As I write this blog post I’m sitting at my Mum’s house in the UK and it’s freezing. I’m wearing fingerless gloves to warm up my hands just enough so that I can type and my hands don’t seize up. I’m dreaming of my whirlwind trip to Cambodia and in particular, a beautiful island called Koh Rong Samloem, just off the coast of Sihanoukville.
Slice of paradise…
The island has the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in Asia. Aside from the Caribbean, I have never seen sand so white and water so turquoise.
The sand was so fine it makes a squeaking sound beneath your feet, and the ocean is so warm it’s like swimming in a bathtub.
The night before our boat trip to the island, Turner (Around the World in 80 Jobs) and I had actually been debating whether to do the Nap Bar booze cruise, and whether our ageing bodies could handle being force-fed alcohol by a bunch of drunk English/Australian 20-year olds. The guy selling the cruise put in a lot of effort trying to persuade us, but no matter how much he talked about beer bongs and shots, he was just talking to the wrong crowd. I’ve been the party girl, but these days my body is just failing me and the ethanol Mekong whisky doesn’t help. So we decided against it, and instead we went on the ‘Party Boat‘, which is actually more-boat-less-party.
It costs $20 but I managed to get the gentleman selling the tour to give me a discount, so in the end it was $18.
Koh Rong Party Boat
We were collected from our guesthouse at 9am and driven down to the jetty in a tuk tuk. The party boat is pretty big and therefore anchors away from the shore, so we had to get in a smaller boat to transport us to it.
If you suffer from motion sickness like I do then I suggest you take something before you go because the boat tends to sway a lot and you don’t want to spend the entire time with your head hanging over the side. I took a couple of Traveleze pastilles in the morning, and even then I still felt a bit queazy.
The Sihanoukville party boat has three floors and a cool area on the top deck for sunbathing, with padded sunbeds and floor cushions to lie on. It takes a couple of hours to get to the island, so in the meantime we spent our time laying in the sun, which turned out to be a bad idea since we turned a shade of lobster red.
The top deck
Mr @80worldjobs hard at work
We stopped for a short break for swimming and snorkeling, then tucked into a buffet lunch that included various Asian dishes, fruit and some pretty tasty onion rings.
Then we arrived in paradise…Koh Rong Samloem Cambodia.
Cliche jumping photo
Cheers!
Koh Rong Samloem is Koh Rong’s smaller sister, and is quieter and more secluded. There’s a beach bar with a pool table and cool swings hanging from the trees, and a restaurant next door with free games. I would have happily stayed a few nights and I could have stayed there even longer had it been equipped with every blogger’s lifeline: Wi-Fi.
You can rent your own bungalow on the beach, but the dorm rooms are also cool and cost only $5 a night. You get your own double bed with a mosquito net, and each bed is separated with a curtain so you have some privacy.
On the boat ride back to the mainland we got to see this beautiful sunset…and it’s days like this that make me happy to be location independent.
Wow…
How did you not include pictures of our dear friend Boris in this post? I have some of him in top form:)
I didn’t get a picture of him! I’ll have to get it from you