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Sabbatical 2025

January - July 2025
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A 182-day adventure by Antoine et Vanessa Read more
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  • TravelerSabbatical 2025
    11
    Day 64–65

    Phnom Penh

    April 4 in Cambodia ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C

    Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, was the place where we spent the least of our time.

    Phnom Penh was a stopover between Battambang and Kampot (when we had to reduce our days there due to sickness) and as a last stop on our way to Vietnam.

    With limited time in the end, we still tried to make the most out of it.

    During our first stop in Phnom Penh, we visited Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum is a memorial to the events of interrogation and detention at S-21 during the Khmer Rouge era. Before the Khmer Rouge regime took over, the place used to be a school. During the years of 1975 to 1979, it served as the central hub of a vast prison system throughout the country and was used throughout the period as a secret facility for the detention, interrogation, torture and extermination of those deemed “political enemies” of the regime. Hardly anyone survived the imprisonment, except for 12 people when the prison was liberated. Four of the survivors were children, who hid under a pile of clothes.
    The visit was very hard and devastating. It's hard to grasp how cruel humans can be. And how unbelievably lucky we can consider ourselves to live in a peaceful and safe place and that it'll hopefully stay that way 🤍

    Our last stop in Phnom Penh was about 2 weeks later on our way to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. We only had an afternoon, so after checking in we went to watch Kun Khmer - traditional kick boxing in Cambodia. It consists of four types of strikes: punches, kicks, elbows, and knee strikes.
    Our way to the stadium was unfortunately longer than our time at the tournament. We completely underestimated Phnom Penh's traffic and it took us over an hour to drive the 6 km distance. We were still able to experience 4 fights and it was interesting to watch the locals making bets on who will win 😆🥊

    The next day, it was time to say goodbye to Cambodia. We were excited for our next destination: Vietnam 🤩 We took the bus to Ho Chi Minh City, with the ride lasting for about 8 hours 🚍    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2025
    1
    Day 62–66

    Koh Rong Sanloem

    March 31 in Cambodia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C

    The second Island was Koh Rong Sanloem, located 4km south from Koh Rong 🏝️

    This island is (so far) much less touristic than its big brother Koh Rong and has beautiful white beaches, clear turquoise ocean waters, and a tropical jungle wilderness.
    We stayed on the most isolated part of the island located on the west side: Sunset Beach.
    We had a 40min walk/hike to reach our bungalow for the next 4 nights. The trail- partially in an open space, partially through the tropical forest, is well marked but at times also pretty rough.
    It was definitely worth the effort and the many liters of sweat 😅 as we landed on a little piece of paradise 😍

    Since there are only five options for accommodations on Sunset Beach, this area is extremely chilled and perfect for those who are looking for a slower pace of life. There is also no cellular reception or WIFI available, so we could do a small internet detox for a couple of days. Our hotel was right at the beach - it was mostly made out of bamboo and our little hut even had a tree in the bathroom. It was surrounded by nature, which was beautiful but also meant a lot of visitors 🕷️🐛

    We went diving on the second day, first time for Vanessa who really liked it and I did a refresher course 🐠 We had a great time with the dive instructor and some other divers from Norway.

    On our third day we were a bit unlucky with the weather as it was raining the whole afternoon, so we spent time reading and playing games.

    For the rest of our stay we enjoyed our days swimming, sunbathing, eating and drinking cocktails 🍹🤗 We also joined a free meditation and yoga class which our hotel Sunboo was offering 🧘

    Just before leaving, we had a nice chat with one of the hotel’s managers and unfortunately learnt that the beach was lately sold to a group of investors. This little paradise has another 3 years and then will have to move. This part of the island will change drastically 😕

    Our time here was beautiful and so relaxing - we could have easily stayed a few more nights ☀️⛱️    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2025
    11
    Day 58–62

    Koh Rong

    March 27 in Cambodia ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C

    For the last period of our Cambodian trip, we wanted to visit two islands. The first one was Koh Rong!
    After going from Kampot to Sihanoukville by bus, we took two ferries to reach our destination.

