We took an early bus to Koh Kong. It took around 6 hours and passed through the most interesting scenery we have seen in Cambodia so far and it was still just ok. We walked into town from the bus station, which is only around 1km. Paddy's Guesthouse was full so we backtracked and managed to get a place just over the road that was $7 with cable tv and hot water. Really nice hotel. We decided to trek out to Oasis Resort to book a tour for Koh Kong island the next day. When we arrived there, however, we realised that they no longer booked tours from there and they sent us to Koh Kong Ecotours in the centre of town. We grabbed a local lunch at a place where they wrap the food inside lettuce leaves and dip it in peanut sauce. It was quite nice. I did some writing and the evening we went to a cafe where I got a huge portion of fish and chips. The next day we would visit the island.
We arrived at 8am and the tour was full of couples. Couple who had no intention of socialising and had clearly come out here in the hope that they could get some island paradise just for themselves. We took the boat and a few of the guys saw dolphins. Albeit from a distance. I saw nothing and was quite skeptical that anyone saw anything. It could even have been the sun rolling off the waves. We did see a flying fish though. It shot out from under the boat and skimmed along the surface of the sea. Really cool. We arrived at the island after around 2.5 hours and got onto the pristine beach. It is very pretty here. We decided to go snorkelling, but of course they didn't have any flippers large enough for me. They have some semi coral over near one end of the beach and I saw some lion fish, groupers etc and a huge cuttlefish. At first I thought it was a moving rock and then I realised it was a cuttlefish. It scared me a bit as it looked mean. Some of the others saw two cuttlefish mating and Peter said he saw it as well, but that it looked really mean. We floated over the reefs and it was the first time I enjoyed snorkelling. It made me excited for scuba diving again, which I still prefer. Cannelle cut her toes quite badly on some of the rocks and so we left the sea early. She had also got a burn from an internet cafe and the sea water was stinging her. The boat crew got her some antiseptic and plasters and so we decided to wander over to the lagoon. Its really pretty and quite peaceful so we just chilled out there. Chilling out seems to be the Cambodian pastime. They cooked us a barracuda dinner for the beach and we ate that with a huge plate of shrimps. People still weren't really chatting with each other. I was clandestinely feeding one of the dogs around, who seemed to like the fish more than the shrimp. We chilled out on the beach some more and then we left for the boat ride back. On the way back we went to visit the mangroves, which were my real reason for coming on this tour. We arrived and they sent us on a walkway through the mangrove forest. I had been in one before, but it was most people's first time. It was still really cool. We walked through peacefully and saw a kingfisher. They have a few viewing platforms and when you get to the other end they have a lot of picnic platforms as well. It seems a lot of Cambodians come here for picnics. They had a bridge that spanned the water and a tower you could climb to look out over the mangroves. It was not really high enough to see over them, but its still a very pretty place. We then took the boat back and got a stunning sunset over the sea on the way back into town. It was a really cool tour and highly recommended. We decided to sign up for the two day tour in the Cardamom Mountains. We got dinner at the French place with the American girl from the boat as well. They had some weird toilet signs with the man peeping over the top of the woman's cubicle. Quite funny, but clearly designed by a man.
We were up early again and joined our new trip mates. There were two Swiss people, a French woman and a Dutch guy. They were infinitely better companions than the trip before. We took a truck to the river and the French woman stopped to play with some parrots. Then we hiked to the waterfall. Its not really much of a jungle. If you haven't been in the jungle before then its a good transitional trip, but if you have you won't gain much. Cannelle was happy as she could test herself with the first time she was going to stay in the jungle. The trek was not very challenging and we saw a lot of mushrooms. We were never going to see any animals here as this trail is used every day and the animals will know it. You still need to go somewhere which sees human activity maybe once a week to see anything. There were a few leeches, but not many. The Dutch guy had a few little holes in his socks and the leeches bit him through them, but couldn't get through them. We arrived at the waterfall after 3 hours of slowish walking. If you like trekking this tour is not for you. Thank God we had a cooler group of companions so the company was really good and worth it. We arrived at the campsite and went for a swim in the waterfall. Then it started to rain and boy did it rain. It rained and rained. The afternoon was a washout, so we just hung around the campsite and chatted. The Dutch guy agreed with me that travellers in Latin America are much more interesting than those in Asia. Eventually the rain ceased, but now the leeches would be out in force. We had a barbecue in the middle of the jungle and went to sleep. There was a white spider on my bag that the guide did not know if it was poisonous or not. He flicked it off and we slept in military hammocks. I got a decent night's sleep, but some of the others struggled as it was their first time in hammocks and they did not know that you have to sleep diagonally to sleep ok in one.
