Angkor Wat, Beaches and Party

Hey folks!

As I said in my last post, I made my way to Cambodia after spending three weeks in Thailand. I arrived at my hostel late in the evening and realized that there were actually no more than two others staying there. These two were George and Diandra from the UK. Once I had settled down in my dorm, I went to the city center with them to have dinner and a look at the night market which was really good. One thing that was super interesting to watch was their way to make ice-cream. They put three flavours together, flatten the mixture out and roll it up then. And it was quite delicious 😋 After a good bit of sleep, it was time to explore the city which is not that big so it didn’t take too much time. It’s not a bad place though, with some gardens and the big market. Unfortunately, it started raining quite hard in the afternoon and that didn’t change until the evening. The problem was that I had ordered some tickets for the Cambodian circus with George and Diandra and we had to go there by tuktuk. Luckily, the driver was prepared and had some effective covers on the vehicle to protect us from the rain. The circus was absolutely worth seeing. The arena was sold out – I think every visitor was a tourist – and the artists showed various typical Cambodian acts which were really impressive. After the show, we were all given the opportunity to take some photos with them. Of course I took that chance 😉 The next day, I was in town with Diandra first before George and Tom, a new hostel guest, joined us. We went to a rice wine tasting together which was absolutely great. We were told a lot about the production of this Asian specialty and got to taste so many wines with so many different flavors as well as some alcoholic jam. Very yummy 👌 So far, it had been quite a sunny day, but then it once again started raining terribly. We were glad to be back at the hostel and actually didn’t leave it for the rest of the day. Instead, we had dinner there and spent the evening playing some card games with the Mexican Pedro and Fred from Norway. It was certainly great fun and so much better than spending our time in the pouring rain which didn’t stop until the middle of the night. Luckily, it was dry the next morning though. My third full day was supposed to finally get me to see Angkor Wat, one of the most famous buildings in the world and the only building featured in the flag of its country. I went there with Pedro – our private photographer 😉 – Diandra and George. Our tuktuk driver took us to four different temples before we finally made our way to Angkor Wat in the late afternoon. It was just super impressive to see all the temples which were most likely built in the 12th century. And it was so much fun to explore them with the company of the three others. The weather was quite good all day long as well so that temple tour was a thoroughly great experience 👌😊 In the evening, it was time for partying 🎉🍻 In a group of seven – we were joined by Tom, the Brazilian Micah and Tina from Germany – we made our way to the city center, had dinner and went to a club called Angkor What afterwards. The club itself was nothing special but with our group, we had such a great and fun time together for some hours. It felt like we had known each other for a very long time. The alcohol made me feel pretty sleepy though so I had to go home by tuktuk. At least no one had to carry me like on Fraser Island in April 😂😜 I didn’t feel that good the next day and I think I don’t need to tell you why. After a good bit of recovery, I went to the market with Micah around noon before I somehow lost him. I went to the biggest park in the city and returned to the hostel in the late afternoon, just in time to have dinner and jump on the night bus afterwards which would take me to Sihanoukville.

I safely arrived there in the morning after sleeping for a very short time as I had to share my bed with someone else and could barely move. Never mind though. Sihanoukville is a city at the coast which is mainly used as a transit to the two islands in the South. There’s not too much to see so I only stayed there for two nights. On the first day, I walked along the beaches for a while, watched some monkeys playing on a power line. Later, I jumped on a scooter to see a waterfall. Getting there was a torture though. The road was in such an abysmal condition that I couldn’t go any faster than 15 km/h and even got stuck in two puddles. Luckily, the waterfall was quite enjoyable. On the way back, I stopped at the beach to watch the sunset before going home for dinner. After one last drink, I went to bed after getting to know Linsey and Saskia, two Dutch girls, and my British roommate Matt. I joined this trio the next morning and went to the beach with them for a while. When they left to take the boat to Koh Rong, I took the scooter to go to a temple complex on a hill. I also got quite a good view of the city from there. I went to the beach again to watch the sunset which was even better than the day before. As I hadn’t been out the night before, I decided to join a pub crawl in the evening which was fun but I somehow didn’t feel that good so I went to bed at some point, also because I had to take the ferry quite early in the next morning.

The ferry took me to Koh Rong, an island mainly known for partying. I went there for three days. After arriving at the hostel, I went to explore the island. When I had reached the end of the road, a guy approached me and asked me if I wanted to join a snorkel trip. The offer sounded really good and I hadn’t made any plans yet, so I thought I’d give it a try. So half an hour later, I found myself on a boat with around ten others. After cruising around for a while, we went snorkeling for the first time and it was so amazing. The water was perfectly clear and there were so many colorful fish and corals. Later on, we all tried to catch some fish and I even managed to get one with one of my first attempts ever. Beginner’s luck, I guess 😆 Afterwards, we had lunch and then went on a hike to a waterfall which was certainly a challenge as everyone had brought nothing but flip flops. We went up and down through a jungle. The ground was incredibly slippery so I really struggled. In the end, we made it to the waterfall though and it was absolutely worth it as it was pretty big and strong. As I don’t have a waterproof camera, I can’t show you any pictures. When we were back on the boat, we went snorkeling again before watching the sunset at a beach, including some drinks and a bonfire. However, the trip had still not come to an end as we jumped into the water for one last time to see some plankton. That was so great. Plankton glows in the dark so there were bright yellow spots everywhere in the water. A bit like a sky full of stars 😍 We returned around 8pm and I joined the Dutch girls for dinner. They caught up with some new German friends then and we went to a rooftop bar together and to a beach party later on which was said to be good. It was a bit of a disappointment though to be honest. I hated the techno music and there weren’t too many people but I still stayed until the middle of the night. The next day was a day of relaxing and recovery. I spent most of it at the beach before I caught up with Micah in the evening who had come to the island in the meantime. When we were looking for a place to have dinner, we came across Sophie and Paulina, two Germans I had come across on the snorkel trip. We decided to stay together for the rest of the night, went to some of the numerous pubs, had some drinks at the beach before we split up at some point. I spent my last full day at the beach again, this time with Micah and Kevin, another German. We played some water polo and relaxed a lot before meeting again in the evening. When we got together at a pub, we were joined by Jule and Lisa, two more Germans, Alex from Denmark and Oscar from Sweden. We went to my hostel to play some pool and darts before going to the most visited pub on the island. It was a good time, I once again had “some” drinks there and nearly fell asleep at the beach. I was very tired and hungover the next morning but that wasn’t too bad as I was going to spend a couple of hours traveling to my next destination – Kampot! I will talk about this beautiful place in my next post 😊

Cheers,

Max