Southern Cambodia and Island Life

Fishing for jellyfish on Ko Rong Samloem.

​We left Kampot to venture onwards to Sihanoukville, where we were to join the grandparents (my parents, Alan & Jeanette). But before meeting them we had 4 days to kill so we bought a ticket for the ferry to Ko Rong Samloem.

Still a bit jaded from our nightmarish experience leaving Ko Phagnan, we were more than a little dismayed by the tiny boat we wobbled on to. Especially when all the seats around us were fu and there were still thirty odd people still on the pier waiting to board.  It was quite a maneuver to step on ourselves, with the waves rocking the boat a good 4 feet up and down, never mind the handing over the precious parcels of Jess and Otto. We'd no sooner got sat down when we had to get off again.

Luckily, the captain deemed it overloaded enough to ask everyone to disembark and board the larger Catamaran.

The ride was rocky but being battle hardy now it was fine.

The island was an absolute paradise. Gin seas as Mikey liked to refer to them. White sands that would rival the Maldives greeted us. Although a little overpriced for Cambodia ($45 for a basic fan hut and on/off electricity) it was worth a visit for such a perfect beach.

With nothing to do but relax, build sandcastles and dodge jellyfish (the only imperfection in an otherwise ideal sea for the kids) we easily whiled away four days before heading back to the mainland to pick up the folks.

After some slight communication issues with the TukTuk driver taking us 10km in the wrong direction we eventually arrived late to find Alan and Jeanette sitting outside the tiny airport the last ones to be collected. Karma perhaps for all those years I was last to be collected from school youth clubs. Still, I did feel a little guilty.

No harm done and we spent a lovely three days in Otres 2 beach. They have a festivalesque market which we visited on Saturday night to eat and listen to some great live music. We also had a great day trip to three islands (Ko ta Kiev being the only one I remember the name of). We all saw a little too much sun but saw lots of sea life snorkeling off the back of the boat  and ate a sand encrusted BBQ lunch on another crystal clear sea beach.

We left Otres the following day to take a hair raising taxi to the border town of Ko Kong. A number of near misses from crazy overtaking maneuvers added much excitement whilst we looked for elephants amongst the jungle clad hills of the Cardamon National park. Ko Kong was nothing to write home about and so I won't! We crossed the border back into Thailand for our third visit to the island of Ko Kood, which is reportedly like Ko Samui
20years ago. We hope it lives up to expectations.

Being monsters with Grandma on Otres 2 beach, Sihanoukville