Back to the Mainland

Today has been pretty chilled. We got up late-ish and checked out of our accommodation. Then we went for breakfast. Lauren had beans on toast, I had the chocolatiest chocolate pancakes. Then we just sat in the bar admiring the view and relaxing for a while. Then we went and sat in the basket chairs. At one point a little Cambodian girl came running up to Lauren and climbed into the basket chair with her so she could have a swing. Then a little boy came and stood next to me. I indicated to him he could climb up and he came and sat on my lap and we were all just swinging about on the chairs. Lauren got her phone out to take a photo and the little girl was so happy,  playing with the different filters on snapchat (a photo app that allows you to customise your photos in different ways - see photos). Lauren got up to take a photo ad the two kids piled into the one chair and Lauren took different photos with the different filters and they were giggling away. They had huge grins on their faces, it was so cute. Eventually their mum called them and they went running off. It was a nice little addition to the day.

At around 2:30pm we went and had a drink then headed to one of the piers to get the boat back to the mainland. Koh Rong is an absolutely beautiful island and I was quite gutted to be leaving.

When we got back to the mainland we headed straight to the hostel,  the same one as before,  jumped in the showers and went out for dinner. The place we went had live music and we sang along with the dude and his guitar as he played some tunes. We also tried out the local cocktails which were 2 for 1, meaning it was two for $3.50. I had a pina colada, Lauren had a Woo Woo. We drank those and then headed back to the hostel and to bed.

Sun, Sand, Snorkeling and Storms (3rd April)

To our delight,  this morning we woke up to blue skies and sun. To our horror we discovered we are both covered in bites, presumably received whilst out at dinner last night. We were extra pleased about the weather as we were booked onto an all day boat tour round Koh Rong.  Unfortunately the skies did not stay blue for long and we spent the majority the day racing the storm round the island, getting caught a couple of times in the rain. This didn't stop us from enjoying a fun day though.

Our first stop of the boat tour was a random place off the coast of the island in the middle of the sea for a morning swim. It was still sunny at this point and the water was lovely and warm. Lauren and I were lazy and used the optional life jackets to just float about in the water. It was only a short swim as we had to head off to make it to our next stop before the storm came in. We had originally meant to be stopping at Coconut Reef for some snorkeling, which I had been looking forward to, but due to the weather this just wasn't feasible.

The boat ride to our next stop was very rocky as the boat went through the waves. We got very wet and there was a lot of water in the boat. At several points it felt like the boat would capsize with just one big wave.  It was fun in a scary kind of way.

After what seemed like a long time we arrived at our stop. There was no piers at any of the stops so we were just using the ladder to get down into the sea and wading to shore. We visited Preksway village which is the largest village on the island. We looked at the village school which was built and funded by a Norwegian family. There were no kids there today; it's a holiday period at the moment apparently. Next we looked at the biggest temple on the island. It's still being built but the foundations are there and there's a Buddha statue inside to it's a sacred place, meaning no shoes are allowed to be worn inside, even by the builders.

Next we saw a pagoda, constructed mainly out of wood. It was quite different to all the fancy pagodas we have seen elsewhere. We then wandered through the village, stopping at different houses and shops, trying different things. I tried Rice wine, soy milk ad aloe vera juice. I didn't like the wine, the other two weren't bad. Also on offer were baby figs but I didn't try those. We crossed a bridge over the river and saw some monkeys hanging off a couple of the houses, which was pretty cute. We then stopped at a house/shop where they made and sold coconut oil. I didn't buy any but I did heed the advice to not stand still under a coconut tree. The weather managed to stay hot and sunny the whole time we were in the village but by the time we reached out next stop it had clouded over and we didn't really see the sun again all day.

We then went back to the boat and sailed to Lonely Beach where we had chicken skewers and rice for lunch. Lauren and I kicked a football about for a bit and then we finally got to do some snorkeling. We didn't see that many fish but there was lots of plants which were pretty cool. It started raining whilst we were in the water but it wasn't much of a problem since we were wet anyway.

