Otres / Koh Rong

After two big cities, we continued our journey by train to the south, to the sea, more specifically to Otres. The train ride took 8 hours and first passed through the slums of Phnom Penh. Many people live there directly next to the tracks in simple huts or sleep under the open sky on simple materials. After this sad sight, our journey continued at a felt speed of 30km/h next to rice fields and misty hills and through many smaller villages. After a few hours, the train stopped at a small train station where we had the opportunity to get some food. And the journey continued. Eventually, we arrived in Sihanoukville, the next larger city from Otres, where a horde of tuk-tuk drivers greeted us. At a quite expensive price, we were then driven to our accommodation, a bungalow.

Otres itself doesn't have anything really worth seeing. Besides a beach with trash everywhere, there are only a few scattered accommodations and some restaurants. When we saw the beach, we took it upon ourselves to clean up the beach from all the plastic trash for an hour and a half.

The rest of the time, we spent resting and eating. Actually, we found an Italian restaurant that prepared real Italian specialties. This naturally made Flavia's cooking heart beat faster.

After two nights, we continued to Koh Rong, an island near Otres. Arriving at our guesthouse, we immediately went to the beach to relax. On the way, we also booked a boat tour for the following day. Besides snorkeling next to an island where only one family lives, visiting a village on Koh Rong, we also had the opportunity to go fishing, with someone catching the largest fish 'barracuda' ever caught on such a boat tour. This was then enjoyed for lunch alongside a few slightly smaller fish. Afterwards, we played in the water, admired the sunset, and then swam with thousands of plankton. An excursion with Adventure Adams that was definitely worth it. The remaining days, we spent with a small trip to the neighboring island Koh Rong Sanloem and one evening with a pub crawl.

After four full days on Koh Rong, we then returned to the mainland and continued to Kampot.