Water Festival week

Here commences our week off, time for a holiday and to explore more of Cambodia.

We had originally planned to visit Koh Rong Sanleom (the island) Battambang and Siem Reap, however, after travelling to the island we realised that this was too much to do in one week. The state of the roads in Cambodia means that everywhere takes twice as long to get anywhere (I swear I will never complain about English roads again). The roads were also as equally as busy because of the Water Festival, a national holiday which meant everybody was travelling. Especially to Phnom Penh, the capital where the main celebration takes place. So we spent our week, visiting the island and Siem Reap (stopping off in Sihanoukville and Phnom Penh).

Koh Rong Sanleom

Our travels started on Saturday with a 5 hour journey to sihounoukville where we caught the ferry across to Koh Rong Sanleom. This worked well for us as we wanted to visit sihounoukville however had run out of time and had been given bad reviews. After arriving there we were glad we were only there for a few hours, it was far too busy, with a lovely beach but not a relaxing atmosphere. We bought our ferry tickets, had some lunch and waited to catch our speed ferry to the island.

We boarded the speed ferry to the island which took around 1hr to get there. Upon arrival we were greeted with beautiful views and quiet beaches. A piece of heaven.

We arrived and took a swim the water was so warm, we stayed in the water until sunset. The sunset made the water ripples turn purple and orange. Incredibly beautiful.

The next day we awoke at sunrise to see the sunset on the beach, despite the clouds (which were blocking the sun) it was still peaceful and another sight to see. Along with a cooler walk along the beach.

We spent the rest of the day soaking up the sun. Despite being out here for 2 months now, it’s either been too hot or no time to sunbath, so it was nice to top up what little tan I have!

In the late afternoon we ventured out to get a massage. We decided on a Khmer massage- this is a massage with no oil, whilst it was interesting to experience it was a good massage!

The next day was another lazy day (what a shock). It was a lot cooler and cloudier as we had had a thunderstorm the previous night, with spectacular lightning.

We headed out for lunch and got a cocktail and of course the stereotypical photographs on the beach. Our cocktails then somehow turned into shots as one of the bartenders offered us free shots (why not?).

We decided to take a walk through the forest (barefoot- what a stupid decision) to lazy beach, the part of the island that has the sunset. However, yet again we had no sunset- the swim was nice though. We ended the night by dancing on the bar and going for a swim at midnight to see the bioluminescent plankton.

Tuesday arrived and it was our time to leave the island (here commences the 12 hour travelling). 2 hours on a boat and 7 hours (a journey to Phnom Penh which usually takes 5 hours). We were stuck in traffic in Phnom Penh for 2 hours due to the water festival traffic! We arrived at 11pm met our friends from school and returned back to the hostel at 2:30am. 7am we were up for our bus to Siem Reap- another 7hr journey. We met up with Antoine again and his friend Sok Meng.

Siam Reap

We arrived in Siam Reap around 4:30pm on Wednesday. We were that tired we went to find food and was asleep by 9.

Thursday arrived and we set off to the National Museum which explained all about the temples of Angkor particularly Angkor Wat. We then went to the riverside to join in the celebrations, it was very busy but amazing to be part of the culture and to soak it up- especially in a place that isn’t tourist heavy (we were literally the only ones).

During the day boats race along the river and during the night candles are lit and sent along the river.

So the main part of our trip to Siem Reap arrived. The trip to Angkor wat. We decided to go for sunrise so 4am arrived on Friday morning and our TukTuk driver arrived at 4:50. We arrived at just before sunrise, found a tour guide who told us some great information and good photo spots. A fantastic experience that I would recommend.

The photos of the star and our heads are at the central point of Angkor Wat. After our visit here we then visited Bayon. Another temple of Angkor which had faces carved into the stonework.

After visiting many other temples- meaning we had around a 12 hour walk- equating to 15km in total. One of the other memorable temples was where they filmed Tomb Raider. A beautiful temple with many parts in ruin and trees growing on top of the temples.

When we finished around 4:30pm our TukTuk driver called us crazy for doing the amount of temples we did. He said usually people do them in 2/3 days. I would have to agree with him. 15km in 30° heat is not fun!

On Saturday we had a much needed lie in. Around 2pm we decided to go to the silk farm. This was very interested and made you realise how much hard work goes into it. (Also I now know silk is made from worms cocoons).

In the evening we met up with our friend Livia and her friend. We watched some traditional Cambodian dancing, had street food (I had chicken fried rice) and walked around the night markets. This involved several beers and some very successful bartering.

We then ended up on ‘Pub Street’, we had a fantastic night out with lots of dancing. However we didn’t learn from the middle of the week and returned home at 3am ready for our bus back to school at 7:30am!

We are now ready for one last week of teaching!

Bye for now!