Koh Rong

Hello Friends of the Sun.

As mentioned before, our next plan was to travel to Koh Rong in Cambodia. For this trip, we bought a ticket that would have taken us from Koh Chang to the border of Cambodia by speed ferry. There, we would have gotten our visa to continue to the island of Koh Rong. Ha ha ha... Wrong thought. On the day of our departure, we were picked up by a taxi and driven to the pier, from where our ferry would have departed. There we got colorful stickers again (that's a thing here) and were told to wait. We were silently picked up by another taxi and taken to the ferry station that leads to the mainland. But we didn't want to go there. After asking the taxi driver several times what we should do here, he told us that our actual ferry wouldn't sail because there was too little water in the port. So we crossed to the mainland and waited for the next taxi that was supposed to take us to a minibus. In the taxi, we met Lena and the strange Reiner from Wuppertal, who also wanted to travel to Koh Rong and Cambodia. Together, we were transported to a minibus that took us to the border of Cambodia. After some unfriendly faces and some back and forth at the border, we were finally loaded onto the next minibus. Lena wanted to exchange her dollars for Riel at the border, but the Cambodians are somehow crazy about money. Because of a small crease in the bill, they didn't want to accept it, and there was no sign of an ATM machine. We got on the bus, and that's when the worst bus ride of our lives began. The road in Cambodia after the border was a kilometer-long construction site that took 5 hours. During that time, our bus driver drove like a madman over potholes and slid on the gravel in the curves. In the meantime, we lifted off our seats when there were bumps and potholes, hitting our heads on the ceiling of the bus. At some point, I was firmly convinced that our bus driver was seriously suicidal. Three times, he had to get out and check the tires to measure the pressure or to see if all the tires were still there. The terrible bus dropped us off in Pean Kay at the harbor, where we were picked up by a speed boat. After the wild bus ride, our shaken organs received it as a welcome change. By then, there were 5 of us who wanted to go to Koh Rong, so we practically had the boat to ourselves. The speedboat ride made the terrible bus ride a bit better. Shooting over the open sea at high speed at sunset was really cool. In a beautiful sunset, we crossed to a small fishing village where the next taxi was waiting for us. Unfortunately, Lena had the misfortune of having to come alone with Reiner to a resort in the dark, which could not be reached by car because the path consisted of a footpath through the jungle. Julian had a very bad feeling about it and exchanged numbers with Lena. We were dropped off at the southernmost part of the island and arrived at our hostel exhausted and very late. The room was small and uncomfortable but okay for a few days.

The next 2 days, we mainly spent trying to understand Cambodia's complicated currency system. Sometimes you pay with dollars, sometimes you pay with Riel. Sometimes you pay with Riel and then get dollars and Riel back... Oh, I don't know, somehow Travel Group Chaos manages to solve the problem. On the second day, we rented a scooter and, as always, drove across the island. When we suddenly came across a sign that said "Lonely Beach," we decided to spontaneously visit Lena. To do this, we had to drive through the aforementioned footpath through the jungle, which was an absolute adventure. The beaches in Koh Rong are picture-perfect beautiful and sometimes so white that it blinds you when the sun shines on it. The water is crystal clear, and you can almost never get enough of it. Together with Lena, we decided to continue to the small neighboring island of Koh Rong Sanloem, which we did the next day... more on that in the next post. 🏝️

Goodbye, your Travel Group Chaos.