So we decide to leave Vietnam! Stupid I know, but everything was booked up! We had our hearts set on Hoi An, which we found out we could get to no problem we just wouldn't be able to return for around 4 weeks because of all trains were booked up! Tet gets extremely busy. So on an impulse and not knowing anything about the country, I booked bus tickets to Cambodia.
We left on Tuesday at 7am and it actually only takes 6 hours to get there including all the faffing around at the border with visas. When we got to Phnom Penh we had no f*cking idea where we were apart from the fact we were in the capital of Cambodia. We desperately needed to find a Lonely Planet and fast!
The next day, after surviving the first evening thanks to a tuk tuk driver and a dodgy photocopied map, we attained a Lonely Planet from a Cambodia girl that had scarily good English. Me and Matt were trying to talk about the price by mumbling but she understood everything! DAMMIT!
We decided to have a day of sight seeing which included The Palace and the Silver Pagoda. Much to mine and Matt's dismay the Silver Pagaoda was in fact not covered in silver as advertised in the name. And to make it worse the floor, which was the only thing covered in silver, was covered up by a manky carpet. It was being saved from damage...who for?????
The best thing at The Palace were the monkeys! Yes a group of monkeys had set up camp on some scaffolding. Literally the whole family were swinging around the metal jungle.
The next day we caught a bus to Sihanoukville in the South of Cambodia on the coast. This town is party central. A lot of people from work were going down to Sihanoukville. The first day we were pretty chilled, found an awesome beach bar with a name which is a line from one of my favourite songs by John Lennon 'Above Us Only Sky'. We literally had the sea touching the decking I was sitting on with my glass of wine.
Because it was New Years Day there we hundreds of Cambodian beach seller-kids trying to flog you fireworks! It was insane, they would run up and down the beach holding them while they fired off into the sea! Oh and another thing about the sellers in Cambodia. MUCH easier to get rid of! If you don't want to buy you just say 'no thank you'. In Vietnam you have to pretty much run away from or shout abuse at the seller otherwise they will not leave you!
Friday - Injury number one. I trod on a spiky specimen in the sea which embedded many horrible splinters into my foot! Bad times.
Friday night we met some travellers from Australia. They were awesome! One girls name was actually Susie Gange - like as in marijuana - frickin crazy! It was one wicked night. Basically it rained all night and we were stuck in a bar on the beach. We drank until 3am, danced with random Vietnamesers and staggered back to the room, knowing full well we had to get on a boat to a tropical paradise in 4 and a half hours! This was not going to be pleasant!And I was right! My god, it was the worst hangover ever! Maybe not ever ever (the bottle of Bacardi hangover was pretty bad like 5 years ago) but definitely in my top ten hangovers. I threw up 6/7 times on the boat journey over then as I was moving to another part of the boat to save the poor tourists from having to see my insides sprayed onto the water, I fell through the wooden flooring cutting my leg and totally f*cking my thumb! Injury number 2 and 3! My thumbs still swollen now so I may go and get it x-rayed :S
The island named Koh Ta Kiev, I thought WAS AMAZING! Definitely worth the bad journey! We stayed in a bungalow right on the sea front which only had electricity 4 hours a day ha ha! We took a walk to the other side of the beach where we found another kind of resort. It was hidden through the jungle at the end of these crazy winding pathways! I felt like I was actually in lost!!
The place consisted of many tree houses and hammocks complete with a little bar, eating area and an awesome outdoor kitchen with oven. We found out that the place used no electricity but did manage to bake pizzas, bread and a pile of hash cookies in the oven! AMAZING! Unfortunately I was so hungover I didn't get to try these :(
We asked about staying there for the Sunday night and they said there was one room available! Result! This made us very excited! For the rest of the evening we walked along the beach to find the perfect sunset viewpoint. Here we swam in the sea until the sun totally disappeared. It was paradise! Kind of how I imagine the Thai islands were before developers got a hold of them. This was the point when lots of fishermen on tiny floats pushed themselves across the sea to catch fish. We think that they had a net attached below their float because they never stopped to actually fish.
The next day we awoke, bright and early, and decided to walk to the other side of the island. It only took 20 mins because thats how small Koh Ta Kiev is. The island is basically full of jungle with beach surrounding it and that's it! There are only 25 families that live on the island. They must live in hidden houses like proper jungle people! As we were walking down the final pathway toward the beach on the other side, I saw a fishing boat docked at the pier. I have pictures of this pier - it is insane. Me and Matt walked on it and it felt like it would give way at any time. I had to jump off because I got scared I would have two retarded thumbs!
Anyway we were walking down the pathway to the beach and one guy on the fishing boat just stopped! Mid-action. And stared and stared and wouldn't stop staring literally until we were out of sight. Matt was standing 2 metres in front of him and waved, but still the man was just gob smacked. I was just starting to get slightly scared when, as if a light bulb had turned on in his head, the guy ran to his boat and pulled out his mobile phone. Yes he started taking photos of us. This is when I thought 'ahhhh maybe he's never seen a white person before?'. We disappeared out of sight for a swim behind the rocks! Away from the camera! Later we moved our things to the jungle tree house for fun tree top times!
Our house was lush, I don't think the photos do it justice!! Right on the beach front, basically had our own private beach. A ladder up to our house, no electric, a double bed with mosquito net, wooden furniture and an amazing view! Was actual paradise. I really didn't want to leave! Although the toilets weren't exactly paradise material YUCK!
The last injury we suffered, happened to Matt. He was swimming in the beautiful clear waters when suddenly 'Ahhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhh!'. Oops Matt had hit a couple of sea anenomes/urchins. You know those reaaallllly spiky ones! We spent a while using tweezers to get the bloody spikes out of his legs and fingers.
The next day we headed back to Phnom Penh for one last night (went to the S-21 museum which was horrible!) then home to Saigon! Hopefully Facebook will let me update but I'll add a couple of photo's on here for you to all see and get jealous ha ha!
Love to you all xxxx
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