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Wow, I think Cambodia is the best country we have visited this trip - we definitely savd the best til last! The only problem is that we never left ourselves enough time.
KEP
The first place was visited was a tiny fishing village called Kep. First of all we had to cross the border which was surprisingly quick and easy. We basically paid 2 blokes to give us a lift on the back of their mopeds all the way from Ha Tien to Kep. We left Vietnam at 9am and were in Kep by 11am. Awesome!
As soon as we crossed the border and got into theb first Cambodian village the difference between the two countries was immediately apparent. Gone were the paved roads and concrete buildings, and in their place were orange dirt roads and wooden shacks. We were treated like minor celebrities by everyone we passed on the bikes, with everyone shouting and waving at us.
The bike ride took us through the Cambodian countryside which was beautiful and made me wish we had time to do a homestay somewhere rural.
As soon as we arrived in Kep we went out to explore, which didn't take long as the place is tiny. The "town" sits alongside the water, and consists of a few minimarts, guesthouses and restaurants. We walked towards the crab market, having been stopped along the way for a family to take a photo of us (literally of us, they didn't get in the photo with us!). Seafood restaurants are the speciality here, so we chose where we would come for dinner that night. Unfortunately we did not make it back for dinner - my torch broke and as the road is not lit. We had a Cambodian curry instead and drank the famoud Cambodian Angkor beer.
The next day we spent the whole day at the wonderful Rabbit Island, we would highly recommend this to anyone. The most chilled out we felt all trip. It is a beautiful beach in a cove so is really quiet, the sea is crystal clear and there is a nice breeze so you didn't get too hot. There were a few families living there, but we hardly saw another person all day!
KAMPOT
We got back from Rabbit Island at 5pm and got straight into the slowest tuk tuk in gthe world to take us the 20km into Kampot. Luckily there was loads to look at to distract us from the unbelievably bumpy long journey.
We headed straight to Blissful Guesthouse as hard it was a great place to meet fellow travellers, which was definitely true. Our plan was to go for a romantic meal, but we went to the bar for a "quick drink", got distracted exchanging stories with some people who had been travelling for years and years, and ended up having cheesy chips at 9:30!!
Kampot is famous for pepper production, so we were made to have a shot of the home made pepper vodka. Wowzers that stuff blows your socks off!
SIHANOUKVILLE
We love Sihanoukville! We spent one night on each of the two beaches and got the best of both worlds - one is party central and the other is quiet and secluded. Neither of them felt felt like Cambodia though so I can understand people looking for culture would be disappointed, how ever it worked out well for us as we wanted one last beach party before going home!
We got a minibus early doors from Kampot and met an awesome couple, Emily and Kevin. We booked into the same guesthouse - The Big Easy. It had cool wooden bungalows in a leaft garden area with loads of black kittens running about. We went straight to the chill out area for some noodle soup (Lorry's favoutite) then grabbed a sunlounger on the beach.
Oh my God the beach is freaking mental! Our gueshouse was in an area called Serendipity Beach, aka party central. There are loads of beach bars and LOADS of tourists, which means lods of people trying to sell you stuff - hats, bracelets and beauty treatments. People kept coming up to Lorry to tell her she had hairy legs!
We made the mistake of buying some braclets from some children - next thing we knew we had loads of kids around us who would not leave us alone. We ended up playing loads of games of scissor, paper, stone and singing one direction songs. Oh and Hickey bought ANOTHER pair of sunglasses!
When we got back to the guesthouse we entered a quiz, which we thought was going to be a football quiz in honour of the Champions League final. It was not. It felt like we were in Australia or New Zealand - we have been doing our own thing using local transport rather than organised backpacker activities, and had not been around so many Western people for so long. We went for a boogie at a beach bar then came back to watch Chelsea win the final. The atmosphere was amazing as there were so many English people cheering on Chelsea.
We were hanging the next morning after only 2 hours sleep; both had lost our flip flops and couldn't deal with the thought of being hassled all day, so headed to the less developed Otres Beach.
The beach had a bit of a Perehentian vibe - we had a similar wooden beach hut thing and the beach was about a 10 minute walk end to end.
Hickey went straight out to a sunbed while I went to get changed. When i opened the blinds he had two women rubbing his feet! He had succumbed to a pedicure. We had an amzingly chilled out day, swam in the sea, had a massage and made the most of the fact that this was the last time we would be relaxing on the beach in the boiling hot sunshine for a long time :o(
PHNOM PENH
Due to bad planning and spending too much time on Thai Islands we ran out of time in Cambodia. When we arrived at our hotel at 6 they could not believe we were leaving the next day at 9am!
We went straight out to explore, and could not believe how big the city was and how much seemed to be going on. The reiverside is a hive of activity, with about 5 different aerobics classes pumping out tunes, big "Cambodian People's Party" floats driving through the city centre with PA systems blaring stuff, and restaurants and bars with neon "Angkor Beer" signs lighting up the night.
As we won't be able to do this after the weekend we had dinner at a hawker stall and drank some beer, all for under £3. The food is always cheaper and often nicer than an actual restaurant. Plus it gives locals money rather than businesses. After that we went for a quick drink at Street 51 - the party street, then headed home.
Tuesday morning at 9am we got picked up and travelled the 14km out of Phnom Penh to the Killing Fields. I am glad we went but it is really harrowing hearing about how the 17,000 people were killed, seeing all of the skulls and fragments of clothing, and to think this only happened a few years before we were born.
SIEM REAP
It took quite a while to travel on the local bus to Siem Reap. As usual, as Westerners, we were sat at the back of the bus. It was pouring with rain an a tree had falled down across the middle of the road. At first it just looked like one woman with a hacksaw was trying to shift the tree, then all of a sudden loads of people appeared with knives and saws and made the road passable.
The guy from our hostel on Phnom Penh arranged for us to stay in a nice hotel in Siem Reap. When we arrived there was a bloke at gthe station holding a sign with our names on it who took us to our hotel. As it was night time when we arrived we headed straight out to Pub Street. We were not sure how easy it was to find, but it turned out to be really easy. Big neon signs saying "Pub Street" and a big arrow helped us find the way. As we didn't have time to go to the Angkor Wat temples we had to make do with going to "Angkor Wat?" the bar instead.
It is a shame we didn't have more time as we didn't see hardly anything you are supposed to in Cambodia. A week is not nearly enough - we spent more time travelling to places than we did actually in them!
I can't believe 6 months is up already, it has gone so quick. For anyone thinking about it, GO TRAVELLING! It is the best thing you will ever do. We want to do it all over again!!
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