James Graham

We awoke slowly, wanting to savor every last second in our amazing rooms at Mira Montbra. We eventually pulled ourselves out of our comfy bed and went to the main building for breakfast, where we loaded up on all our favorites: bacon, eggs, pancakes, and fruit. Then we returned to our room to pack. We're now pretty streamlined at packing. We still can't do it in five minutes (not the way we spread out), but in a pinch, we could probably do everything in ten minutes. We said our goodbyes to the room and the view and got the hotel taxi to the port. When we arrived, 10 minutes early, the travel agents quickly checked our info and stuck location stickers on our chests, like children, and then told us to get aboard as they were waiting for us. The boat only had two other couples aboard, and it took off as soon as we got on, 7 minutes early.

I enjoyed the passage outside on the upper deck, where I had to wear a life jacket (they're really big on their life jackets here), and watched the distant clouds depositing their rain while the sun shone over us. We were picked up by a comfy minivan at the mainland port, which we had all to ourselves. Just after the port, however, we had to get out for the agents to check our info again and fill out a border information card for us. While there, they said we could pay for our Cambodia visa there, but it was $20 more than the $32 we'd read it would be. We had also read that Cambodian officers were quite corrupt and would try to charge you more, but we didn't think it was going to be $20 more, so we declined the offer and decided to risk it.

We got back into our van and were joined by a Mancunian couple and three British lads who were trying to pretend they weren't posh. After 2 hours of driving, we were transferred to a taxi pickup truck which took us right to the border, where we were passed to another agent. At the border, we started by getting a stamp for leaving Thailand and then we had to walk through no man's land, which was full of freight lorries, to the Cambodian border guards. There, another agent took our passports and charged us $40 for our visa (still a $10 saving) and gave them to the guards to process. Ten minutes later, we had our visas and were ushered into Cambodia, where we sat and ate the stir-fried rice they gave us and tried not to melt while waiting for the other travelers to join us.

The other people were all heading on to Koh Rong island, but we were just heading to Koh Kong, the next city from the border. They'd been informed there were no ATMs on the island and most of the country still operates in cash, so they spent 15 minutes trying to convince the travel agent to take them to an ATM so they could get cash, which the agent refused to do and was getting quite annoyed at them. Cambodia operates on its local currency, the riel, but many places accept US dollars, and if an ATM detects you have a foreign card, it will only dispense dollars. It's quite confusing. In the end, one of the lads got taken on a motorbike to a distant ATM and then the bus met him there.

We were dropped off 30 minutes later and checked into our room for the night. I'd read a blog about the city and concluded there wasn't much to do or see in Koh Kong but thought we'd stay one night, with a later bus so we'd have enough time to see the sights.

We first got ourselves sorted, me with a SIM card and then to the ATM for cash, dollars only. Then we went for a wander down to the waterfront. From the smell, it's a town centered around fishing and there were lots of women on the side of the road selling big bowls of fish, while children ran around waving and staring at us as we walked past.

We made it a few blocks before stopping to have a cold drink before walking on to a park. This park had been mentioned as a great scenic spot in the blog; however, I'm not sure it's something I would have bothered mentioning. After sitting there for a while and being hassled to buy a bag of indistinguishable ocean items from a homeless man, we decided to head back to our rooms. They're attached to a restaurant where we decided to have dinner too. There was a drunk metalhead guy with tattoos trying to keep a small bird he'd found alive and kept asking for salad and sugar water. He tried to negotiate taking the tissue box away as a birdhouse. The owner was having none of it.

So far, my impression of Cambodia is that it reminds me of Nepal but Southeast Asia style, with its decent but not quite accurate city planning and infrastructure. It is fairly littered and the sewers are kind of open, but it's not anywhere as much so as in India. We were also getting a lot more stares but in a much more friendly, curious way, like in the corner shop where a young lady wanted to know where we were from, how long we were staying, and what our favorite dish was. I'm very curious to explore more and see the rest of the sights of the country. Czytaj więcej