Last Stop in Cambodia

Tomorrow at 10:30am I jump on the bus to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. More border crossings.. *yay*

I've spent the last three nights in Kampot, a river town near to the Vietnam border.

Upon arriving I managed to find one of the girls I met in Battambang a couple weeks earlier, Avital. She had been in Kampot for a few days already but was happy to show me around the town a little. It's nice to see a familiar face every now and then!

I went out to dinner with some of the friends she had made at the hostel. Kampot definitely has that backpacker feel I was looking for. There was a large group at dinner and each and every one was traveling solo - there were French, German, Israeli, Aussie, Spanish, Portugese and Holland making up the crew.

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The next day I was feeling active and decided to hire a bicycle and ride out to a couple of the hostels situated on the river further away - Arcadia and Green House.

After the ~9km ride in the blazing heat it was great to take a quick dip in the river to cool off! 

From here we hired a kayak and paddled from the Green House to Arcadia and I made use of their river toys - a floating deck with a 5m high launching pad off a ladder and a big air bag!

That night Avital and I met up with David, the French guy that runs Climbodia - the first and only rock climbing establishment in Cambodia, to lock in the next day's activity!

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We returned the bikes and picked up a scooter to make it across town to Climbodia for our early day of climbing.

The USD$35 day consisted of an easy climb up a sloped rockface, via ferrata (following a steel cable across the rock face), abseiling 30m down through the cave, cave exploration and as many climbs as we could muster at the end!

The initial climb was very easy, racing up with no dramas.

Traversing the rock face was easy. As you move along you unclip and reclip the two carabiners upon reaching a loop in the rock.

The abseil through the cave was awesome. I opted for the route with no walls so you simply hang by the harness and rope and descend.

The cave trek was similarly fun. Moving through with often only the light from your headlamp and a few tiny crawlspaces where you had to get down on all fours to get through - not easy when you're 6ft4! Lucky for the helmet or I would have smacked my head more than usual in asia - which is a lot!

From here we had the proper climbs. The first climb consisted of a somewhat challenging for a beginner rock face which was said to be easier at the start and more difficult toward the top - myself and Timothy, the American guy traveling with his wife, made it to the very top, while the two girls made it closer to the harder bit and succumbed. 

The second climb was much harder. Timothy, who had some experience in climbing, managed to scale it to the lofty heights of the top, but despite my determination I could not manage it. 

The second climb started off more difficult but once reaching a certain point became easier - I just couldn't get up there despite quite a few tries - and falls!

After retiring for the afternoon we organised to meet for dinner with the American couple at the Rusty Keyhole - the go-to restaurant in Kampot for their famous pork ribs.

After getting some more use out of the scooter and cruising around we headed back to the hostel to snap a photo of the sunset from the Mad Monkey's rooftop bar before meeting up for the fantastic 1kg rack of rib dinner which I absolutely demolished!

Isolation

After spending a further two nights on Otres I decided to check out Koh Ta Kiev for a night or two.

Once more, Koh Ta Kiev has a total of five sets of bungalows to stay at, no real plumbing, no electricity beside those provided by generators, no internet and very few people.

I chose to stay a Ten103, one of the most well regarded resorts on Ta Kiev. I found a travel agent on Otres that had return tickets for $13, stopping at Ten103.

Upon arriving the place was desolate. I checked into my 10 bed dorm and had free reign - it was empty.

Spending five nights on a beach not doing a whole lot put me into a mood to actually do something; I'd heard that the jungle is nice and there is a 45 minute walk to the other side of the island to the newest resort (Last Point), so I decided to check it out.

After trekking through the jungle I arrived at Naked Beach.

By this stage I was getting a little weary so decided a beer would go down well and headed for Last Point.

This place was similarly deserted - the guys working there said there were only three customers that day.

I ended up spending a decent portion of the afternoon chatting to the guys working at the bar before heading to the beach to read my book a little. 

I was feeling hungry and heard this place did tasty pizza's so I obliged and had one. 

Against my better judgement I let it get dark before leaving. Lucky I had a torch...

Admittedly it was not an easy trek back.. I had a little difficulty finding the track back from naked beach, backtracking a few times before finding the tiny sign hidden on the side of a fallen tree.

From here it was a hike through the jungle with nothing but my torch light. 

I encountered a pair of people that I had seen at Last Point earlier who advised that I find a stick to bang on the ground to scare off the snakes - Ta Kiev is notorious for having some of the most venomous snakes in all of Cambodia.

I didnt manage to find one but I made it back unharmed without spotting any...

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The morning view from the dorm cant really be complained about...

I decided to spend one more night on Ta Kiev. I spent the entire day on the sundeck reading, followed by listening to music and watching the sunset.

The island - and Otres - were beautiful, but I didnt really like the feel that it had about it. Now that I'm traveling alone I found it harder to meet people around these areas - most people here were either couples or groups together. 

It was a good chance to chill out alone and relax which I may not get for a while given Vietnam is my next stop on the 10th of April!

Beach Escape

The next stop after Phnom Penh was Sihanoukville, a coastal town.