In the morning we had breakfast and the Swiss guy was sick. Someone said he had drunk the water from the stream, but regardless he was vomiting everywhere and quite weak. They got him some wood drink that was a bit minging but did the trick and he led us back. He was vomiting a lot so it was slow going. The trip had effectively been destroyed by weather and illness, but we still had a good time. I don't think any of the extra hiking would have enabled us to see anything else more interesting. Its more the experience than the scenery here. There were loads of leeches on the way back and I was even bitten for the first time. I had somehow failed to tuck in a little bit of my trousers at the back and one of them had found me. Impressive. They can target weakness. Maybe Spurs should employ one to find weaknesses in opposing defences. David got a moto taxi back to town and we took a boat up the river to a waterfall. Its a nice river and the waterfall was ok, but I think I had started to zone out in Cambodia. I was just keen to leave the place as I wasn't feeling it. The main ATM was dead in town and the other one charged me a whopping $4 to access my money. Fuckers. We were going back to Thailand and the land of the visa charges as well. Lovely. We booked our bus for Siam Reap the next day and went for dinner with Peter for the last time so far. I was so bored with Cambodia and the 'highlights' had proven so disappointing that I said to Cannelle we should just do Angkor and go. I skipped Battambang (that Peter had said was ok) and Preah Vihear Vasat (which I think I would have liked but it was expensive to get there and I am not sure I would have loved it that much).
We got the bus early to Phnomh Penh. We ate, went online and then went to a French supermarket to pick up a picnic for the bus, as we had 3 hours in town waiting for our connection. We then took the bus to Siam Reap and I finally finished Black Book. Its a good book, but its nowhere near the level of My Name is Red. When we arrived in Siam Reap we went to leave the bus terminal and realised that they had locked us in. What the fuck. They had literally locked the tourists in so that we had to negotiate with tuk tuk drivers. Bastards. I searched for the lock and pushed the gate open. Noone challenged me. Possibly because they are all tiny here. I broke out of their cage and went walking. That let in a flood of cheaper tuk tuk drivers and I have no idea what happened after we left, but I imagine a West Side story fight between the insiders and outsiders. We decided to walk into town. Some tuk tuk drivers told us it was 8km and then offered us a ride for $1. If they offered $1 I knew it could not be far. It was about 2km. We got hassled mercilessly by tuk tuk drivers. They would not take no for an answer, so we were forced to be rude in the end. My God they are dicks here. Some of them are super rude. We decided to check into the first cheap hotel and find a place with bikes in the morning. They wanted $15 for an aircon room, even after we had specified the $8 fan room. Arseholes. So we made them give us a receipt to prevent any problems and it was only when we did that they confirmed they had given us the wrong key. Cheeky. I want out of this country. The woman even said 'shit' when I asked for a receipt. I have been continuing my policy of paying in advance to avoid any problems.
