Reisverhalen: Rabbit Island (Kep) & Sihanoukville

Hello Everyone!

 

 

After returning to Phnom Penh we organised a bus to Kep a small -less touristy town on the south coast of Cambodia. We were soon to realise this was a very pleasent choice and destiantion to choose   !!   

We arrived at about 1pm and It was a really nice change to be next to the sea because everywhere we had been traveling was so inland/land-locked.. ( It almost felt a little bit like something from New Zealand for me

So we stubbled off the bus hot and sweaty becasue the air con isnt that great! and were walked over to the white sandy beach for a rest in the shade. WE already had a group of young guys trying to get us to take there motor bike taxi etcetc but you just have to smile and say no thank you. its hard some times because they just dont take no for an answer! 

 

WE rested up and thought through what we wanted to do and then took a motor bike around the penisular to the other part of Kep township. Where we would catch our boat to Rabbit Island from. WE had a beautiful lunch there of sea food! stir fry and shrimps. it was very delicious! we had a 45min wait to for other travelers  join in the boat trip so the boat owner 'kindly' lent us his motor bike to zip around Kep and fill in some time. The motor bikes tank also happened to be ''conviently'' on empty. However we didnt realised this untill 20mins later when it coughed and spluttered to a stand still! Some friendly locals helped up solve the problem No gas !! desp[ite the fuel gauge saying 'half full' so we sent $1 for a litre of gas and returned with 5 or 10 minutes to spare. it was fun though

 

The trip in the boat was very nice, theres alot of fishermen in this area and the view of the mainland was a very pretty sight! We traveled across with 4 other french people who actually were living in cambodia and were visiting the island for a break.

When we arrived we went for a swim! it was really quiet only a few westerners staying . there were a handful of bungaloos run by 3 different  families. We went to the one run by an old woman that was recomended to us. She cooked beautiful food! it took an hour to get our dinner the first night but it was worth every second to wait. and she brought out two HUGE plates of shrimp fried rice like nothing you have ever tasted before! it was gorgeous! We could only get through just over half of our plates! and as we sat at our table with our tummies full there was a huge 'Crack!' and then a 'Thud! and a coconut had fallen from a palm tree about 5meters away from us!" you wouldnt one of those landing on your head! so from then on we... or more like I was avoiding walking under ripe looking ones!

'Our bungaloo was on stilts and with thatched walls and roof. During our 2 nights 2 dyas we had on down pour of rain which was actually really nice. Its very basic living there, and this woman had lived on the island 20 years! theres talk that a huge hotel is buying  the island and paying them to leave which is a real shame. Everything is so family orientated we spoke with a man that was living there with his wife and 11month old son, we taught him some english and he taught us some Kulmer. There were two pigs, 9 dogs, many many chickens and baby chicks! puppies, ducks, and cows all roaming around  free It was a very nice place and you cant help but relax when you are there!! we spent the second day in the hamicks on the beach side, and walked a third of the way round the island.. We had a swim on the end of a very quiet and deserted beach, then went to carry on walking the last 2/3 of the way and couldnt find the track anywhere. There were too many tracks! and they all didnt look very decent! So we walked back the was we came which didnt bother us! white sand beaches with lots of coconut trees !

 

WE took a boat back and caught a motor bike to Kampot. This was a 30minute ride and very beautiful the whole way. When we arrived in Kampot (busy main town of the area) we knew we had made a very good choice to go to the island and not here! we imediated linked up with our taxi which we shared with 3 other guys, american and french maybe i think.. they had stayed in Kampot and said it wasnt that nice and not alot to do.

WE drove 2 hours to Sihanoukville. Pieter and i squashed in the front seat for 2 hours together but it was only $3 so we cant complain too much!

 

Sihanoukville was really touristy but it was surprisingly easy place to be in. Alot of the bigger towns and small cities are just so intense and insanely busy it can get quite tiring at times. But Sihanoukville was fun. We got a $5 room right next tot the beach. We spent the day relaxing on two of the hundred and hundreds of beach chirs/beds. Went swiming when it was hot or cooled off with a fruit smoothy or ice cold drink. That night we ate like ki9ngs!  BBQ Seafood and more seafood. It was quite a romantic setting really, watching the sun go down and drinking cold cocktails and beer!

 

the next day was much of tyhe same but we renteda motorbike. This time it was a gooood one! So we zipped in to town looked about the market collected some breakfast and returned tot he beach to eat it. we relaxed at the beach most of the day and then went on a big adventure drive around  Sihanoukville. So we went to Victory beach and through all the little back roads, streets  and country side along the way. We wanted to use up the fuel we had put in that morning so i think Pieter had alot of fun zooming around burning it up!  i had to keep and eye on him and his heavey foot though ...boys and fast toys!

 

Unfortunatly during this trip Pieters battery charger died. WE had to wait untill Phnom Penh to get a new one, and we finally found one today. So there are photos of our trip but not alot. they will come later. sorry bout that

we had dinner on the water front again and then  packed up ready for our 6.15am pick up this morning. We had a 4.5 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh and now are just resting untill tomorrow when we leave for  Ho Chi Minh city  in Vietnam. We got our visa in  Sihanoukville which we were warned would take one working day but the guy did it in 15mins for us which was a nice surprise

 

 

Thats all for now, but our 1st Vietnam stories will be in the next week or so.

 

P.S  I hope my stories are not too long and boring, I tend to get carried away a bit sometimes... :S

 

 

|Take care everyone!

 

 

Nina & Pieter

 

xoxox