After we had snorkel led we went back to the boat and attempted to do some fishing. We didn't use a rod, we just had what was basically a roll of twine with some bait on the end. I kept getting mine caught on someone on the opposite side of the boats. Hardly anyone caught anything. Neither me or Lauren managed to catch any fish. Eventually we gave up and we sailed to our next stop; Long Beach.

Long beach used to be in the top ten beaches in the world, until the Royal Group built a pier at the end of it.  From what we were told the Royal Group are in the process of turning this beautiful island into a large holiday resort  Long beach is 7km with amazing blue water and white fine sand. Lauren and I played frisby and volleyball in the beautiful warm water with the majority of the group (there was about 20 of us). It was getting cold and dark at this point so we had a bonfire on the beach. Unfortunately we didn't get much benefit from it. It was short lived due to the incoming storm clouds causing up to head off.

Our last stop was probably my personal favourite activity of the day. We dropped anchor in the sea and got in with our snorkels to see the glow in the dark plant based plankton. It lit up when you moved in the water as a defence mechanism.  It was like tiny little dots of light when you waved your arms about in the water. It was pretty cool.

After this we headed back round the island to where we started. We had done a whole circuit of the island, and as we sailed back we could see the sky in the distant being lit up by lightning. We arrived back at around 8pm. It was a very short walk back to our accommodation where we showered and got dry for the first time in a while, before going out for dinner. We then returned to the hostel and collapsed after a very long and busy day.

 

Getting Off On The Rong Foot (2nd April)

This morning we were supposed to be picked up at 8:30 to be taken to the pier to catch the boat to Koh Rong. We sat and waited, along with two other girls, until around 20 past 9. At this point one of the other girls had already walked down to the pier and had communicated to the other that there was a boat boarding. Lauren and I decided to hop in a tuktuk and rush down to the pier to see if we could catch it. When we got there and spoke to the check in lady she told us the 9am boat had left and we would have to wait until the next one at 11. 

We complained to her that we were supposed to be picked up an hadn't been, so she put us on a different boat tour that was going to Koh Rong. It wasn't as fast but would probably get there sooner than the 11am speed ferry. So that's what we did. We eventually got to the island around 12pm.

We were walking from where the boat dropped us off to find our accommodation when it started peeing it down. It had been grey and cloudy all morning, much like yesterday. We dived into the nearest bar and had a coke while waiting for the rain to stop, which didn't take too long. We then continued on to our accommodation. We had booked a place called 'Delux' through the same person we booked the boat with. We had to stop and ask for directions several times. We walked to the second of three piers as directed and still couldn't find it. We asked someone else and it turned out that not only were there no name signs on the building, Delux was now called Flamingo. Thankfully despite this we managed to check in and our room was not too bad. There's no hot water, it's quite small and we are sharing a double bed but it will do. 

After dumping our stuff we went for a wander. No sooner than we had walked away from the hostel it started absolutely hammering down, heavier than before. We again dived into the nearest bar where we ended up staying for quite a while. We had a drink and shared a pizza until the rain lightened a bit. We tried to wander a long the beach but it was still raining and not that enjoyable so we headed back to the hostel and waited for the rain to stop. 

Eventually, it cleared up and out we went. We wandered down the beach and found some basket chairs hanging from a tree. We sat in them for a good while, then went and had a go on a swing hanging from a nearby tree. The island is beautiful. The sand in white and fine and the water is clear and blue. In the sun, it would be like a little bit of paradise. It was so peaceful sitting in the basket chairs. After wandering all the way down the beach to where we were dropped off we returned to the basket chairs for some more lazying around.

After a while we forced ourselves out of the chairs and went and made some arrangements for activities for the next day and getting back to the mainland. Then we went for dinner. We returned to the first bar we had dived into earlier as they had a pretty good menu. The food took a while to come but was pretty nice. At one point the power went out which was a vaguely exciting moment as everyone just sort of sat there making funny comments and wondering if it was going to come back on, which it eventually did. We sat there for a while until we couldn't stand being attacked by moths and bugs anymore and returned to the hostel to chill.