Hello
followers, it’s been a while since my last post with my travel adventures. I’m
in Cambodia since the beginning of which the first ten days with my British
Brad. At a later stage I will post some of our joint adventures which but for
now…..
Cambodia
After great time in Vietnam we set off for our
final leg of our joint travel; Cambodia.
We
left HCMC city with a 7am bus which was from Mekong Express. Due to a hangover
and the early start we were both not looking forward to a long journey into a
new country with no accommodation or destination confirmed for that day.
We
had a lovely Cambodian bus hostess dressed in a beautiful golden/purple long
skirt and top finished with high heels. We noticed that she had a lovely smile
and later on we found out she had a lovely personality too.
The
bus service also included the border crossing, this was the first one for me
over ground and not by air so I didn’t know what to expect. It was a bit
chaotic but very efficient and our lovely hostess (another Ginny in the bottle)
was dealing with the papers and our passports. After 2 stops (Vietnam and
Cambodian side) we had the required stamps in our passports and were dropped
off at an eatery for breakfast. Most of it was noodles or the traditional
breakfast so I tried the fish soup with noodles and vegetable. This was
delicious for breakfast and wouldn’t mind to have this more often in Cambodia.
After
breakfast we went back on the bus ready for our crossing over the Mekong Delta,
where we got out of the bus and celebrated our new country with a picture.
As
usual the locals tried to sell their produce or drinks and I was surprised that
they weren’t pushy at all as we were used to in Vietnam. But most importantly, everybody
smiles and/or have a beautiful smile which makes you feel happy and want to hug
them.
The
kids are already adorable so it will be hard to ignore them when they come over
to sell something. Back on the bus I got a good impression of the country which
looked very green, flat and children everywhere. They were playing in the
fields, cycling or just having fun with old car tyres, wood and things we call
rubbish. When we arrived in the capital City Phnom Penh it was a very different
experience as it is very civilized with fast food chains, lots of scooters,
cars, office buildings and many little markets. We swapped busses to take us in
5 hrs to Sihanoukville we were expecting a nice beachsite place to chill but as
this wasn’t good enough for us we wanted to spend a week at a remote island
called Koh Ta Kiev. It was a recommendation of two British men I met on a beach
in Railay / Thailand. We tried to
contact the two places who had wooden bungalows/ tree houses and hammocks on
the island but this was very difficult. So we just had to change it to go to
the island and find a place. At 7.45pm we made it to Sihanoukville which turned
out to be less idyllic than we thought it would be. No room at the places we
hoped to stay and we had to wait till the next day to find out if there was a
tree house available on Koh Ta Kiev.
The
next day we got on a small boat with one other couple which would take us to
the island as we had the VIP tree house with our own toilet for 5 nights! So we
were very excited and looking forward to the quiet, WiFi and limited
electricity new home during our stay at Koh ta Kiev.
While
writing this I’m having one of the best views. The island life: sleeping in the
‘round house’ with no windows just a round bed and a mini table and chairs made
from a tree branch and our own squat toilet. The shower is a big bucket of
water and a plastic pan which you use to wet your body. Washing your hair is
not that easy so you’ll leave it till it’s really necessary.
Our
days were spend waking up around 7am followed by a run or exercise on the
beach, swim in the sea then a lovely breakfast with stunning views. The rest of
the day we spend reading books, listened to music, enjoying a short sea kayak
trip, talking to other travellers, explored the Island and by 5pm you head to
the bar as it’s getting dark and there will be lights, food and drinks. We had
lovely warm evenings chatting to people and enjoying the worriless atmosphere.
It took only a minute to get back to our tree house in the dark so head torches
are a must and on our way home we were met by some little creatures like crab
hermits crabs and spiders.
One
day we’ve visited the fishing village at the other side of the Island, we went
with ‘guide’ Co-op through the jungle which changed in a very leafy surrounding
followed by dune like area before arriving at the fishing village. After we
were greeted by children and dogs we walked to the water and found out that is
was shoes off and walk through the water as it was a floating village. The next
hurdle was a self-made wooden bridge with hardly any barriers to hold on as the
planks were very loose. It seems to go on for ever but finally we arrived at
the ‘restaurant’ which was a big area with one table. We agreed to have fried
crabs so the lady went to get some which were still alive. One tried to escape
but ended up on our plates half an hour later. We tried to find out how she
prepared it but they were delicious, we had the leftovers for dinner. But maybe
the highlight of the fishermen’s village was a trip to the toilet…..
After
4 nights at the Island we felt it was time to go back to the mainland; full of
energy and with a tan!
Toilet at fishermen village |
view at Koh ta Kiev |
Our tree house |
View from the Tree House |
"They were playing in the fields, cycling or just having fun with old car tyres, wood and things we call rubbish." - Angel, you are priceless :-) The round house looks and sounds lovely - what incredible views, and I love that it's on stilts - but there's no way I'm doing a squat toilet! I was bad enough with a chemi-toilet in Nova Scotia boathouse.
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