    Our accomodation was on Sok San Beach on the western side of the island - a wooden bungalow with hammocks and sea view 😎 The town was pretty small with a few hotels on the beach front, a handful of shops and some restaurants (one was the famous pizza place called Toto's). We went there twice because it was right next to us, it provided us with Wifi (we had neither service on that part of the island nor wifi in our hotel) and we were really craving pizza 🍕😆 Also, we made a new friend 😺

    The first day we just went snorkeling, relaxed on the beach and did the jungle walk. After some time, there was a house in the middle of the jungle with three kids listening to Cambodian music and dancing. Of course we joined and had a short dance battle with the oldest kid 🕺

    The next day we decided to join a boat tour that included snorkeling, local fishing and a plankton experience. That trip was a lot of fun and we enjoyed it a lot. The reef for snorkeling was quite nice, our fishing was pretty unsuccessful but at our beach stop we enjoyed some beers with locals and enjoyed the sunset at a funky but luxurious resort 🍻🌅
    On our way back, it was already dark and our last stop was jumping into the dark water with our snorkeling masks. Moving quickly in the water, we were able to experience the bioluminescent plankton glowing in the water 💙

    In order to see more of Koh Rong, we rented a scooter to go up north the next day. We wanted to visit Olivier's and Julie's Firefly Guesthouse, where they stayed while visiting Koh Rong on their Cambodian trip back then 🥰 After visiting the guesthouse, we enjoyed a breakfast in the little local village of Preaek Svay. Afterwards we went to the cute Lily's Guesthouse to rent a kayak. We explored the mangroves and another beach close by where only a few local kids where playing 🛶🤸‍♀️
    We ended our day trip at Lonely beach before heading back to our village to enjoy our last evening on Koh Rong Island 🏝️

    At last, how many pets can you spot around the drawer? 😆    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2025
    Day 53–58

    Kampot

    March 22 in Cambodia ⋅ ☁️ 34 °C

    Kampot is a charming riverside city in southern Cambodia, known for its French colonial architecture, laid-back atmosphere, beautiful surrounding nature, durian fruit and pepper plantations.

    We spent the first day exploring the city on our own, drinking a durian coffee (was not really our taste… 😅), doing some workout 😂 and enjoying the swimming pool at our hostel 😎

    The day after, we rented bicycles from our hostel and went up north to do a canoe tour on a portion of the Tuek Chhu River 🛶 It took us about 1,5 hours to complete the Green loop. The river is surrounded by lots of palm trees and few charming guesthouses are located along the way. The scenery is really nice, but the water is unfortunately extremely polluted with a lot of trash in some area so we did not want to extend our tour.
    In the evening, we went for a free walking tour, run by a Canadian guy living in Kampot for about 8 years now. He showed us a few remaining French architectural houses, explained how the city drastically changed over the past 20 years as there were no roads few years back, and shared interesting anecdotes and stories, among others the meaning of the spirit houses.

    Spirit houses are small shrines placed outside almost all homes and businesses to appease and honor spirits. They are often constructed as miniature roofed structures with figurines. These houses are believed to provide a home for spirits, ensuring their well-being and preventing them from causing harm. People often leave offerings of food, flowers, and incense at spirit houses to show respect and ensure the spirits' well-being 😃 The idea behind the offerings is to have friendly spirits gather to enjoy the food and drinks while helping to keep the more malicious spirits away. Some spirit houses are really cute 🥰

    After the tour, we had dinner at the food market in the city center. We had a Khmer curry and some Indian food and it was one of our best meals in Cambodia 😍

    Kampot is also worldwide famous for its high-quality pepper. The “champagne of peppers” can only grow on a specific area in Cambodia and following certain standards. The region's rich soil, together with the tropical climate and proximity to the sea, create optimal conditions for pepper cultivation.
    On our last day, we rented a scooter 🛵 and visited the farm “La Plantation”, owned by a French/Belgian couple. We learned how the pepper grows and the different ways to get either green, white, black or red peppercorns. Similar to the tea, the different pepper sorts/colors come from the same tree but are being harvested at different stages or are following different drying processes.
    After having a delicious lunch consisting of eggplant Lok Lak with green Kampot pepper (of course! 😅), we drove further south to the city Kep, famous this time for its crab 🦀
    We spent few hours on the beach and headed then towards the crab market to eat fried crabs and shrimps. First time we ate a whole crab, including the legs, the pincers and the head. It was a bit crispy 😂 but very good though!

