The beauty of ESL schools
and the way their schedules sometimes works is when your class ends for the
session you might have a day or two before the next session begins. A day or
two can be the equivalent of an entire week because of the every other day
rule. My Tuesday/Thursday class ended in early August 2012 and I suddenly
found myself with a free week. What was a travelholic to do with a week of
free time in August? I knew that if I didn't take full advantage of it I
would regret it for the rest of my life and I'm not exaggerating. I had several
choices available to me for only a week - options where I didn't have to spend too much
money or time: Da Lat, Hoi An, Mui Ne (all in Vietnam) and Cambodia. I knew I was going
to go to Da Lat and Hoi An later in the year and I had already been to Mui Ne
twice before and I'm absolutely in love with Cambodia so the choice was
easy (even if I did spend more time travelling than sitting on a beach.)
Give me a beach as one of
my options and I will, without a doubt, always choose that. Granted, it can’t
be a beach in Delaware versus a night in Rome or something like that.
Luckily, most beaches in Southeast Asia can hold its own in that kind of a
fight. A coworker of mine suggested seeing the islands off the coast of
Cambodia. Koh Rong is the second largest of Cambodia’s islands. It’s in the
Gulf of Thailand, right off the coast of Sihanoukville, which was named after
former Cambodian King Norodom Sihanouk. If it sounds familiar to you history
buffs out there it is because Sihanouville is the site of the last official
battle of the US Army during the Vietnam War. Divers can see the wreckage of
two U.S. battleships in the area. Or so says Wikipedia.
Getting to Koh Rong was not
easy. I bought a ticket for a bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh, missed that bus in
the morning (which I seem to have a knack for doing) and had to wait for
another bus. I chatted with this cray cray Australian guy who only told
stories about fights he got into (which seemed to be every single time he was
in public), and endured a 6 hour bus trip from Saigon to Phnom Penh in a seat
that was overheating because I was at the back of the bus. When I arrived in
Phomn Penh I was surprised to see a familiar face in the crowd. You might remember Naren, the fabulous tour guide I had the
first two times when I was in Cambodia. Well, turns out he was there picking up
another visitor, but when he saw me he had one of his guys help the other
tourist to his tuk tuk and he helped me with my problem. My problem was that I
had another 6-8 hour journey to Sihanoukville ahead of me and my bus was
leaving at 4, which meant I would arrive extremely late in a strange town and
have to find my bungalow all by myself. Naren took me to the bus depot "customer
service department" and got my ticket changed for a bus leaving within the
hour. What was I to do with that hour? Central Market bebe!
Central Market or Psah Thom Thmey is literally (yes, I understand the meaning
of the word) one of my favorite places in this entire world. For example, I've
been several times and I have never had a cockroach run over my toes. (I'm
looking at you Ben Thanh Market!) Also...and I've got to face the music...I'm a
shopaholic and this place is where I get my fix. I left my bags with Naren and
headed to the market for a small shopping spree. Small because I had only
walked with my backpack for a week. ::sigh:: What happened to that girl? I wish
I could go back to being her. A few sundresses later I headed back to get my
stuff, profusely thank Naren by giving him a gift for his wife and baby, and
hop on the bus. One uneventful bus ride later, unless you count the snoring
tourist wearing the neon pink tank top sleeping next to me, I arrived in
Sihanoukville. Thank God for earplugs.
(10 hours later!)
I don't understand how bus companies can advertise 4 and 5
hour trips and good, well paved roads in Cambodia when they're clearly not. I
mean, I get that they lie about it and people believe it, but it just makes me
mad! I arrived in Sihanoukville around midnight. The neon wearing guys next to
me were very unsure about what to do. I told them, based on what I'd heard,
heading towards the main part of town, which was within walking distance, would
give them quite a few options. They asked if I wanted to walk with them to find
a place, but I tossed my hair over my shoulders, smiled a mysterious smile,
said "no, thanks I've got a place" and walked towards the motorbike
taxis. I haggled with the guy for a $3 ride to Otres Beach (which I still
maintain was a ripoff) and hopped on, my one backpack and all. As we sped out
of the parking I was feeling really cool. You're probably thinking "way to
go!", but you know me and deep down you know that feeling didn't last
forever. I asked my driver to stop at a grocery store so I could grab a few
things and as I was getting off the bike my strap got caught and I
was yanked back towards the exhaust pipe. You'd think after a year in SE Asia
that I'd know NOT to get off on that side of the bike. Don't know what I was
thinking, but my Saigon kiss was a painful reminder of my
stupidity and arrogance and immediately took away that feeling of being awesome.
That bike ride is one of those things I'll remember until the day I die. Otres
Beach is outside the city limits of Sihanoukville - maybe, maybe not, but there
aren't any street lights, houses or even paved roads at times the closer you get to it. It wouldn't be a
problem during the day if you could see where you were going, but in the dead
of the night on the back of a stranger's motorcycle it's definitely one for my
history books. It was one of the few times I was ever really concerned about my
decisions in life and I only got through it by telling myself that I was too
old and too fat to be a sex slave. It's a terrible thought especially since
it's a real fear for many young girls living in
SE Asia. I prayed during that bike ride. I told God that I'd never put
myself in a position like that again if I survived. I'm sure he was listening,
but at the same time I'm sure I was being my typical American self thinking
that the world is out to get me. Is that an American thing? Maybe it's just a
me thing. Either way, the thought that there's always someone out to get you
can be potentially life saving and drive you crazy at the same time.
