I ended my last term on March 19th and wouldn’t start again until April 21st. During my break Allie came out to visit me for 3 weeks. During those 3 weeks me and Allie traveled most of the time, all over Cambodia, only spending a few days here and there at my home in Phnom Penh. It was an amazing time, some of the best traveling and vacationing I’ve ever done. Seeing lots of new places in Cambodia outside of the city and getting to experience all of it with my girlfriend made me feel extremely blessed.
The first few days we hung around the city for the weekend, while Allie got to take it all in and meet many of my friends. We took a long ride on my moto south to the Zoo/safari (most animals in cages, but some free to walk around, i.e. Elephants allowed out for a daily stroll) as well as a shorter ride over to Silk Island to show Allie the Heng family operation and see some countryside.
Our first, longest, and probably most interesting trip was to the Southern Coast of Cambodia. Our first stop was Rabbit Island, where we spent 2 days and one night on the beach and in the bungalow along with our a spider that had 3 inch long legs. From Rabbit Island we went to Kep, famous for its crabs. We stopped quickly, I had one crab, which was pretty good, and then continued on our journey to Kampot. We stayed in Kampot for a few days, hanging around the beautiful riverside as well as renting a moto to go explore some popular caves. One interesting day trip in Kampot was hiking Bokor Hill, which is actually a mountain. Unfortunately, some Chinese company is building a huge resort on the top of the mountain and has closed off the access road to the top. Now visitors are forced to go through a tour group. We were drivin a few minutes up the mountain road before we were let off the truck to begin our hike through the forest to avoid the construction along the closed access road. About 3 hours, 10 pounds lighter, and drenched in sweat we emerged from the jungle back onto the road where our truck was waiting. We then continued in the truck another 30 minutes on an unpaved road, which caused the truck with no shock absorbers to bounce us up and down, numbing my spine and butt. We finally made it to the top of Bokor Hill and had some food and got to walk around and see the abandoned casino and other old structures on top. The view from the back of the casino was amazing and the whole reason I wanted to go to the top of Bokor. You could look out eye-level with the clouds and see the fields below and the sea far off in the distance. Fog was rolling in and out giving off a very surreal feeling. Then, it was time for the same trip down, somewhat quicker, but more stressful and technical because of a winning combination of gravity and Allie’s lack of proper footwear. When we finally got to the bottom and thought we would soon be back in our guest house relaxing and able to sit still, we realized it was time for the ending 1 hour boat ride down a river. Eventually, we got back to our guest house tired and dirty. Although it was a rough day, it was quite a memorable experience, and for me, that’s a good enough reason to say it was worth it.
After Kampot it was on to Sihanoukville, a big beach town. As soon as we arrived we walked onto the beach and rented a jetski for 30 minutes. Me and Allie took turns driving and flying off waves. We then went to a quieter beach where we found a nice bungalow for the night. The next day we got up early to go out on a boat trip. I signed up to go Scuba diving while Allie would hang out onboard and snorkel above. We had a great guide and nice couple who came along. The guy went scuba diving with me while Allie hung out with the girl and snorkeled. The diving was pretty fun, lots of fish and weird coral to see. Lots of black sea urchins with foot long spikes that looked extremely dangerous. Our guide pointed out one or two things and made the signal for “deadly” (cutting your hand and arm across your neck).
After Sihanoukville we headed back to Phnom Penh for a few days. In Phnom Penh we saw the sights around town including Wat Phnom, a temple on top of the biggest (but still very small) man-made hill in Phnom Penh. Lots of big and small monkeys walking around minding their own business.
We then took a night/sleeper bus to Siem Reap arriving at 6am for a full day of exploring all the temples and spending some time at the most famous temple, Angkor Wat. The next day we woke up extremely early and got a tuk-tuk to a temple, Bang Melea, outside Siem Reap that I had been to before and really enjoyed. This temple is unlike any other in Siem Reap because it’s totally engulfed in a jungle where trees and roots have knocked down huge stones. The guides take you straight into the heart of the temple and you can wander wherever you please. We then took the tuk-tuk back into Siem Reap where we got on a bus and headed back to Phnom Penh one more time.
Our last trip was to the small town of Koh Kong, mostly used as a stop over point before crossing the border into Thailand. It was a great relaxing place and 3 of my friends from PP where also there. We also randomly met 4 more of my older friends from PP on the bus and spent a day with them before they went off to Thailand. In Koh Kong we took a small bumpy speedboat out to some waterfalls. When the boat couldn’t go any further we got out and hiked 20 minutes to some nice waterfalls and pools. Another day I rented a moto and we drove out to another set of waterfalls. These were much more popular and there were Khmer people everywhere as well as some foreigners. Another day, me and Allie took a boat tour with a few other cool young people out to Koh Kong Island, a huge uninhabited island except for the big army base on the side we didn’t see. Supposedly the military is deforesting the island and doesn’t allow anyone to stay on the island overnight to keep their doings secret. The island was beautiful, white sand beaches and clear blue water. The beach was littered with weird garbage and things that had washed onshore, tons of light bulb of all sizes used by shrimp and squid fisherman to attract their catch. We had a great BBQ seafood lunch on the beach before heading to a cove to do some snorkeling. We also stopped along the shore of the mainland to walk through a mangrove forest, something Ive never seen before. They are thick forests of weird trees whose many branches grow twisting and turning into the sea water. It was low tide when we were there, so we could see the branches twisting into the sandy ground and little crabs crawling around.
Another day we took a moto drive to the border of Thailand and saw the huge hotel/casino resort and then safari world which looked pretty good although we didn’t have time to go in. Supposedly they have shows throughout the day such as boxing monkeys. Would have loved to see that.
Throughout our stay in Koh Kong we were blessed with beautiful sunsets every night, clouds and the sun mixing together to give off amazing colors. Our guesthouse was also very nice, although we had to change rooms every night since we booked last minute and they were full with Khmer people since it was Khmer New Year. This also meant Khmer people staying up late doing karaoke with a huge speaker in the guesthouse parking lot and then waking up early (5am) and jumping in the pool and making tons of noise. However, it was still a relaxing and a great trip to end Allies stay in Cambodia.
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