    Side info: Cambodia’s national currency is the Cambodian Riel, however the US Dollar is also officially accepted and can be used everywhere, it is even possible to withdraw $ directly from ATMs. $1 = 4000 Riels.    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2025
    Day 49–53

    Battambang

    March 18 in Cambodia ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C

    Our next stop was Battambang, a smaller city in the western part of Cambodia. The first day we decided to walk around the city to explore the French colonial architecture and the street art by various Cambodian artists depicting Cambodian culture. We finished the day with cocktails at Miss Wong 🍹

    The next day we did a cycling tour with soksabike to explore Cambodia's countryside around Battambang. Our guide Sawith was a 20-year-young guy and he did a really good job showing us around. He works during the week and attends school on weekends.
    We stopped at various houses where Cambodians showed us how they produced their food - we learnt how to make rice paper, dried bananas, palm sugar drinks, rice wine and sticky rice (a popular dessert). It was a fun day cycling around and spending the day learning more about Cambodia 🚴‍♂️

    Our last day in Battambang started off with a cooking class. Before spending time in the outdoor kitchen, we bought all the ingredients at a local market. The dishes included famous local ones: yellow mango salad, fish amok (a fish curry steamed in banana leaves) and beef Lok Lak (beef with vegetables).
    Our chef spoke really good English and while eating, we learnt a lot about his past (he was a refugee in Thailand during the Khmer Rouge regime for 11 years) and about Cambodia's current political situation. It was definitely a fun and interesting cooking class 👩‍🍳

    In the evening we visited the Phare Ponleu Selpak circus (which translates to "The brightness of arts") 🎭🎨
    Today, Phare is a non-profit arts and circus school located in Battambang that empowers children, youth, and communities through artistic, educational and social support programs.
    The school started out as a project introduced by the French humanitarian aid worker Véronique Decrop in the 1980's. She went to the Thai refugee camps, where Cambodian children lived after fleeing the Khmer Rouge regime. Many were traumatized after experiencing the crimes committed by the Khmer Rouge or losing their families. Decrop's idea was to heal the kids through art. She offered drawing and painting classes in the refugee camps to help overcome their trauma. After the camps closed, Decrop and some of her students continued the therapeutic art work in Battambang, where they decided to open a drawing school. The project grew bigger and nowadays over 1000 students are empowered every year through the school's programmes such as performing, visual and applied arts as well as vocational training. We were amazed by how one person/ a small group of people can create something so meaningful and important ♥️ The show was great and we had a lot of fun watching the students perform 🎪🤹‍♀️

    After a lot of great experiences, our stay in Battambang unfortunately ended with food poisoning (probably from a street food sandwich). Hence, we had to extend our stay there and shorten our time in Phnom Penh 😷    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2025
    1
    Day 42–51

    Siem Reap

    March 9 in Cambodia ⋅ ⛅ 35 °C

    After a 36 hours long journey, we finally arrived at Poeuy’s school in a small village located 30min away from Siem Reap, where we initially planned to volunteer for 10 days by teaching English to some local children 🏫
    The level of Education at public schools in Cambodia is unfortunately pretty low since the Khmer Rouge period (end of the 70’s) as most of the educated people were killed, and children whose parents cannot afford private schools would come to that NGO school to attend English classes for free. The school is mainly run by volunteers, staying between a week and few months. We were a little surprised that so many volunteers were there as we arrived (12 including us), so we had to support the other volunteers the first two days and could have our own class only after. After one day of teaching, Vanessa unfortunately got sick badly so we had to leave the school suddenly to get some rest in a hotel in Siem Reap. We decided not to come back and left the school with mixed feelings. On the one hand, all students were sooo nice and most of them really keen to learn, on the other hand we were not totally inline with the way the school was running, especially considering how things were described online.

