I just remember looking across the boat.. waves going crazy left and right, and seeing my friends Sammi and Cody. Sammi was just holding onto Cody, and Cody to Sammi.. the boat was almost horizontal.. then I look to the German lady, she's just chillin out, holding onto her hat, Karim was wrapped up in his serong, I looked down and saw/felt that me, my towel and everyone around me was SOAKING WET, so...

I just started laughing histerically.

I never imagined I would experience something like this.. I kept thinking about what I would do if this boat flipped... and we all went over the edge lol.. it felt like a movie. 

Well, I'm still alive, so clearly I made it.. when the boat finally arrived back at our resort, we all got off and went toward the covered area, there was the Australian couple we met earlier, and they just started laughing histerically at us!  Hah!  I mean.. what else can you do when shit goes to shit and it's out of your control?? Only laugh.  So we told them the story of what happened and then we jumped in the pool, which was a hell of a lot warmer than being outside.. because of the cold wind, it almost felt like a hot tub!  ...almost.  Then I saw another boat come to shore, and it was some Aussies I met earlier in the week.. the same thing happened to them.. it was soo funny, and all we could do was laugh.

The only thing that could've made it.all better was a warm shower, but alas, we're in Southeast Asia.. and very far from that!  But it all turned out ok, and plus, I definitely had a good "moment" laugh.  :)

On our way back to Bali, we took a public boat, which was 140,000 rupiah cheaper than the boat on the way to Lembongan island.. we sat on wood planks, but it was soo worth it!

<3 M

Next stop, Ubud!  On the island of Bali, Indonesia.

Just checked Angkor Wat off my bucket list; Siem Reap, Cambodia!!!

Ally:

I planned to meet up with Ally, a Scottish guy I met no the way to Phuket, Bangkok. We did exchange any info, but then we ran into each other randomly on Koh Samui! This story was talked about in my Koh Samui enyry, so I won’t go detailed about it here. Well, we promised each other that we would try to meet up again when we were saying goodbye in Thailand, and we actually pulled it off! We met in Siem Reap, he came from Laos (pronounced Lao), and I came from Singapore!

Well, he was supposed to arrive around 10pm, the day we were meeting, I think my flight got in a little earlier in the night, so I settled in and met some people in the hostel. We planned on meeting there at the hostel.. easy peasy.. I took a mototaxi from the airport and let me just say… that my have been the scariest moto I’ve ever been on! There was soo much traffic, it was pretty dark, the driver didn’t use his headlights, swerving, talking on his phone, AND texting! All with me on the back and him holding my bag between his legs in the front… After that slightly nerve racking experience, I finally arrived at the hostel to check in, and tell them that Ally would be arriving and checking in later on. They told me that the power was COMPLETELY out all over town! (This explained the dark roads)… so there was no aircon or fans or much light at all in the hostel.. so what can you do when Siem Reap gets their power from Thailand, and a truck hits a power line that knocks 10 more over??You get a beer, and relax.

After dropping my bag in the dorm, I met some people at the hostel. We shared some beers, stories, and advice with each other over the next few hours. Then 10:00 rolled around, and no Ally. That’s alright though.. I mean, its Asia.. Everything always runs late. Except that was the latest time he gave me.. He was actually supposed to arrive by 7:00. So you could imagine I was getting a bit worried. Well I talked to this guy for a while at the hostel; he was giving me some advice about the temples. How long to go , which ones to see, what time to go… Then we chatted about where he was headed to next, because he was leaving the next morning. Then 12:30 rolled around, he headed off to bed. I sent Ally a message asking if everything is ok. I was getting pretty worried at this point. I played around on my phone for a bit, checked fb, email, blog, talked to friends…

But still.. No Ally.

It was 1:30am; I decided to go to bed. I sent him another message that said which room we were in, which bed was his, how to get in (knocking on door to wake up kid in front to open it), and I told him I was worried and to update me.

The next morning I woke up, and… NO ALLY!

My heart sank, and I was really flippin worried. I sent hime a message, and then… 5 minutes later I got one back that said, “I’m at reception!”

I WAS SOOOO HAPPY!!! I ran down and just hugged him. He said he thought that it might worry me that I didn’t hear from him, but he got in late (around 2am… seriously just missed each other), and the reception kid was way too out of it to understand the he already had a bed, so he just put Ally in a different room. And then by the end of it, Ally was just so tired that he went to bed.

Aah but he is safe and here and life is good!!

That day we just walked around Siem Reap. Walked along the river, had lunch, went to the market, and then walked down Pub Street, which is a pretty touristy/backpacker street where all the restaurants with 50c beers are.

Finally the Temples!!

The next day we went to Angkor Wat! It’s one of the Wonders of the World! The area of Angkor Wat is full of other temples that are too far to walk, close enough to ride a bike or hire a tuk tuk driver for a day or 2. We decided to hire a tuk tuk (didn’t feel like sweating our asses off), and went to 4 temples and ruins. A lot of people do 3 days in the area, because there are a lot of temples and ruins to see, but we figured we could save the money and get the best ones in one day with a tuk tuk rather than a bike. The driver picked us up at 4:30am to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. It was soo crowded and full of tourists, it was crazy! The sunrise was very pretty; there is a lake right out front that everyone gathers around, waiting for it to come up, because the reflections are to be beautiful there. And they sure were! There were lily pads on the water too, which made the area even more gorgeous. Afterward, we walked around; it was soo awesome and really big! There are markings on the walls of Angkor Wat that aren’t totally intact anymore and they’re really cool to see. When we walked out of the temple, our tuk tuk driver was basically waiting for us at the door and just driving over as we walked out.. he was on it!

The next temple we went to was the one that Tomb Raider was filmed in… there are trees growing through the collapsed ruins. I loved it sooo much and it ws by far my favorite temple!! You know me.. I <3 trees!

We went to a few smallers ones too.. which were still pretty big. We climbed up the steps to this one, and at the top there was a nice view of the ruins below. At the top, there were doorways, but it was completely open. In many temples out here there are doorways that have a step just underneath the doorway, causing you to bow when you step over it. A lot of times there is a Buddha on the other side of the doorway… There were also these structures that looked like doorways or windows that once were, but because there was no roof or anything they actually ended up looking like large picture frames! Hah! I loved them soo much!

The last one had big towers that looked like they were built with small blocks of rock. There were tons of these oval shaped towers, and they had the face of Buddha on all sides of them! It was really cool.. we went into the main tower and there was a Buddha, and incense to offer. We took the incense, lie some, and stuck them in the sand. Then a woman gave me a prayer bracelet she had made! I still have it on. :)

After that we felt pretty drained and ready to go. It is soo hot out here that by 12-4:00 you just don’t want to be outside unless you’re at a pool! It’s really cool though… to just walk through all these ancient places which used to be FILLED with people, and wonder how it must have been.

My recommendation on the temples is that if you have the money and the time, go for 3 days. And if you plan to go to them, get a guide too, so you can not only see the ancient lands, but also really learn what the sculpture and ruins mean, and what life must have been like back then. Learning it while you are there would be quite the experience. :)

<3 M

Oh! I forgot to mention, there are 2 currencies here.. Cambodian Riel AND US Dollars!  If you give dollars, you could get back Riel, vise versa!  It's a buy confusing.. but kinda cool too.  :) 

...I feel like I've written that before.. Hmm.. Oh well! 

Ciao!