Cambodian islands and Phnom Penh

Having enjoyed Vietnam we were sad to be leaving but at the same time were excited to be heading to Sihanoukville in Cambodia for a few days on the beach. The bus there was one of the worst we have taken so far and we arrived 5 hours later than we had expected! On arrival a few others were also heading to the same stretch of hostels so we grouped together to share a tuk tuk. One of the first scams you hear about is the tuk tuk drivers telling you that where you want to go is closed or isn't good, instead suggesting somewhere that they are on commission from. When we asked to be dropped at 'Mad Monkey Hostel' we laughed at the driver telling us it had 'burned down' and walked off to find someone else. We negotiated a price to the main strip, not knowing that it was literally 400m around the corner and en route drove past the Mad Monkey Hostel which had in fact burned down, much to our amusement!

Sihanoukville is The main beach resort in Cambodia and whilst the beaches there were lovely, we were really looking forward to heading over to a nearby island called Koh Rong. A 2 hour boat ride away the island is still relatively cut off with water and electricity only being turned on at certain times of the day. We had heard that there are plans for large hotels to be developed on the island but at the moment it is only a handful of beach bungalow resorts occupying the beachfront space. We both really enjoyed our time on the island and could easily have stayed longer had in not been for the lure of the Thai islands in the not so distant future!

 

 

Moving on from Koh Rong and Sihanoukville we headed back to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. This was one of our least favourite cities so far as it was very dirty and didn't have that much to offer, leading us to spend only one night here before heading over to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. We stayed in a small guesthouse where the owners owned a cute but slightly overweight pug that was very friendly. On the morning of our arrival we decide to visit the Cheong Ek museum and killing fields located just outside of the city. This turned out to be really interesting and explained the history behind the Cambodian genocide, an event in which around 20% of the population lost their lives. We also decided to visit the Royal Palace here as our hostel was just around the corner from it. We were charged an extortionate fee to get in but were thoroughly let down as it wasn't a touch on the Royal Palace in Bangkok!