    Few days later, and Vanessa being almost 100% fit again, we visited the Apopo Center with its famous rats saving lives 🐀 Regional and internal conflicts from the 1960s to late 1998 left Cambodia as one of the most landmine affected countries in the world. Trained rats appeared to be extremely good at detecting the smell of explosives. They are much quicker than human beings, so they are used to help cleaning dangerous areas and make them safe again for the population. We learned how they are trained and what the detecting and cleaning processes consist of. These rats are also very cute! ☺️

    On another day, we went to Angkor Wat - the top destination in Cambodia. Built in the 12th century and rediscovered for the world in 1860, Angkor Wat may be the largest religious structure on Earth. It is only one of many temples in the Angkor Archeological Complex.
    The forgotten medieval metropolis used to be home to more than 1,000,000 people, and it’s considered to be the largest preindustrial city before the Khmers abandoned it.
    We woke up early to see the sunrise, which gets a 6/10 as it wasn’t as magical as we expected 😅
    That day we saw the main temples, enjoyed ancient temples, beautiful carvings and A LOT of stones. We booked a private tour guide to learn more about the history. The guy was nice but the minute we met him, he didn’t stop talking (for 10 hours) and we just could not understand him (due to his pace, or accent, or maybe both 😂) What a pity! It might have been nicer to read about the history ourselves and quietly enjoy the temple’s atmosphere 🛕

    Besides these two excursions, we enjoyed walking down the river, spending some time at the local markets, trying different street food, having a look at the famous Pub Street, and chilling by the swimming pool in our hostel 😎    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2025
    1
    121111
    Day 34–39

    Fulidhoo

    March 3 on the Maldives ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    The second island we visited and that we this time reached by speedboat 🚤 is called Fulidhoo and is part of another Maldivian Atoll: the Vaavu Atoll, located south from the capital Malé.
    In theory, Fulidhoo is supposed to be smaller than Omadhoo and have less local inhabitants.
    It is however more known by tourists, so the reality is a totally different one 😅

    There are two bikini beaches on each side of the island (west and east) that we enjoyed a lot, trying not to burn since we (finally!) got sun during the 4 days of our stay ☀️

    We took part in two boat excursions. The first one brought us to three different sports to see nurse sharks, turtles and a (rather intact) coral reef 🦈🐢🐠🪸 This tour was a great one! We had a nice time snorkeling around four of these big animals. We expected the spot to be more crowded than it actually was, so we were also positively surprised. At the second stop, we could enjoy seeing two turtles and being almost alone for some time. This was beautiful! The last stop at the coral reef was also nice, there were plenty of fish.

    The second tour was a whole day excursion to look for whale sharks. We knew this would mean a lot of boat driving with unknown chances of seeing the largest fish species in the world but somehow wanted to give it a try since we could not do it in Omadhoo due to the bad weather. This tour was unfortunately a waste of time and we were very disappointed. The crew did not seem motivated to work properly, so we ended up snorkeling for 15min during a 6 hours journey… We did not see any whale sharks but a manta ray. Luckily, after talking to the person in charge and describing how everything went, we did not have to pay for the tour. We did not expect that at all🤞

    Besides lots of sand and water during the day, we enjoyed beautiful sunsets every evening 🌅

    99% of the population of the Republic of Maldives follow the Islam religion. With the ongoing Ramadan, opening hours of the stores were constantly changing and some restaurants were simply closed,
    which made it sometimes a little difficult to get our milkshakes 😂 Most of the ones that were open surprisingly did not serve fish, even though it was part of their menu. Kind of ironic on an island but nobody explained to us the reason so we figured it is also linked to the Ramadan.

    In general, we were happy about coming and seeing a tiny part of the Maldives. Still we are not sure if we will come back again.

    Next stop: Cambodia 🇰🇭    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2025
    1
    Day 29–34

    Omadhoo

    February 26 on the Maldives ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    After landing in Malé, we were able to take the public ferry to get to our first local island: Omadhoo. Everything went super smoothly and after 4,5 hours, we arrived on the island - ready for some beach and snorkel time 🤿🏖️

    Omadhoo is a local island in the Alif Dhaal Atoll, southwest of Malé. We chose this island not only because there's a chance of seeing whale sharks around this area, but also that it's supposed to be a small island with only a handful of guesthouses and restaurants. It turned out to be true: the island had a few shops, about six restaurants/ cafés and a quite small bikini beach (the only area where tourists are allowed to wear swimsuits) 🏝️

