Sihanoukville and Beyond

Dec 1st.
Another long bus ride took us to Sihanoukville on the coast. (thank you Giant Ibis, best bus co in Thailand!)
It's a complete disaster of a city, taken over by the Chinese mafia, and full of half built casinos and enormous hotels - a giant building site really.
We had a to wait a bit for the ferry over to Koh Rong Island, but I really enjoyed the ride, sun setting, wind in my hair, gorgeous island in the distance etc etc.

As previously mentioned, we had booked into a resort hostel, it was called Reef On The Beach. It looked gorgeous, but some of the reviews were a bit worrying.... Punch ups between the staff, guests attacked when they asked for things etc etc. Tbh, the bloke in charge looked a bit scary, but we had no problems, they were fine. One of them was on our ferry and even carried my backpack to the hostel for me! (Did I mention it weighs like a small car?)

   

Beautiful spot, right on the beach. Ellie and Will had a tent, looked nice, but was completely boiling by 8am, and there was no air con anywhere. In fact there wasn't always electricity........ And I somehow managed not to get enough money out, in spite of Ellie warning me there were no atms on the island, so I spent most of the day in the bar area, getting free glasses of ice, and drinking that. I caught up with my journal, and spent the afternoon sweating in a hammock, thinking I would manage without any more food that day. Not hard really, it's too hot to eat. It's too hot to do anything.
Later, I discovered that they take card payments, woopeee! So I payed the bill by card and they gave me back the cash I'd given them earlier. Yay, I can eat dinner! I don't remember whether I actually did in the end, but at least I could drink lots of iced tea. It's not the same as Thai iced tea, which is my fave, but if I ask for lemon tea without sugar, it's not bad at all.



 Ellie came down to my shed in the evening and we listened to next doors Chinese kareoke for a bit - there was loads of them at first, and they were hilarious, but it dwindled to about 3 by 9 o'clock. And they went on and on and on, and they were very loud and abso terrible.
I spent a horribly uncomfortable night, getting tangled up in the mozzie net as I tried to get the fans to blow on me. When the power was on, that is.
Why is it that hotel plug sockets are always in all the wrong place?  I've  noticed a few recurring things about Asian hostels - there is always a socket that doesn't work, none of them are ever screwed to the wall properly, and there is always a light switch that doesn't do anything......

 I was ready to kill someone by the morning, but we'd booked one more night, and I wasn't gonna argue with Scary Bloke about a refund.......and then go on to Koh Rong Samloen in the morning.


In the evening, we walked off down the beach away from the lights, and went in the sea to get a look at the bioluminescent plankton. I heard about this from Amy who went there on her travels, and also in a lovely book I read years ago, called My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. He grew up in Corfu, and used to see this phenomenon all the time.
The hostel did boat trips out at night, probably this would've been better, as it would've been far away from any light pollution, but we saw quite a lot of them just ten feet off the beach! You wave your hand around underwater, and they light up! Amazing.

I found a place on Samloen with aircon (electricity permitting) and I was up and packed well early. Let me out!!!

3rd Dec

We booked the ferry for Samloen, and I struggled down the pier with my tiny but super heavy backpack. First stop was the village down the coast, and then on to Samloen. My gaff was about 100yds down the beach and it's very nice. Ellie and Will booked in the Cliff House up a big hill, complete madness......

But I made it up the hill for dinner. Would like to say it was worth it, but they put what tasted like masses of chilli in my soup, in spite of my requests not to, so I am not impressed. In spite of the gorgeous sunset view....

Back down at my gaff, there was lots of lightning and thunder,  pretty amazing to watch from the beach, and the bar is a great place to see it all, and then I retired for a nice air conditioned sleep.

