Week 27

Posted December 24, 2018 by camandkatie

Day 183

With a plan to head to Sihanoukville (a 10-15 hour bus ride away) and an inkling that there may be less than reliable cell service on the island we were headed to thereafter, we decided it would be a good idea to both get local sim cards. But first, breakfast, and we already knew that the Missing Sock Cafe had some amazing smelling waffles. The nose doesn’t lie, the waffles were as good as advertised by our olfactory glands. As was the Chicken Lok Lak. (Lok Lak is a local delicacy that Missing Sock did better than anywhere else we tried.) Really, if you are in Siem Reap, you can’t go wrong doing your laundry and curing your hunger pains at the Missing Sock Laundry Cafe.

After breakfast and getting Data Cards we spent most of the day wandering in Siem Reap and finding Wats. We walked pretty far away from the main touristy area and saw a little bit of life in Siem Reap.

On the walk home we saw the hard work that goes into getting food carts from A to B and how anatomically correct some of the statues are. Then we decided to get pizza, which will make even the most consternated of traveler much happier. We also perused the snacks at the local convenience stores. Some of the candy allowed for mechanical rock paper scissors.

Day 184

Today the wildlife and wilderness came to meet us. Just before admiring the bicycle botanical garden at the foot of our stairs, we encountered a praying mantis. Then while wandering further, we were met with lions, tigers, and bears, of the stuffed variety, being hawked via moped, cleverly, right outside the local primary school.

There is no discounting how great the local fare is, with most of it for less than $4 a plate.

Day 185

Today was our last day to hangout in Siem Reap before heading to Sihanoukville. So, we maximized it with gorging ourselves on yummy food on Pub Street.

As mentioned, the bus ride from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville is 10-15 hours, so, we took the night bus. The night bus leaves around 7 or 8 at night, and arrives, half a day later across the country in Sihanoukville. For the Harry Potter fans out there, this had to be what J.K. Rowling based the Knight Bus on in the Prisoner of Azkaban book. On this bus, seats were replaced with two levels of beds (no seatbelts to be found), and the potholes in the somewhat paved roads made Harry’s adventures seem positively muggle like.

Day 186

Somewhat the worse for wear (‘sleep’ on the night bus is less than peaceful), we arrived in Sihanoukville, took a tuk tuk to the beach, and then waded through knee-deep water (holding our backpacks with clothes and sundry items aloft) we jump on a boat and head to the island that our Airbnb is on.

We were really just looking to get to the island, but, lo and behold, we ended up on a boat where everyone else was on a pleasure tour for snorkeling at one island and then lunch on the island we were trying to go ‘check in’ at. We have learned the value of taking what the universe offers in our travels. So, after a quick wardrobe change under towels, we were in swim suits and ready to dive into some snorkeling. The island we stopped to snorkel at was gorgeous, as was the world beneath the waves. We saw all the coral and fish. See the pictures from below. Just kidding… At this point we were wishing we had a waterproof camera.

After snorkeling, the boat took us to Koh Ta Kiev. We walked ten yards passed the beach and met up with our host at his open air bungalow cafe and had lunch, fried rice and kompot chicken. Kompot peppers are similar to peppercorns and are deeelicious as seasoning. We also picked out some books to read from the loaner library (a stack of weathered books varying widely in language and subject).

Our bellies satisfied, we walked along the beach to watch sunset. It is soothing after all of our travels to see how natural this island remains in the absence of hordes of humans trampling over every square inch. Crabs large and small ran everywhere and with the water so clear, we could see schools of little fish swimming in the shallows, and then, with barely anyone else in sight, the sun and sky put on one of the most gorgeous light-show sunsets we have seen in our lives with the rippling waves and neighboring islands as foreground. Pictures just cant do it justice, but here are a few with which we will forever attempt to remember the feeling.

We walked back down the beach to our host’s cafe for dinner. More amazing food. Not complex recipes or gourmet ingredients. Just basic fare done the local way, beef lok lak and ginger chicken. We also tried Klang, the local beer. It is definitely a pilsner, similar in flavor to Chang, Leo, Budweiser, and Miller.

After dinner we headed to our bungalow to sleep. The bungalow, 20 yards or so back from the beach, was just about as bare bones as a dwelling can be. A 15’x15′ platform of planks three feet off the ground with a thatch roof and walls left little separation from nature. When we walked in there was one of the biggest spiders we had ever seen on the wall. Given the size and in keeping with the Harry Potter theme, we named it Aragog. The only furniture was a bed with a mosquito net and a hammock and small table out front. There was a bare lightbulb hanging above the bed, but it ran on electricity from the cafe’s generator which was promptly shut off at 10 p.m. each night. There were no outlets to plug-in our phones so we made use of the charging blocks that we brought with and decided to use our phones sparingly over the next few days. When the generator turned off, we just lay in peaceful silence listening to the waves lapping at the shore.

