Something new for breakfast
Mat and I got up around mid-morning. We went to the same place for breakfast, just around the corner. Today, I decided to try a new breakfast which came in the form of cream cheese and smoke salmon bagel. I’ve never had it before, but it was lovely, would definitely have it again. After enjoying our breakfasts, we gathered our things from the hostel and wait for the bus to Koh Rong. After waiting a short while, the bus turned up, and the 3 of us boarded it. Check out my most recent adventure to an island.
We had to pick up a few more folks close by, but then we were on our way to Koh Rong via Sihanoukville. Our bus to Koh Rong was very cramped, there seemed to be too many large people on the bus for my liking! En route to our destination, I got talking to a couple of Canadian lads who had been travelling together for many months already. They were pretty chilled and we had a good chat. Mat on the other hand was stuck at the back with some foreign fellow falling asleep on his shoulder. He was not impressed!
Butchered
The bus to Koh Rong took over 2 hours to get to Sihanoukville, including one stop. Once we’d arrived in Sihanoukville, it seems everyone was a bit shocked at the state of the place. It looks similar to the videos on the news when they’re in a warzone. There were no proper roads, and hardly any fully constructed buildings. The most common buildings were hotels and casinos. In any case, it was an absolute shambles. We had a right faff with the buses.
We were almost to the ferry when our bus broke down. Everyone waited for ‘something’ to happen, but we didn’t know what. Another bus turned up, and a lot of the people got onto that bus instead. We were about to transfer, when we were told the original bus to Koh Rong was in fact fine. So we got back in. After around 2 minutes in the bus, and stuck in a mad traffic jam with lorries, we got out of our bus, and into the other bus. This second bus finally took us to the ferry port, which smelled of sewage. Finally, we were rid of the bus to Koh Rong!
Sailing towards relaxation
After around 20 minutes or so, we were all able to board the ferry, which was quite large. We were on the boat for about an hour; there are several islands in this area that people go to. Our island was the second stop out of the 3. In the early afternoon, we arrived on the Koh Rong harbour. We had pre-booked accommodation, but apparently there aren’t any roads on the island, and boat taxis are expensive as hell. So we had to ditch that idea and wing it. Some guy on the docks approached us, and took us to his accommodation, some raised bungalows in the trees on the side of the hill. There was nowhere cheap here, it was $10 per night per person, we had to swallow our pride, and our money.
For more info, check it out here. It was dead close to the beach, but far enough away that you couldn’t hear the music.
To be honest, we were getting a bit fed up of Julie, and she said she’d find accommodation elsewhere. After we had dumped our stuff in the room, we had a walk down the beach front. We were approached by some drug fiend from Barnsley (in the UK) who tried to rope us into going to a nearby bar, appealing to us with meth, crack, coke, weed, heroin, the lot! Even if I was interested in a bar, that would not be the one for me! Koh Rong seems to be quite the party island, there are a number of bars with music, and not much else to be honest. It looks like we’ll be relaxing here for a week!
Tip!
On island destinations like this, be careful with regards to transport on the island. There aren’t any land taxis for hire to take you from the port to other beaches/areas of the island. We had booked a place in the north, but found out it would cost us $50 for a taxi to take us there. Some major hostels have boats waiting for you, and will take you to your hostel included in the ticket.
