After Phnom Penh, we headed to the south of Cambodia. Hearing how everyone was raving that the south is just paradise, we couldn’t wait to dip our toes in its waters. Taking a bus from Phnom Penh, we arrived in Kampot, a little city on the Preaek Tuek Chhu River in southern Cambodia. Since we felt a little fancy this time around, my friend and I booked a private room at Ganesha Kampot Eco Guesthouse. Arriving in the guesthouse, we couldn't stop gushing. The environment consciously built guesthouse was in the middle of the Kampot jungle, a little outside of the city. It has a natural pool, a full bar, and incredibly delicious food options. Everything was built and managed with so much love, care and detail that it screamed: "Welcome home!"
After some well-deserved TLC - lounging around, sipping on a pomegranate margarita, and eating delicious shrimp with rice - we decided to take a tour around Kampot. Joined by a sweet solo traveler, Lea from Germany, we headed first to the salt fields. Unfortunately, we missed the harvesting time, so there was not much to see except empty fields as far as the eye can reach. So without wasting more time we went on to check out some caves. Arriving at our destination, we were immediately swarmed by young boys, who acted as local guides at the caves. We paid less than a dollar entrance fee and walked on to enter the natural phenomenon. Now, I don't do well in closed-off underground places, so I decided to walk up the rock instead of down into it. Heading up another boy approached me. He made all kinds of noises, trying to get my attention. It took me a second, but I realized soon enough that he couldn't speak. With a self-confidence of a rockstar, he directed me to a platform close to where I was standing. I gladly followed him and ended up seeing a magnificent view of the adjacent fields to the rock. Merci, little man! After meeting with the girls at the bottom of the rock again, we moved on to a pepper farm called 'La Plantation'. Here we learned not only that Cambodia is the fourth biggest pepper producer, but also became familiar with different kinds of pepper and how they are being processed. At the end of the tour, we had the opportunity to buy some of the freshly harvested goods to properly spice up our lives. I decided also to give a go on the pepper rum that was surprisingly delicious. We finished our day in Kep by ordering a whole crab for only $8. They prepared it with a delicious peanut sauce and sautéed vegetables. Eating any kind of shellfish is always a messy business. You end up constantly licking your fingers throughout the process, which was a welcomed excuse to savor this particular exquisite dish.
For our last day in Kampot, we took a canoe ride on the Preaek Tuek Chhu River. Joined by another charming traveler, Ricco from Switzerland, we fantastically failed in navigating, ending up going right and left, but managed to have a lot of fun thanks to the gorgeous views surrounding us and our unbreakable spirits despite the bickering. Ricco kept us going by entertaining us with stories like "Once me and my best buddies went for a weekend trip to Ibiza and managed to spend 2000 Euros each. We were so mad at each other that we didn't talk for three weeks...". I guess you had to be there to understand why it was so funny at that moment. Slapstick!
From Kampot, it's a 3-4 hours ride to Sihanoukville, a coastal city in Cambodia, located at the tip of an elevated peninsula in the country's southwest at the Gulf of Thailand. From here we planned on taking a speedboat to a secluded beach called Coconut Beach on Koh Rong Island. Beaches on this island are only reachable by boat (or inland by bikes) because there are no proper roads on the island. They are kept raw and unpaved. We were so excited to go back to the roots: no running water, electricity only for a couple of hours a day, and no WiFi. Arrived at the pier in Sihanoukville we were told that there will be a slight delay due to the rough sea. So we waited. And then some. Finally, we were directed to one of the boats. While walking up we made sure that we would be dropped off at the right destination, but no one seems to be able to give us an exact answer. Seeing other passengers on the boat with the same tickets, we just thought "Here goes nothing!"
Welcome to the ride from hell!
I don't get seasick or suffer motion sickness, thank goodness. Yet this speedboat was one of a kind, to put it very nicely. For over 40 minutes we were like salt in a salt shaker. Shaking up and down, back and forth, while the ocean whiplashed its waves against the windows. To keep my mind occupied I decided to count the people puking and calculate the total percentage (true story!). A good 20-30% barfing individuals. Oh, what a lovely scene! My friend Viki fixated her look straight ahead and tried her best to keep the content of her stomach inside. We held hands to cope with the scene that was straight out of a horror movie. Once we docked to land again, we took our jelly knees and barely made it out of the boat. We were still shaking when we discovered that they dropped us out at the wrong beach. Seriously? Seriously. And more news: There was no other boat taking on the sea anymore. And bikes were nowhere to be seen. So basically we were stuck at the wrong beach with nowhere else to go.
We were beyond tired, hungry, and exhausted, but what are you going to do except the best of the situation. Remember the pepper rum I bought in Kampot? Can't deny that this little friend gave me a much-needed little perspective within our misery. We booked a room right next to the pier, and I indulged in delicious Turkish pide, which weirdly was available there. I learned that night that there is quite a Turkish ex-pat community on the islands. The next morning we checked if mother nature would have calmed down, but nada. So we canceled our secluded beach dreams and got comfortable at the local Bongs Hostel, where we had a private room and free breakfast. Since there were no ATMs on the island and cash was spare the free breakfast was a real money saver.
"Sometimes you're not given what you want because something better is planned for you instead."
Have a little faith, they say. There is a reason for everything. And oh boy, did the universe deliver. Everything turned out to be so beautiful. Once we discovered the incredible beaches close to the main strip, we were hooked. My absolute favorite was 4K Beach. I called it 'the Maldives for backpackers'. White sand, palm trees trying to reach and touch the ocean, clear turquoise water, almost no other people around. If heaven was a place on earth, this would be my piece of heaven.
On another day we trekked through the jungle to reach a beach called 'Long Beach', a gorgeous, secluded white sand strip, where we were spoiled with a sublime sunset.
Our days on the island consisted of hopping between the beaches, drinking countless fresh smoothies from a local vendor, and chilling with fellow travelers in front of our hostel.
Speaking of fellow travelers. One night, while lying in bed, I witnessed a drunken conversation going on next door at 3am in the night. “Jeremy, what’s your plan for tomorrow?” “Well, waking up would be a good start.” Even though so simple (and funny), this was poignant. To all beautiful mornings and the blessing of waking up, cheers!