Koh Rong Samloem and Koh Rong

After staying in Sihanoukville for one night longer than planned, we finally continued to Koh Rong Samloem. Since I couldn't carry my backpack myself due to my sprained shoulder, I was infinitely grateful that Andrea took care of our two backpacks. We took a tuk-tuk to the pier from which we were supposed to depart, but we had to transfer to a bus there because the ferry was supposed to start from a different pier that day. Sitting in a bus with a concussion and driving on gravel roads the whole time is not exactly the most pleasant, so the headaches came back quickly and strongly. Arriving at the old pier, I used earplugs to hear as little noise as possible, as my head felt twice as thick. Then we took the ferry towards paradise. And I can tell you that Koh Rong Samloem is truly paradise! We were picked up from the main beach by a boat and taken to the private beach of our hostel. We had a four-bed bungalow overlooking the beach and ocean, and that's where we met Max, whom we had already met in Siem Reap. On our side of the island, there is almost no reception and no Wi-Fi. So the next few days were absolute relaxation and perfect for really switching off. My days consisted of sleeping, eating, reading, and sunbathing in the hammocks in the sea. After three nights, Andrea and I made our way to the neighboring island of Koh Rong. However, the journey was anything but a pleasant boat trip. It was raining and thundering when we were out at sea. In addition, it was stormy and the boat swayed from right to left, and I was really afraid that we would have an accident again in some form. A local threw us life jackets, which we put on immediately, and we clung to the outside poles of the boat. I was infinitely relieved when we finally had solid ground under our feet again. By now, my desire for any means of transport in Cambodia had completely disappeared. On the way to the hostel, a Korean woman joined us, who was really strange and would also be in the same room for the next two days. Andrea and I first walked along the promenade and the beach because luckily it had stopped raining. You can see why the beach we stayed at is called 'White Beach' from the pictures. In the evening, we sat in the Chile Out area of the hostel and met two super nice Israelis, Tsuf and Gal. We got along great right away, and Dory, who worked at the hostel, had already offered to show us a beach where you could see the plankton really well after work. So we all went together at 11 p.m. through the jungle to a secluded beach and went swimming there. It was beautiful! On the way back, it started raining, and we arrived back at the hostel completely soaked. The next morning, we arranged to meet Tsuf and Gal to hike to the other side of the island together. So we set off through the jungle, always climbing higher up the mountain. After about an hour, we reached the highest point and enjoyed the fresh breeze at the 'Windy Stone'. Going downhill involved more climbing than hiking. We used ropes and descended the steep path over boulders to reach Long Beach. Unfortunately, we were all a bit disappointed because the beach looked far from paradise-like in the pictures. Maybe it was also because of the rainy season, as there were high waves and some branches and logs washed ashore and scattered on the beach. Andrea and I went swimming in the high waves and enjoyed the cooling off after the strenuous tour. After a couple of hours of relaxation, we took the same path back. We had a lot of fun together, learned a few Hebrew words, and sang Hebrew football songs together. Despite having a lot of fun, we were relieved when we finally arrived back and could eat something. Brief relaxation in the bungalow with a (as almost always) cold shower, and then we joined the pub crawl and went partying together with many others. However, partying is not my way of celebrating, and I couldn't really appreciate the whole thing. I would describe it more as a big binge, and since I don't feel like introducing myself to any alcohol senselessly, I was probably the only sober one that evening. Unfortunately, the music, from a sober perspective, was more than lousy. So my conclusion is: no more pub crawl. We returned at some point during the night, and Gal was very funny again in his drunken state; unfortunately, he hardly dared to speak English otherwise. We had a lot of fun and laughed incredibly together. Unfortunately, that was already the last night on Koh Rong and with Tsuf and Gal because in the morning we took the ferry back to the mainland. However, we didn't land at the new pier as planned, but at the old one and had to drive across Sihanoukville again with the bus, arriving there much later than planned. So we missed the pick-up bus that was supposed to take us to our actual bus. A woman called the responsible company, and they said they would wait for us, and we grabbed the nearest tuk-tuk to get to the bus station. After the last experience of traveling by bus, we had decided to take a small minivan that would take us to Phnom Penh.