    Unfortunately, we were super unlucky with the weather. Our time in Omadhoo was basically a lot of rain, flooded roads, thunderstorms and more storms 🌧️⚡ We tried to make the best of it, although it hurt a little, when the locals told us it has never rained like that in February 🥹We still went snorkeling, when there was only a bit of rain and squeezed in beach time when it stopped raining and the sun was out for an hour 😆

    Due to the weather we weren't able to do a boat tour so we did not make it to see whale sharks. Still, Omadhoo's house reef is amazing. We saw nurse and reef sharks, sting rays, so many schools of fish and nice corals 🪸🦈

    Omadhoo is a super cute and nice island. We liked it a lot and enjoyed discovering some of the underwater world 🥰    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2025
    1
    Day 25–27

    Dambulla & Sigiriya

    February 23 in Sri Lanka ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Our last stop was Dambulla, a small town that is 2,5 hours north of Kandy and 4,5 hours north-east of Negombo by TukTuk.

    We mainly went up here to see the famous cave temple and to visit one of Sri Lanka's most famous sights: Sigiriya ⛰️

    After arriving, we went to Dambulla's cave temple for the afternoon. When we arrived, we were first mainly focused on watching all the monkeys that were hanging out there. They are so cheeky and always trying to find food 🍌

    The temple consists of five caves. There are about 150 Buddha statues and some of the former Sri Lankan kings. The paintings in the cave were beautiful and the ground was just really nice. The caves date back to the 1st century BCE and are now part of the UNESCO - World heritage site 🪷

    The next day we got up quite early to visit Sigiriya. Well, actually to climb Pidurangala in order to have a nice view of Sigiriya 😊

    Sigiriya is an ancient rock fortress known for its massive column of rock that reaches nearly 200 meters high. The site dates back to the reign of King Kasyapa (477-495 AD), who chose this site as his new capital. The history is again a royal family affair - two half-brothers fighting over being king 👑

    It was a beautiful hike and the views were stunning.

    The next day, it was time to go back to Negombo to return our Tuktuk. After dropping our little vehicle, we took a last stroll along Negombo beach, watched the sunset and had dinner at a tiny family restaurant ⛱️

    Sri Lanka was beautiful and we already miss the chill vibes and the people's smiles 💛💚    Read more

  • TravelerSabbatical 2025
    1
    Day 22–25

    Kandy

    February 20 in Sri Lanka ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Kandy, one of the former capitals of Sri Lanka and the 2nd largest city was our next stop. We did not really know what to expect from this city as we heard good and bad opinions, but decided to stay for 3 nights.
    As we checked-in to our room we understood why our hostel is called “Mountain view Homestay”… the view was stunning 😍

    Kandy has an artificial lake right in the city center surrounded by lots of nature and one of the most famous temple in Sri Lanka: the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic.

    Approximately 70% of the Sri Lankan population is Buddhist, there are plenty of temples everywhere, but this one is particular as Buddha’s tooth relic is located there. It is a must visit for every Buddhist, at least once in a lifetime. For those who are wondering, the tooth itself is not visible. It is supposed to be under a big golden casket that is permanently guarded by monks.
    We visited the temple and could attend one of the morning ceremony, it was very beautiful and interesting, but also very crowded. There is also a museum next to the temple so we could learn more about the Buddhism religion.

    Kandy is nationally famous for the Esala Perahera festival, usually happening in July/August and lasting 10 days, and during which lots of traditional dances are being performed in the streets. The festival is held to worship Buddha’s holy tooth.
    Different cultural centers offer shows all around the year for tourists who are not coming during summer. We attended a one hour show where we could see traditional dances with colorful costumes and listen to local music. It was a lot of fun!

    Besides the temple, we went to central market to see all the fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, and spices sold locally.

    One evening, we found a great food court where only women are working (an initiative supported by the government). The food was delicious, it was possible to try a lot of different specialities and we could sit together with locals for some time and exchange a bit with them.

    After a short Tuktuk drive to one of the view points around the city on another day, we had a stop at the big Buddha temple, located on a small hill and could enjoy a beautiful sunset 🌅

    We really liked our stay in Kandy, the mix of tradition and culture, the nice atmosphere around the lake and the numerous local restaurants made our stay memorable 😊    Read more

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