Here comes the Sun

Here comes the sun, the first randomly played song by Spotify on Christmas morning. And yes: my first Christmas without winter, without cold hands, without Christmas songs and above all without you, but with sunshine. And with a lot of sunshine and 32 degrees in the shade. A Christmas that I would never call Christmas myself, because you were simply missing for that. Of course, it was a different new Christmas, which made me even more aware of how much I love Christmas at home. And I'm not talking about the presents, but about the atmosphere and being together and everything. Nevertheless, a lot has happened before, and I will try to summarize the past two weeks before I tell you about my Christmas.

In the last entry, I wrote about being on the island of Koh Rong Samloem. I liked it so much there that I stayed there for 6 nights. I spent a lot of time there with an Italian (Ilaria), a Dutch (Corine), and another German (Nicolle). We really used the days on the island to relax. Accordingly, we spent the whole day at the beach, eating bananas and enjoying the turquoise blue water. But at some point, I felt the need to leave this island and move on. And so, Nicolle and I decided to go to the nearest bigger island, Koh Rong, for another 3 days, simply because it was only a 20-minute boat ride away. But that was really more of a party island, which was kind of stressful in the long run and actually destroyed the island feeling. But we didn't let ourselves get stressed and hiked to Long Beach (2 hours in the blazing sun - that wasn't our best idea). The Long Beach has the stereotypically white sand and I have never seen such crystal clear water in my life. It was very peaceful there, so we hung up the hammock and just let our legs dangle. We didn't want to walk back in the dark after sunset, and there was even a scooter driver who said two people are okay. So the three of us sat on the scooter and the whole time I wished we had walked. It was incredibly dangerous because the whole way was gravel and he was driving at 60 or more over the mountains. Of course, I was sitting in the back, so I kept bouncing up and down through the potholes and really panicked, hoping not to fall off the scooter. This situation was so absurd and at the same time so dangerous that Nicolle and I were probably half in shock and could only laugh because it was so unreal. And yet, it was another experience that I can laugh about and I'm glad to have survived it. Every day I learn again that it is simply a different culture. And although it was theoretically dangerous, I enjoy making new experiences every day and being able to look beyond this European perspective a little bit.

After we had enough of island hopping, we went back to the mainland. However, the last few days were always a bit stormy, which made the boat tour feel like a roller coaster ride. Because only speed boats go to the islands and the waves were very high, we flew over the water and were almost constantly in free fall. I had to hold back from screaming out loud (because it tickled so much in my stomach), so I sat there and grinned stupidly, as if someone was tickling me. It was already a nice ride. Arriving on the mainland, I had to say goodbye to Nicolle, as I wanted to travel to Kampot next and she to the north of Cambodia. So we both took the bus and I spent the next 4 days in Kampot with another German (Renée). I have met so many Germans here in Cambodia that I hardly needed my English in the past few weeks, because there are Germans everywhere. I was with Renée in the national park (we drove up the mountains with the scooter - that was so much fun) and the next day by the river in Kampot. There you had a direct view of the mountains. It was unbelievably peaceful and had a very calming effect on me, so we spent the whole day there.

The next day I traveled alone to Kep, where I stayed for three days and was actually completely on my own, as there wasn't much going on. Everything was very empty and sleepy, but it gave me time to just be alone, which sometimes feels really good. So I lay on the beach and even went on a hike in the national park the next day. That was another adventure in itself, which I don't want to elaborate on. To make a long story short: I was almost attacked by three huge dogs (which resulted in me making my very rare panic scream again: this time it was a very high screech - crazy what comes out of you when you don't have full control of your body), I got so lost that instead of 2 hours it took me 5 hours, and then the bathroom door in the hostel got jammed and I was locked in there. After knocking and calling for help for ages, they had to break open the door. All in all, it was a crazy but eventful day, and I couldn't believe that all of this really happened in one day. I was really put to the test there, but I survived it all and had a lot to write in my travel diary.

And now to my Christmas:

I spent Christmas itself in Kampot because I originally wanted to meet Ilaria (the Italian from the island) there. But she cancelled at very short notice, so I had already booked the bus. So off to Kampot I went, preparing to spend Christmas all alone. In the morning, I walked around Kampot and sat down in a café. But in the afternoon, I met another group of Germans again. And so, we organized a small Christmas dinner together. Instead of potato salad, we simply had fried noodles, and instead of a Christmas tree, we had a small palm tree next to our table. Afterwards, we wandered through the streets together and let the evening fade away late into the night. I was really looking forward to the next day, as I wanted to meet Nicolle (the German from the island) in Kratie. So I had a long bus ride ahead of me, but at least I could see her again before we were in completely different countries. And so, on the 25th, I had another little Christmas together with her. This Christmas may not have been like at home, and yes, I missed all of you very much (and I still do), but at the same time, it was still nice and above all just an ordinary day. To me, Christmas means being at home, eating a lot together with everyone, trying to sing along to the Christmas oratorio, lighting the candles on the Christmas tree, and above all having all of you around me.

So, that was a lot of text and I will try to write more regularly in the future, so that these texts don't always turn out to be so long. But now you are all up to date and I wish you a wonderful Merry Christmas. And definitely listen to 'Here comes the sun', because I'm sending you a bit of sunshine with it to Germany. Because I have plenty of it here and can't get enough. So if the sun shines in the next few days: That's me singing 'Here comes the sun'!

Thank you all for your lovely Christmas greetings! I was so happy about them and it made me feel a little closer to all of you. So now enjoy the remaining days together, and if we don't hear from each other before, enjoy the last days of the year 2018 and have a good start into the new year. I think of all of you and send you virtual hugs! :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdavOrsLjmY (Here comes the sun)