Being the planned and prepared person I am I found a bungalow on Otres Beach on hostelworld for a mere USD$15 a night. It was quite nice, and a decent chance to splurge.

A 15 minute ride on the back of a motorcycle taxi to Otres and I arrived. The photos from hostelworld for Indigo On Otres really did not disappoint.

All of the above photos were taken in and around the bungalow resort. Either from inside or directly in front... 

I later found out that Otres beach is one of many beaches in the Sihanoukville area that is scattered with bungalows of varying quality. The main beach is called Serendipity and is closer to the town centre, packed with resorts and just more. People around Otres hate Serendipity. 

Each of the bungalow resorts around here have their own bar and restaurant with varying levels of nightlife... there is never a shortage of finding somewhere to eat or drink!

I hired a scooter for a day to explore the island. $6 and passport deposit a scooter was mine to ride as I please. I explored more of the Sihanoukville town and a few more of the beaches.

The next day I took a day trip on a boat to three nearby islands - most of which I cant remember the name. The only one I actually stopped off at was Koh Ta Kiev. The tour included a cooked breakfast, barbecue lunch and snorkelling at two of the islands. It feels bad to say but snorkelling just doesnt do it for me any more after going diving!

Ta Kiev is secluded. Proper secluded. The only way there is via a longtail boat and there are only a few places to stay. I plan to head back there for a couple nights just for the experience of having no electricity during the day and no internet.

They did have puppies though!

Perhaps the coolest thing on the beach is the tiny absinthe distillery. An entirely locally made and distributed distillery is just off the beach in a little bamboo shack producing five different types of absinthe. 

Having a 85% black absinthe mixer made properly with a shot, spraying absinthe onto sugar on an absinthe spoon and lighting it so the sugar drips through and adding distilled water was a nice treat and goes down the very well. I'll no doubt have a few more if I go back...

PP and the Killing Fields

Shortly after finishing my last post I went for a walk to get a smoothie.. walk 15 metres down the road and run into the kiwi couple I did my diving course with in Koh Tao - Rowan and Nicola. Crazy that totally unplanned, in a different country, in a somewhat less visited town, to run into people again. That's travelling.

The night bus was not quite what I was expecting. The upgraded hotel sleeper consisted of what was pretty much a single bed, except a foot too short... shared with another person. Lucky me got to spoon with a Cambodian dude all night. Not the best sleep.

Arriving early at 5am, I hopped in a tuk tuk to my next hostel. I slept on a couch in the foyer for a couple hours before going out wandering to the river.

I was approached by a Thai guy claiming that his niece was getting a job in Adelaide and wanted to take me to his brother's house for breakfast to chat to her. What are the chances? Slim to none. I told him meet me in a cafe near my hostel and we'll talk. He dropped me back at my hostel and that was it, he vanished... I later read that it is a common scam to lure people and drug them to steal their money.

Not much more to report on here; I just chilled out in Phnom Penh for a little while, hanging out with some dudes from the hostel.

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The next night I caught up with Nathan and his girl again. She had a friend she met travelling years earlier, a Lebanese guy living and working in PP. A group of five of us went out to a Lebanese restaurant which was great to eat something beside rice and noodles for once.

Later we went to a club this bloke was DJ'ing at and had some more drinks.

Nathan told me of his grand plan to head fly to Hanoi and have a tuk tuk sleeper built. They had contacts in Vietnam that were able to build such a thing; they wanted to buy a bike and build a trailer setup to attach to it, similar to the tuk tuks in Cambodia, that they can use to traverse the country and sleep in. Very cool if it pans out!

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The next day it was finally time to do some activities; the Choeung Ek Killing Fields and the S-21 prison compound museum.

The killing fields were truly eye opening. The audio tour takes around an hour to complete, taking you to different sites across the area and describing the happenings that occurred there less than fourty years earlier. 

The most fucked up thing about it is that Pol Pot was killing his own people. The genocide took place among Cambodians. He decided that anyone living in cities or with any form of education were not native Cambodians and should be exterminated - it was only the old people, those living and working the land and in farms that should survive under his new order. Crazy shit.

The quotes that are played to you during the audio tour are horrendous. There is utter and complete lack of worth for human life. One of the quotes is along the lines of to keep them alive is no gain, to have them killed is no loss.

The lake above is said to be home to a number of bodies that have never been exhumed like a lot of the mass graves scattered throughout the area. In the late 80's an initiative was put in place to try to work out exactly what happened during the few years in the late 70's this area was active. 

This tree, which has since been covered in wristbands from passing travellers, was where children and babes had their heads smashed against before being thrown into a nearby mass grave. In the 80's the researchers found bones and brain fragments covering the tree. 

In the late 90's this memorial was built to house the skulls and bones found at the site. The lower level has had the skulls categorised into age and means of death. Huge gaping holes in the skulls can be seen where victims were plowed over the head with the back of a garden hoe.

Following the Killing Fields, we went to the prison to see more of what life was like for the victims of the Khmer Rouge. Once again a home to torture, starvation and misery.