In the morning we went looking for a hotel and then didn't do much. We found a bus to Poipet for $3.75 with capital travel. Don't bother with the stupid $10 ticket to Bangkok, as they drop you off at the border and you are picked up by another bus anyway, so you may as well go independently. We had lunch in a cheap Japanese place. We walked the 3km to the ticket office of Angkor, only to be informed that you can't buy tickets in advance. Shit. What a waste of time. So we went back and I did a lot of writing. We had problems getting a bicycle as I am too tall, but we eventually found one that was ok. We took it around 9pm for 24 hours. The tuk tuk drivers were super annoying. They were asking about 500 questions after you say no. Fuck me. We watched Wild Things and went to sleep as we would be up early the next day.
We took the bikes at 5am and set off for Angkor. We picked up the tickets on the way and the queue moves quickly so it took about 10 minutes. We were going to do the whole place in a day. We got to Angkor Wat and waited for the sunrise. Lots of people, but not as many as I was expecting. A little tip. When the light breaks, go and visit the temple. We went round all of Angkor while people waited for the sun to appear and then got the same photo as them on the way out. Angkor is nice, but overrated as I don't think its the nicest of the temples. We decided to cycle out to the West Baray which was a mistake and a super waste of time. We ended up going around 8km, meeting some local kid who seemed to only be bombarding us with phrases he had learnt. He said he had to stop his studies because he had no money, yet he couldn't say what his studies were. He said he wanted to realise his dreams, but he didn't know what his dreams were. It seemed like a way just to get some money from tourists. Bit shitty really. We cycled into the sandy area and realised we weren't going to find the lake so we went back. Next up was Angkor Thom. The gate is really pretty and we were well and truly with the stream of package tourists swarming around the ruins. We went up Bayon, which is nice but was full of busloads of tourists. Took away from the atmosphere. We went around and visited all the rest of the sites here, with Cannelle being denied entry to one because her shorts weren't long enough. Be careful to dress appropriately though this was the only temple where they said anything. We decided to get lunch. A girl showed us an expensive menu. We said it was expensive so she gave us a $1.50 discount off every dish. That easy. The food was super shit though. We paid half price for everything in Angkor as they were willing to drop to supermarket prices instantly. If they ask for $1 just offer 2000 Reals and so on etc. Very easy. They just want to fleece the rich tourists. The food was really shit by the way. Just take a packed lunch. We saw some pretty temples such as Thommamom (possibly the prettiest) and some others like Ta Keo as we did the grand circuit. We went to Ta Prohm which is the famed jungle temple. Its really atmospheric and very pretty with the trees cutting through the rock. Cannelle was tired now and we had a fight as I thought she was abandoning me to go back, but she cycled back. I decided that I was going to complete the loop. Damn internet cut out so I have to write this part again. I went to all the temples on the Grand Circuit, including Preah Khan. You get pretty tired and templed out by the end, but I could have made it to Banteay Srei as well and would have done if I hadn't wasted my time going to the West Maray. I was finished around 3.15pm so its quite comfortable. There seemed to be a few other people who took bikes and completed Angkor in one day. I would recommend it unless you are a serious temple buff. The best were the main ones and I really liked Thommamom as well. It was a nice and pretty day. Not amazing. Not even our highlight of Cambodia, but still worth the trip. Tikal is still my favourite ruin and probably always will be. I can say Koh Kong was probably our highlight of Cambodia. I came back and we went and grabbed some pizza and ice cream before I watched Spurs draw 0-0 with QPR. That game was effectively a microcosm of Cambodia. It had a few moments, but mainly it was quite dull and lacked much to keep your attention.
The next morning we took the bus to the border and had to wait almost 3 hours to get across. We chatted with a Polish couple and a Quebecois guy. Once we crossed the border I had problems with the ATM so Cannelle drew with her card. We got a tuk tuk for 50 baht (they wanted 80) to the train station as we didn't have much time to get the 1.55pm train. It cost 96 baht for two in third class to Bangkok. So instead of paying $10 and being herded like cattle, we paid only $6.25 all included and had a much more pleasant ride in by train. We were back to Thailand. Thank God. Cambodia was nice, but there is almost nothing to do and so it is by far my least favourite of the countries in South East Asia so far.
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