KOH RONG — Hills & Waves

7th - 9th July 2015

Our room for tonight consisted of a small double, shared bathroom, complementary water, four wheels and does 0-60 in about half an hour. This was our first experience of East Asia's hotel sleeper busses (We had been warned the beds are pretty small). Amazingly I just fitted in longways with not even a millimetre to spare. Even more amazingly we actually slept, which is unheard of on any of our previous night bus experiences.

We arrived in Sihanoukville round 6:30am and before we had even removed the sleep from our eyes were pounced on by the tuk tuk Mafia. We eventually negotiated a lift to the docks via the Vietnamese embassy. Our plan was to drop off our passports to get a visa and spend a few days on the nearby islands while they were being processed. Everything went pretty smoothly and we were aboard our boat by nine. Cyclone season was bullying the oceans in the south east causing the waters to panic, throwing us about a bit. Helen astoundingly wasn't sick and within the hour we were walking onto the calm white sand beaches of Koh Rong Island.

The place looked very picturesque. Colourful fishing boats lined the crooked piers, and rustic bamboo huts hugged the beach, disappearing back into the jungle beyond. The small village of Koh Tui (The only village on the island) was distinctly split in two. The southern end was very much a little local fishing village, however the majority of places that lined the beach running North were just set up for tourists. The place had quite a young party vibe, but due to it being off season the atmosphere remained very chilled and slow.

We checked into a little wooden guest house on the beach with ensuite rooms at $10 a night. We instantly ran down to the beach and jumped in the sea. The luke cool water was magic. After a swim and doze on the beach we ate and drank ourselves into the evening. We grabbed a couple of ice cold tinnies and watched the sunset on the beach. Even though the sun sets behind the village, the red and orange dusk tones turned the island pink. If you turned to face the jungle it looked like the clouds were on fire.

The evening ended in a nice little bar that seduced us with its cocktail menu, then the food menu, then the music. For the first time in months were could have a drink and listen to some rock & roll rather than traditional local music or rubbish dance music.

The following morning H realised she was covered in bites. After asking around our suspicions were confirmed. The tiny flys that loitered on the sands do bite, they are imaginatively named sandflys and they are little bastards.

To save some cash we found an even cheaper room at a whopping $5 a night so we moved our stuff and hid from the flys in their little cafe. The food was simple, but super tasty and dirt cheap. We decided the best thing to do to escape more bites would be to get on a boat and off the beach. We joined a day long boat trip consisting of snorkelling, fishing, beach BBQ, a few drinks, sunset and swimming with bioluminescent plankton.

Due to being off season the water was too cloudy for snorkelling and the sky was too cloudy for a sunset. But the fishing was a great success. I caught three tiddlers, non were big enough to eat so I threw them back. As a whole we did catch a few big ones that went on the BBQ whilst a impromptu game of frisbee broke out in the shallows.

Once the sky had darkened we dropped anchor near a small island, donned face masks and jumped into the black water. My mask was filled with thousands of bright planktony specs, like a mass of shimmering fairy lights. Every move of the hand, kick of the leg or splash from the surface would cause these little guys to light up the ocean. It was truly one of the most amazing natural things I have experienced. If you lifted your arm out of the water you could see them sliding down your arm before disappearing into the darkness. It probably wasn't the best boat trip in the world but the guys we met were good fun and the plankton was an incredible headline act.

In the evening H's bites had got worse. They had joined forces to create one super bite and were driving her insane. I got some ice from a near by bar and we did our best to try and cool them down so she could get some shut eye. It kind of worked but wasn't ideal. Our original plan for the following day was to get a boat to the neighbouring quiet island of Koh Rong Samloen but knowing we probably couldn't lie on the beach and the lack of anywhere with aircon to cool Helens bites meant we exchanged our tickets for ones to the main land. We had heard people talking about a lazy riverside town called Kampot. booking.com threw up a nice looking place that was fairly new with a pool and aircon. This sounded like a good place to take it slow for a few days, plus it had a TV and Wimbledon was entering its final days. After another breakneck boat ride we had an even more breakneck bike ride to the embassy. With Visas collected, lunch eaten and hotel booked we squeezed into a tiny minibus headed east to Kampot.