Day 187

The morning’s sounds were less peaceful. We started the day bright and early when awoken by the chattering of mice running around below the bungalow. We figured it’s their island, we are just visiting, and it still beats an alarm clock. We headed to the cafe for a lovely breakfast of iced coffee and fruit and started on an adventure to “explore” the island. A map at the cafe showed a bunch of other beaches around the edges of the island and we were eager to see them.

After walking to one end of the beach that ran in front of our bungalow and the cafe, where sand gave way to rocks and trees, we encountered a path with signs on trees directing us to Ten103. A few steps into the forest along the well-worn path we began seeing tree houses with names like the Owl’s Nest and the Look Out. It turns out each beach has its own bar/cafe and accommodations for rent, each with its own style. Ten103, our nearest neighbor, was mostly treehouses that were a bit more built up than our simple little shack. The bar there was up a staircase and on a deck nestled into the trees overlooking a cove separated from our beach by a large natural rock jetty. We had a beer at this bar, played cards, and swam in the cove, then headed off toward the next beach.

The path from Ten103 to Kactus, the next beach, was a bit more of a hike to say the least. Instead of a well-worn path, this was more like a treacherous 30 minute slog through the jungle. Early on Cam broke a sandal in a fight with a tree root and stepped on a pile of angry ants. After surgery to repair the sandal and a little Tiger Balm on the ant bites, we ventured onward, a little more careful of our foot placement. Just when we were losing hope of ever finding our way out of the jungle, more light began to emerge through the canopy. We walked down a slope onto a long beautiful beach with no one on it but us. It was gorgeous and well worth the walk for that slice of paradise alone. The beach was at least a football field long and as we walked towards Kactus on the other end of the beach we saw only one other person, which was a man reading in a hammock. It was surreal to emerge from the jungle-y center of the island onto a huge deserted beach.

Kactus, a self-described Eco Village, was the most built up and finished yet. There was a trash bag attached to a tree between the beach and the ‘buildings’ with a sign saying that you could get free beer for picking up any trash on the beach. The bar/cafe had a restaurant sized kitchen they used to offer dinner to all of their guests and any like us who stumbled in from one of the other beaches. We were quite hungry by this point so we would have happily eaten anything, but, the food far surpassed our expectations. There were two options for dinner, the veggie lasagna and the grilled swordfish. Katie and I decided to get one of each and share. Both were outstanding.

By this time it was dark so when we heard that Kactus offered a free boat ride back to the beach where we were staying, we were over the moon with joy. That would not have been a fun walk back through the jungle in the dark. As it happens, we were under the full moon on our boat ride. Bouncing over the moonlit waves on the longboat as it traced the shores of the island was gorgeous.

Day 188

Today we walked the other way around the island trying to get to Elephant Rock. We landed at Crusoe’s for lunch. This place was less constructed than our place, offering tents for rent to their guests. Lunch was similarly no frills, fried fish sandwiches, but they were awesome. As we were asking for directions to Elephant Rock, it started sprinkling, so we gave up on that plan and headed back to our temporary home.

Day 189

Our last day at KTK we enjoyed another coffee with our host and said our goodbyes. We watched different long boats come and go while we waited for our boat. We played on the swings over the water one last time and tried to soak in everything from the island. We were sad to leave this island paradise but a little ready to get back to internet.

The boat that originally dropped us off does the tours with snorkeling and lunch on the island everyday so we planned to catch a ride back with him to the mainland.

We still weren’t aware of everything that was offered with the boat ride and shortly after leaving our island the boat was heading back into the coast towards our island. We were confused at first until elephant rock came into sight. It is obvious why they call it that because it really looks like an elephant. We had both showered to prepare for a long journey back to Siem Reap. Cam was hesitant at first about getting back in the water and getting salty but eventually changed into his swimsuit on the boat and went for the big jump off the elephant.

The splash from Cam’s jump was so big that it caused the skies to open up with rain…

It rained the rest of the ride back to the mainland. It was pretty intense for us but when we tried to read the boat drivers faces they seemed to think it was chill. We got dropped off about 20 yards from the beach and waded onto the sand. We were already drenched from the rain so it didn’t make us any wetter. We watched the rain and enjoyed connecting back to internet.

We needed to figure out how we were getting back to Siem Reap because we hadn’t bought a round trip bus ticket. After a lot of googling and searching different companies we finally found one that had tickets available.