The long way to paradise: Koh Rong Samloem

The next bus ride should take us to Sihanoukville. This place is located directly on the coast in southern Cambodia. After being scammed again by bus drivers and tuk-tuk drivers who didn't take us to the actual final stop, we drove with Swiss Ali and the tuk-tuk to a travel agency where we had to buy tickets for the ferry to the islands.

At the pier, we waited as usual until the boat finally departed with a delay. With the new ferry company, you can get to Koh Rong Samloem very quickly (about 20 minutes), but it's more expensive with 22$ for a round trip compared to the slow boat.

On Koh Rong Samloem, we found white beaches and turquoise blue water, cheesy swings, as well as a bunch of bars, restaurants, and hotels. We had booked the first night in the Freedom Bungalows, which were located at the very end of the bay. So we reluctantly decided not to jump into the water right away, but to walk there first. When we arrived, we were unfortunately told after a welcome drink that the bungalows were overbooked and we should not get accommodation there... initially we were offered to rebook to another hotel and get a $5 discount. At first, we thought: cool, upgraded and cheaper, let's do it! 5 minutes later, that suddenly wasn't possible either, but we were supposed to be invited to dinner. That was fine with us and we happily browsed through the menu and wanted, of course in true Swabian style, to order the most expensive item on the menu so that it would be worth it... when the waiter wanted to take our order, we were told that there was only baguette with tuna or ham available - what a great invitation to dinner. The "supply boat", which delivers the food to the island, had not yet arrived today. Since we didn't feel like having baguette, we preferred to wait. Eventually, the boat arrived, but it didn't bring everything. Finally, we ordered a curry and a sandwich. When we were supposed to be picked up by the boat to the other hotel (by now it was pitch dark) and it came to paying, it turned out that we were not invited to the full dinner, but only received a $10 discount... slowly getting annoyed, we got on the boat, which maneuvered us through the bay in darkness and without lights. When we arrived at the new hotel, we were supposed to decide whether we wanted a room or a bungalow and of course, we opted for the bungalow (not knowing that this was more expensive than our nice original bungalow and that the owner also wanted this extra charge from us). Unfortunately, this accommodation was not at all nice, had dirty water, a cold shower, and unfriendly staff. So not a good starting point for Carsten's birthday the next day...

We tried to make the best of it and spent the evening with cocktails and walks on the beach until we could toast to Carsten's birthday at midnight.

Unfortunately, the next morning didn't turn out much better. We walked back to the hotel where we originally booked because they had promised us a bungalow for the next day. When we arrived there, it was back and forth until it finally turned out that nothing was available again. Unfortunately, we didn't realize that at this time it was Chinese New Year and therefore everything was populated by Chinese people and fully booked. So we looked for another accommodation ourselves and found one on the other side of the island. It was a bit more expensive but okay...

The hotel wanted to organize a boat to pick up our stuff at the old hotel and then take us to the other side. This boat was quite big and had only one man on board who was supposed to steer it. Since it was very windy today, the waves were correspondingly high and Tina got scared. Not so much for herself, but for our valuable things that we had with us. So she preferred to jump into the water and swim back to the shore. After we had been driven back and forth for ages, the anchor thrown out at one end, the boat repositioned and then the steering and the engine operated at the other end, Carsten and the young Cambodian could finally land. We picked up our stuff from the other hotel, where the receptionist was already angry because we checked out late, and decided not to take this boat across the open sea but to walk through the jungle to the other side instead.

The hike with all our luggage was quite exhausting in the midday heat and also quite steep. Monkeys were climbing in the trees above us and the many mosquitoes were happy that someone came by again. When we arrived on the other side, Carsten's birthday could finally begin. We were warmly welcomed with a cold beer by the Austrian staff and soon could move into our bungalow.

This side of the island was even more beautiful than the other. Here, the sand was not quite as white, but sometimes you were almost alone on the beach, everyone was very friendly, and you could simply relax in the pleasantly warm sea. That's how we imagined the birthday!

One highlight of the evening was a kayaking tour into the open sea after dark. Far away from all the lights on the island, it was dark enough to witness a special natural spectacle: bioluminescent plankton! It starts to glow when it moves, so we jumped into the water equipped with diving masks and snorkels and could swim in all the beautiful sparkle. It was shimmering everywhere as if the stars had fallen into the sea! A truly unique experience! Unfortunately, the spectacle could not be captured by the camera. After that, we continued to the southern end of the bay, where we could observe glowing fireflies in the jungle. So, above us, the stars were twinkling, below us, the plankton was shimmering, and in front of us, the fireflies were sparkling. What may sound terribly kitschy here was simply incredibly beautiful :)

Back on land, we were able to let the birthday come to a relaxing end with delicious food and a few cocktails.

The next day, we wanted to be a bit more active again and rented snorkeling gear and a stand-up paddleboard. There were cool snorkeling spots with beautiful underwater worlds and many colorful fish to admire at both ends of the bay. Carsten then tried to catch a few small waves with the surfboard. The rest of the day consisted of sunbathing and reading, which we finally had time for.

In the evening, we met Kay from Brandenburg in a neighboring bungalow resort, who was spending his vacation there as a volunteer. He has been coming here for a few years now and builds bungalows, furniture, and other things from flotsam or works at the bar. The evening became longer and longer, one cocktail followed by several beers, some of which were on the house, and many funny conversations.

Fortunately, we were able to extend our stay in our hotel for one more night, but had to move to another bungalow.

After a short night, we had to get up early because we had to catch the ferry as there were no more rooms available on the island today. However, the ferry was not scheduled to leave until 5:00 p.m., and we didn't know if we would catch a bus to our next destination - during Chinese New Year, the clocks and schedules tick a bit differently. At a breakfast in yesterday's bar, Kay suddenly came by and said that he had spoken to the boss and that he could organize a tent for us if we wanted to stay one more night. The deal was that we could set up the tent on the beach of the resort if we gave the boss's wife a little physiotherapeutic treatment. Said and done! After all, this is one of our easiest exercises, and with that, we could even sleep for free on the beach in the front row under the stars :)

The rest of the day, we spent with physiotherapeutic tips and exercises for the hotel employees and could relax in the sun on the beach and enjoy ourselves. Of course, the evening became longer than expected...

In the morning, we quickly packed our things and set off somewhat delayed for our jungle trek back to the other side, because only there did our ferry dock. After a forced march as fast as we could, we reached the ferry at 8:45 a.m. just in time. Half asleep, we still noticed the other stops on the neighboring island Koh Rong, which didn't seem as beautiful to us as Koh Rong Samloem - so we did everything right ;)

When we arrived at the port of Sihanoukville, we could finally have breakfast and then take a bus directly to Kampot.