We woke up early as Ruby and I had booked a bus to go to Sihanoukville. Julia, Kevin and Kenny were flying to Bangkok that afternoon so our group was splitting. We had a nice breakfast together before our bus came. It had been awesome hanging out with the three lovelies and it was sad to say goodbye.
The bus journey to Sihanoukville wasn't too bad and we arrived about 1:30pm. We knew that there was a boat to the island that we wanted to go to at 2pm so we asked some motorbike taxis to take us straight to the ferry terminal, we pointed to it on the map and they nodded and we were off. Well they kind of messed us around as they took us to an agency and when we demanded go to the terminal they took us to a different jetty and told us that we had missed the boat . . . by that time we had! They asked for more money as they took us to more than one place . . . they did not get it. We were frustrated that we wouldn't get to the island that day but booked a ticket for the next day and decided to make the most of it. We spent the afternoon sitting at a bar by the beach, we even treated ourselves to a manicure from a lady passing by! The beach was pretty but the water was mucky so we decided to save ourselves for Koh Rong. We found a nice guesthouse close to the meeting point for the boat in the morning and grabbed a room. Ruby researched place for dinner called Nyam, on the menu they had the option for small plates or big plates, we decided to share 3 small plates . . . Turns out there small isn't so small after all and one of the 'small plates' was big enough for both of us! The food was delicious though. We then walked down to the beach and sat on some comfy chairs. We had so much conflicting opinions and advice when it comes to buying brackets and key rings etc. off children. After saying no to a lot of adults and children selling there goods we were then approached by a really cute boy called Ben. We chatted to him for a while, he was 7 years old and working to help his mum. He was so intelligent for his age, fluent in English and loved maths. He told us that he wanted to be a business man. He definitely won our hearts and after a 'best of three naughts and crosses game' he won of course and I bought a bracelet that he had made. A couple of local girls then came over, they were older, about 13 maybe and called themselves Kim 'Kardashian' and Tia 'Maria' they also had braclets but we told them that we had enough. They chatted to us for a while and made us laugh with there English and Scottish accents. They ended up making us friendship bracelets for free which was very sweet. By this time we had had a couple of cocktails and were up for a Cambodian style Halloween night out. We had a great night and found a fun beach party and danced the night away!! It was super fun and we were glad we had our spontaneous night in Sihanoukville.
The alarm was a bit hard the next morning but we made the bus to the real ferry terminal this time and boarded the boat about 8am. We were feeling a bit worse for ware after the night before but it was all worth it when we docked at Koh Rong. It was . . . stunning. The sea was so clear and the sand so fine and white. There is no vehicles on the island, just a path along the beach which had huts and bars dotted along between the palm trees. We stopped to take it all in and met Sylvia and David from Spain, they were on the same bus from Phnom Penh as us they also had same scam with tuk tuk and boat the day before. After a nice chat they showed us where they were staying as they said they got a good deal and that it was beautiful. They were right, Island Palace Bungalows are hidden away from the beach front in the jungle. We got a beautiful hut on stilts with two double beds inside for less than half the price for what most people were paying on the island!
We went on a boat trip that afternoon with Sylvia and David and four other girls. We started off with fishing, it was great fun. Somehow we didn't catch a single fish but Stephen the boat driver caught 6?! It was good fun though and next we sailed closer to the coast where we all jumped in to snorkel it was refreshing after the fishing and great fun to see all the fish. The final part of the boat trip was to go to Long Beach for sunset. This beach was pure paradise, just like Monkey beach where we were staying but longer and only one guesthouse. It was stunning an the sun set directly in front of us on the horizon of the sea. All in all a fantastic afternoon.
That night we arranged to have a bbq dinner with our new 'boat buddies' Holly and Sophie from the UK and Emma and Linn from Sweeden. It was a great meal and after we all went for a swim in the sea as Ruby and I had heard that there was amazing phosphorescence there. We paddled a bit but not much was happening so we ended up going all the way in to where the water was pitch black. It was so beautiful every time we moved and disturbed the water loads of phosphorescence would glow a fluorescent white it was really magical!
We had a great sleep that night and didn't set our alarms for the first time since Ruby had been in Asia. It was a well needed sleep! We had a lovely chilled day on the beach taking in the sun and sea as required. That evening we went for dinner with the girls and Sylvia and David. We all went for a swim again in the phosphorescence before heading to a party on the beach. We had good company but Ruby's quote the next day about most of the music we had been experiencing in Asia pretty much summed it up . . . 'Dance music ruining every song I like since forever'!
The next day we headed to a beach round the corner for another chilled day of sunning and seaing! That afternoon we said goodbye to Holly and Sophie who were going to make there way up Cambodia. Linn and Emma moved in with us for our last night to save a bit of money. They were great company and we spent the evening having dinner and a nice chill at one of the bars on the beach. The next morning we decided to be active after our couple of days of rest and hired a kayak for half a day. We soon found out as we were paddling out that it was pretty choppy . . . Ruby says that's an understatement (she was at the front getting the brunt of the waves!)! It took us about 1 hour against the waves to get to Pagoda Island. We were pretty worn out but the island was great! We pulled the kayak ashore and walked up the hill to explore the temple on the top. It was really beautiful and completely over grown, it's obviously been inhabited by the odd monk at points but was empty when we were there. We had a couple of masks with us and we went for a snorkel around the corral of the island, the sea was a lot clearer than when we went on the boat the other day and we spent hours staring at the fish and strange sea slugs and coral plants. The way back took only 20mins as the wind was behind us luckily! After a shower and lunch we caught the 4pm boat back to Sihanoukville. It was really hard to leave the island, we could have easily stayed in paradise forever, we had made such good friends and had an amazing time but we were also excited to move on to the next country . . . Vietnam!