I'm grateful that nothing happened. In fact, when we arrived my driver parked on the
side of the road and walked all the way up the road stopping at all the hostels
trying to figure out which one was mine. Hard to see signs in the dark you
know. He found it for me and waited until I registered, got a key and was
assured that I was safe there. I'm thankful that I have such great luck in
meeting such lovely people while travelling.
Based on the advice of some colleagues at ILA I stayed at a guesthouse on
Otres Beach called Don't Tell Mama, which I found to be
such an apt name after my bike ride. Unfortunately, I'm kind of telling mama by
writing this blog post. (Ha, I laughed even if you didn't.) Otres Beach is
quiet and further out of town so it's not plagued by the seedy feeling that
Sihanoukville suffers from. Even though it was well past midnight the
guesthouse across the street called Mushroom Point was open so I decided to
grab dinner. A glass of wine, really good food, the sound of waves crashing
against the shore and a really friendly and relaxed atmosphere finally put me
in vacation mode.
I got a bungalow room with the use of shared bathroom for $9/night as
opposed to a bungalow with a private bathroom for $18/night. Since I was the
only guest there I got such a great deal because my shared bathroom
was essentially a private bathroom. Peter and Ulla, the owners of the
bungalow, kept me company while I ate breakfast the next morning and shared
suggestions on how to get to Koh Rong. They sent me to speak to a woman at a
nearby guesthouse who had the schedule for the boat to Koh Rong. I bought a
ticket from her, but had to head into town to get a bus to the boat. I asked
her about booking a room, but she said that it was unnecessary. I quote
"you'll be able to find a room." I spent a few hours of the
morning on the beach and then packed up and headed back into town.
I got dropped off at the travel agency that was transporting us to the island
and I'm sorry, but I've completely forgotten the name. I know it's associated
with the bungalows I stayed at on Koh Rong, but I have the feeling it's the
same company no matter where you go. Anyhoo, you're in luck because there is a Wiki
Travel entry on getting to Koh Rong. I honestly don't remember how long the
boat ride was, but I vaguely remember it being more than an hour long. This boat ride is another
one of those times when I wished I wasn't travelling alone. It was a pretty
boring boat ride and I was afraid to use my iPod because it would be just my
luck that it would fall overboard. The only saving grace was the clearly
hungover girl who was clearly suffering. I hate when people make fun of other
people who get hurt or suffer in any way, but when you bring the suffering on yourself
(drinking excessively the night before travelling???) you get no sympathy from me.
She turned out to be a really lovely girl, we became travel friends and I only felt
slightly bad for feeling superior to her, but more on that later.
The boat finally arrived and a couple of guys on the dock started hauling
people and luggage off the boat. The guy who was clearly in charge started
yelling and asking people where they were staying so he and his guys could get
the luggage sorted. When he got to me I told him I hadn't booked a room because
I was told I could get one very easily. Guess what he told me. "Sorry, all
rooms booked." I, naturally, was flabbergasted. I said, "they
can't all be booked, can they?" He said, "yes." I said,
"how do you know?" He said, "I know" and walked off. How was I
supposed to argue with that? I began to quickly formulate a plan which included
sleeping on the beach. Suffice to say I wasn't happy with that plan, but hey,
backpacking around does have it downsides. (Note: I chatted with a guy on the boat ride back who went for a late night swim the night before I got there and was robbed because he left his things on the beach. So glad I didn't have to sleep out there!) Thankfully, and I it say with the
utmost sincerity, two girls who were standing nearby overheard the conversation
and said "We have two beds in our bungalow and you can have the second one
if you want." Needless to say I was flabbergasted for the second time in
the span of five minutes. I still believe in the goodness of humans even though
I also believe the world is fundamentally broken, but I hadn't experienced the
good side of the world in such an obvious way in a long time. They were two
really cool, really sweet, really British, youngsters travelling around SE
Asia. I even met up with them when they arrived in Saigon a few weeks later. I think some of the
best people I've ever met were met during my time abroad. We spent two days
together (that's all the time I had after all my travel time) and we had just
the bestest time together ever! We walked around the island, or as much of it
as we could, were discouraged from walking over the mountains to the other side
of the island because of the rain, took pictures with water buffalo (okay,
okay, OF water buffalo), swam in clear, blue waters and ate lots of seafood. We
stayed at Cocos Resort and it's kind of the party place on the island so I was
grateful that our bungalow was all the way up the hill. Other than the pulse
pounding noise...ahem, music...emanating from the bar at night, Koh Rong is
picturesque and quaint and everything I had ever dreamed of in an island, but I
think all of that is changing or may have already. Due to it's growing
popularity, more and more commercial activity is taking place on the island. The
girl I mentioned previously, the hungover one, had dinner with us and told us
how she'd visited the island about a year earlier and how it had changed
drastically since then. She said at least ten new sets of bungalows had appeared since
she was last there. I can only imagine the changes wrought since I've been
there.
I spent two lovely days on Koh Rong and would head back in a heartbeat. I
highly recommend it and here are some photographic reasons why.
(Note: Not all of the pictures are mine because my memory card was corrupted
during the trip so I've borrowed a bunch I found online. They're all marked as
borrowed.) If you do visit and you don't find it to your liking, remember that
it's gone through two years worth of changes and I'm sure not all of it is for the
good.
