פֿאַרעפֿנטלעכט: 18.11.2018
Last day on the beautiful island, in the evening we briefly discussed whether we want to stay longer. Maybe it was the prospect of clean and warm water that drove us to continue our journey. The worst part was actually exchanging our swimming trunks for regular pants and using shoes again. Well, you get used to everything. Had breakfast, quickly packed our bags, and spent the last time before departure on the hammock or in front of our bungalow. Took a speedboat back to Sihanoukville. Unfortunately, it was on time this time, so we had to wait for the bus at the bus station for another 2 hours. Who could have known that something would be on time here? At least we could take a quick look at Sihanoukville. What a dirty city it has become, once a resort for Cambodians with a nice beach and smaller hotels. Now, Chinese investors are building Macau 2.0 here with Chinese workers and building materials. Another 100 casinos are planned to be built here. It's just one huge construction site and all the restaurants and shops are already in Chinese. Hopefully, the two Koh Rong islands will be spared from this. According to a German expat, many Chinese people have great respect for water and regularly drown in knee-deep water. At first, I thought it was a joke, but on Koh Rong, the Chinese people were actually in shallow water wearing life jackets. Well, the bus or van eventually arrived. Except for Brian from Australia, there were only Chinese people on board. They were constantly on the phone, sending voice messages, and playing games at the highest volume. Just what you do on a 6-hour journey. Thankfully, their German was quite limited. Brian was probably about 60, a funny guy. We met him again at Phnom Penh airport three days later. What a coincidence. We reached our hotel in the evening, freshened up quickly, and had a nice dinner. The next day, we had some cultural activities on the agenda.