Kat and I are back in Thailand and today is the King's birthday. The people have a great respect for their King so a lot of places are shut down today and there should be some celebrating tonight! It was actually a little tough to find an open internet place this morning. We're finally waiting for out ferry to Ko Tao, a nice little island in the gulf of Thailand that's well known for being laid-back and having great scuba diving. But we've had a marathon last few days getting here!
I think the last time we were able to update was back in Siem Reap. From there we took an early morning bus to Phnom Penh and then an hour later (after a nice lunch at the Capital Cafe) we set off again to Sihanoukville for the night. This meant a full day in the bus but we had a lot of ground to cover! Sihanoukville is a city the french built in the 1950's so that Cambodia could have it's own shipping port instead of relying on Vietnam. But now it's turned into a full-fledged beach town. We stayed in a nice little bungalow and had BBQ'd seafood right on the beach. I really mean right on the beach: big waves would nearly lick our toes! But we headed out the next day for Krong Koh Kong right on the border of Cambodia and Thailand. Krong Koh Kong is a small town and honestly not that memorable but it's a great jumping off point for either the Cardamom Mountains or a boat trip out to deserted island.
The Cardamoms don't have trails and the only access is by a few roads using dirt bikes so we opted instead for the island of Koh Kong. We hired a boat in town that took us to Beach No 3 (no kidding, it doesn't even have a real name) where there's a beautiful lagoon and a white sandy beach. Just down the beach were some rocks that provided great snorkeling. We spent the entire day lounging on the beach, snorkeling, and finding awesome seashells! It was really the kind of beach that I always dreamed about so for me it was a high point in our trip.
But we wanted to spend the remainder of our trip in the islands in the guld of Thailand. So we proceded on a marathon trip that isn't even over yet. From Krong Koh Kong we took a tuk-tuk to the Thailand border and walked across. On the other side we had to wait until a share-taxi had enought people to fill it to drive us to Trat. From there we took a bus into Bangkok's Eastern Terminal. From there we had to take the public buses to the Southern Bus Terminal. From there we took an overnight bus (it's 11pm by this point) and we arrived in Chumphon - although the bus screwed us by not dropping us off in town so we had to take a moto the remaining 10k into town. From here we're taking a ferry to Ko Tao where we can finally relax on the beach once again!
But Cambodia is done for us. I really really enjoyed Cambodia though. The people were very friendly there and always had a smile. Evening bargaining wasn't stressful because they were always smiling. I'd have to say that the food in Cambodia wasn't my favorite, but the fish amok and the lok lak were both very good. The amok is a curry dish with fish and vegetables that comes wrapped in banana leaves. The lok lak is a plate of cubed beef with a black pepper sauce, a fried egg, and of course rice. But the coffee is always good in Cambodia!
Alright, I have an island to get to!
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2 comments:
Glad to hear all is well, there was a dry spell there where we hadn't heard from you two and with the friction there we were a little worried. The beaches and water sounds great, I'm jealous it was 26 degrees here yesterday. Enjoy yourselves.
All our love
Mom and dad
Cambodia was by far the worst country so far for internet! Plus we spent FAR too much time on buses there which really ate up our free time. And I think it's 26 degrees here too...Celsius that is!
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