4th Dec

The power was off in the morning, but breakfast was still good. Lots of fruit and yogurt and  tea of course. Apparently they are putting in a huge new generator to be able to cope better with the electricity demand.
Today I went on a snorkelling trip round the island, 40 mins by boat, and then we jumped off to swim and I forgot my earplugs. Omg, I hate being old and forgetful, everything is such a trial, I wouldn't have cared when I was19, but now I am plagued by stoopid things like blocked ears, achey knees, useless muscles etc etc All my limbs refuse to do what I ask of them without creaking, jeez, everything is a struggle. Ffs, I can't even snorkel without a life jacket any more, what's that about????? Grrr

I mean. 5 mins of treading water, and I am ready to drown, honestly. Things like this used to be so easy.......

It was a lovely reef, very pristine, lots of sea urchins etc,  but not quite as diverse as Egypt. I need to dive again......if only my aging bod can cope with it, hah!

The boat left us at Sunset beach for a while, no wifi, I chatted to some people in a bar, seems like they are living the good life! But, I missed my phone ^_^

Ellie and Will came down to my place for what they call 'Family dinner', where the cook does a trad meal for the guests and staff, such lovely food! They went home and I got quietly pissed on some wine I'd bought at the local 'supermarket'. I love it when the bar is 5 steps away from your bed.

5th Dec
Had a very good sleep, but I apparently missed a big storm! That'll be the wine then :)

I had a(nother) chilled day today, late brekkie, lots of reading and then lunch at the Greek restaurant on the pier with Ellie and Will. Later on, they went canoeing, and I walked down the coast a bit to Clearwater Bay. It is so beautiful but the Cambodians have a big problem with rubbish, they just seem to dump it wherever they can, and it is such a shame for such a beautiful country. I sat on the beach for a bit, in the sweltering heat, the water looked very inviting but I've had enough of sand up yer bum for one day.

I found a bar with wine – Bongs! – and the bloke said, oh it’s not ready to serve, it’s a bit warm….. So I said,’Just add some ice, it’ll be fine’!!

Some time later, I stumbled a few bars along the front to Mermaids Restaurant, and met up with Ellie and Will for a last meal. We all had fish amok, a local dish and it was gorgeous. As is all the food here, tbh,  as long as they cook it without chilli. So many amazing flavours, and chilli just kills all of them, duh…..I cannot understand why it’s so popular, I hate it………. 

Back in my room I managed to pack all my stuff into Amy’s little backpack (weighs like a small car, though, remember?) and all of  Will’s dive books, and Ellie’s things she doesn’t want etc etc…. Dunno how I'm gonna get down the pier with it, weighs like 2 small cars now…….

I had to get up early, as they are leaving for Kampot about 9am. I waved them off from the pier, and it made me very sad….. 😭😭😭😭

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Back in Sihanoukville I got a tuk tuk to the bus place and waited there for a few hours, and then it was long trip back to Phnom Penh airport for my flight back to Bangkok. I went back and stayed in the lovely Khao San Art hotel, we’d been there before, it’s so nice, and I immediately ordered an iced Thai tea………..I think I’d be happy to live here for a while, such a nice place. And I love Thai tea!

But I had to leave, grrr, to get a flight to Chengdu , followed by a flight to London. Was ready to kill myself at Chengdu….. I bought a duty free bottle of wine at Bangkok airport, and then they made us get off at Chengdu. And collect our luggage, and go thru customs. So when I went back thru security to get on the connecting flight, they  insisted I put the bottle in my hold luggage. Which had already gone through to the plane…….and tbh, there was no room in it for even a miniature bottle, let alone a full size one. I had managed to cram in all Will's dive books and other stuff that Ellie didn't want, and there wasn't a spare inch of space in it....And the bloody wine was in a sealed bag, from the duty free in BK, dunno what they thought  I was gonna do with it.........In the end, having trekked about 2 miles around Cheng Du Airport with various 'Officials', I picked up the bottle and handed to one of them, saying, ‘Happy Christmas!’  And left without it.

Ten hours later, I was screaming mad to get off the plane, but when I did , there was scummy cold England. What a come down.

I love travelling. But it sucks to go home afterwards.