Whilst on the beach in Sihanoukville Lizette and I bumped into a Danish girl called Julie that we'd met the previous week in another town; we also got talking to an English girl, Sara, in our hostel and the four of us decided to go to Kong Rong island on the south coast of Cambodia together and share a room. We travelled on a two hour ferry and arrived on the main strip of bars, guesthouses and restaurants and searched for a room. Now I know where the term 'once bitten, twice shy' comes from...it must have been invented by a backpacker tentatively searching for an infestation-free room after being malled by a carnivorous tribe of mutated bed bugs. Once we had found a four person room (by 'four person' I mean a dark sauna of a room the size of a small double with three beds squeezed in and a mat on the slither of remaining floor space as the forth 'bed' - the things backpackers will endure to save a few dollars!) we interviewed the other guests to check that the rooms didn't have bed bugs. All clear. Now let me set the scene - all there is to do on Koh Rong is drink, sunbathe and...well that's about it. So that's what we did for five days and it was GREAT! However there were more than just bed bugs bites to contend with - of course there were mosquitoes like most places in Asia but the island was also a haven for nasty little sand flies and we'd been told to smother ourselves in coconut oil to keep them away which, alongside lashings of mosquito repellant, had us smelling like the love child of a Thai curry and a freshly fertilised field.
The playground in paradise for drunken backpackers.
Koh Rong is hot hot hot. I don't mean your regular kind of heat, I mean no air con, barely any fans and no escape from the sweaty humidity that stalks you day and night. Sara, the other English girl, and I became regulars at the numerous bars on the main strip of the island, barely got any sleep and spent our days jumping in and out of the sea to escape the intense heat of the sun. On night number three there was an open air beach party that could only be accessed by walking through a jungle however it started to rain an hour after we arrived. Cue hundreds of party people desperately retreating under the spattering of palm trees in an attempt to keep themselves dry. Have you seen how tall palm trees are? Not happening. Everyone realised it was futile at the same time and ran back to the dance floor letting out a unanimous cheer as we all succumbed to getting soaked. As a newly developed island there were daily power cuts and the nightly lightening and rain storms, due to it being the start of the rainy season, were incredible to watch but caused the WiFi on the whole island to cut out for days at a time. It's a great feeling being completely off the grid, so to speak, because the Internet, whilst being a fantastic travelling aid, removes the fun of the unknown and can glue backpackers to their iPhone screens in their masses so that a hostel can quickly resemble a zombie apocalypse.
For me, nothing beats dancing on a Cambodian beach until sunrise with like minded travellers from all around the world.
The playground in paradise for drunken backpackers.
I've been collecting girls as I travel through Cambodia!
This Thai man cooks insanely good food in three pans by himself for up to twenty people.
Koh Rong is hot hot hot. I don't mean your regular kind of heat, I mean no air con, barely any fans and no escape from the sweaty humidity that stalks you day and night. Sara, the other English girl, and I became regulars at the numerous bars on the main strip of the island, barely got any sleep and spent our days jumping in and out of the sea to escape the intense heat of the sun. On night number three there was an open air beach party that could only be accessed by walking through a jungle however it started to rain an hour after we arrived. Cue hundreds of party people desperately retreating under the spattering of palm trees in an attempt to keep themselves dry. Have you seen how tall palm trees are? Not happening. Everyone realised it was futile at the same time and ran back to the dance floor letting out a unanimous cheer as we all succumbed to getting soaked. As a newly developed island there were daily power cuts and the nightly lightening and rain storms, due to it being the start of the rainy season, were incredible to watch but caused the WiFi on the whole island to cut out for days at a time. It's a great feeling being completely off the grid, so to speak, because the Internet, whilst being a fantastic travelling aid, removes the fun of the unknown and can glue backpackers to their iPhone screens in their masses so that a hostel can quickly resemble a zombie apocalypse.
For me, nothing beats dancing on a Cambodian beach until sunrise with like minded travellers from all around the world.
Don't ask about my tache, I'm very sensitive about it.
Out.of.this.world. burnt orange sunrise as viewed from Sky Bar where we would often see in the morning.
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