Bugs, Buses and Battembang.

Today we have spent the whole day hanging round the hostel and mooching round the town. It's been absolutely chucking it down for the last 2ish hours, and the streets have streams running down them, deep enough to cover my flipflops in some places.

At around 7:15pm a tuktuk turned up and we were told that this was our pick up for the best. So we piled in, along with 3 others and all our bags and headed off in the torrential downpour to get the bus. It was supposed to leave at 7:30pm but it was gone 8 by the time it did eventually leave.

Instead of the usual sleeping bus, this one had double sleeping compartments on one side and single 'beds' on the other. They were all fully reclined you could lie down flat and even with both of us in a double one there was more room. There was also charging points, although ours didn't actually work.

We stopped at half 10 for a half hour break and then continued on our way. We made it to Phnom Penh around half 1. I'm not entirely sure why they send the bus that route, as I'm sure it's a lot longer, and there is another bus that goes to Phnom Penh, but that's what happened. We had another toilet stop just before 4am and eventually got to Battembang sometime after 8.

It was not a fun journey.  I couldn't get comfortable, I was too hot and there were fairly sizeable bugs everywhere. I was a bit paranoid they were going to crawl in my ear or up my nose while I was trying to sleep. My knee also started to ache for no apparent reason, and Lauren's back was hurting. Neither of us got much sleep.

When we got off the bus we were met by hoards of tuktuk drivers and we got one to the hostel, where we arrived at around 8:30am, and that is now where we are sitting and relaxing. 

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.

Wavering Weather

This morning we had a lay in, getting up around 10am and getting ready before heading out to the beach, despite the weather being grey and cloudy. We got a tuktuk to Sokha beach, which was supposed to be a quieter and nicer beach than the main beach we wandered among yesterday. When we got there,we dunped our bags and shoes and dipped our feet in the fairly warm sea, only for it to start raining. We sat on some sun loungers under a pretty useless umbrella for what seemed like forever, debating whether to stay, as the weather got progressively worse and started thundering. It was very grey. It was quite strange because we could see the divide between the storm clouds and the white clouds. If you look at the first photo you can probably see what I mean.

Around half 1 the clouds finally started breaking up and the sky was getting bluer and bluer. There were still clouds by they were smaller and whiter and it was getting warmer and warmer. Our perseverance was rewarded. It carried on raining for a while but eventually I decided to get in the sea anyway since it was warm. Lauren soon followed suit and the rain was easing off until it eventually stopped.

The afternoon turned out to be blue skies and sunny and very hot. We sunbathed and lounged about until about half 4, before getting a tuktuk back to the hostel for showers. We headed out at 6 to watch the sun set over the beach (which we couldn't really see) before having dinner at a beach front restaurant. Then it was back to the hostel for packing.

For the next couple of days we are going to Koh Rong Island. The island has no proper electricity supply; only a couple of generators. Obviously this means the Internet access may be non-existent, so I will update my blog on my return to Sihanoukville.

Stormy at the Seaside

Today has been a relaxing day, which has been quite nice after the depressing day yesterday. We got up early and got a very cosy 10 seater mini bus to Sihanoukville. It took about 5 hours and we were dropped off outside our hostel around half 1 in the afternoon.

We checked in to our hostel, which is basically a corridor of rooms round an uncovered pool on the middle, and dumped our stuff, relaxing on the bed for a bit.

Around 3pm we went out for a wander to arrange some trips and transport. We headed down to the beach and had a little paddle.  It wasn't the most picturesque beach we've seen but it was nice. We wandered along the front for a bit and then back to the road and back to the hostel. It was very hot and even the minimalist time outside made us too hot.

We went back to the hostel for a bit and then headed out to dinner. On the walk back to the hostel, flashes of lightening lit up the whole sky and as I write this huge crashes of thunder are going off. Hopefully it will clear by tomorrow.