Resting, lost rings and more border crossings!
Our journey from Laos to Cambodia was just as arduous as the ones within Laos. There was a boat trip across the Mekong, a short bus ride to the border, a border crossing (not that scammy though given that we were going into Cambodia and have had past experience here with border scams), a long wait, another bus ride, another long wait and a final bus ride to Phnom Penh!
We visited Cambodia 9 years ago and ticked off the major sites then so this was a chance to visit a couple of new places on our way back to Thailand.
We left Phnom Penh almost as quickly as we arrived, lasting about 13 hours before we hopped on a bus to Kampot. Kampot is on an estuary and we took the opportunity to hire a Kayak and we had a very peaceful and beautiful kayak through some palm fronds. It was an highlight for us and felt so relaxing. We hardly saw anyone else and it was a good workout for the shoulders!
We took it very gently in Kampot and the only other activity we did was a sunset cruise along the Mekong. You get to see the sunset and also some fireflies in the trees. We enjoyed this so much we actually did it two nights in a row!
After Kampot we went to Koh Rong, an island off the Cambodia coast. We took a bus to the pier and the road was as bad as the ones in Laos – it was so rough for an hour it was impossible to read or do anything else! We had a long wait for our speedboat and I have to confess that my patience was running out.
Koh Rong had some nice beaches to chill on but the island itself felt a little grotty. There was rubbish everywhere (I know it’s a remote island but there has to be some better way to clear waste than letting it all pile up) as well as frequent power cuts. The power cuts made it impossible to go back to your accommodation during the day as it was too hot.
We only spent a week in Cambodia before heading back to Thailand. We woke on the morning of departure to a strong wind and with strong wind comes choppy seas! Our speedboat was flying through the waves and what goes up must apparently slam back into the waves with a force. I felt that I was getting whiplash from being thrown around so much, everyone was holding on for dear life and my stomach was getting churned up. I felt like kissing the ground when we safely made it to shore an hour later. We took a bus to the border and it stopped a couple of times for comfort breaks (with actual toilets – how novel!) but the driver wasn’t great at checking that everyone was back and drove off twice missing passengers! This is my worst nightmare and I was happy to see that everyone was looking out for each other to ensure we were all present. We had to change buses at the border before changing again at Trat for a Songthew. If you don’t know, a Songthew is a pick up truck with a couple of benches in the back, comfortable enough for a short journey, not ideal for a long 45 minute ride to the pier. There was a group of 6 of us heading to Koh Chang so we all stuck together and we were glad we did as we were abandoned at the pier! We asked about the next ferry and were fobbed off before the staff disappeared! One guy abandoned the rest of the group to buy his own ferry ticket but the rest of us were not having it so we protested to the ferry staff before they made a phone call and someone turned up with our tickets! It was a long journey but great to be back on a Thai island.
Koh Chang was very peaceful and restful, the beach was secluded and lovely and we enjoyed some gorgeous sunsets, our last beach sunsets in Asia! We’ve been used to seeing small geckos throughout Asia but here we had Tokay geckos outside our room and they are huge! They are about 30 centimetres long and we had a Mr and Mrs right outside our room.
We headed to Bangkok and for once a very uneventful journey – one bus the whole way, the only thing of note being how many times the driver stopped for fuel and to top up the tyres with air!
We had a brief overnight stop in Khao San Road again before heading to our favourite beach, Cha Am. We spent 2.5 weeks here chilling, hanging with Joey’s family over Christmas and New Year. It was a brilliant way to spend our last couple of weeks of this leg of travels. The days merged into one as we chilled on the beach, topping up tans and planning the next leg of our journey.
Nothing much happens in Cha Am, just the way we like it. Except for one day when it all happened!
We were enjoying a swim in the sea when we saw this horse with a young woman on galloping along the beach and being completely out of control! The poor horse had been spooked by a dog and was running all over the place, rearing up with the girl trying to hang on to him! She made it further down the beach before she tried to get off when the horse decided it had had enough and. just dumped her off into the sand. Luckily she wasn’t injured and landed in soft sand but as it looked scary from where we were I can imagine she must have been quite scared.
Then I took my wedding rings off (they are fake ones) to put some suncream on and somehow without noticing knocked them into the sand. I spent ages sat on the sand digging through trying to find them! I borrowed a rake from the people we hire our sunbeds from but had no luck. Then she suggested calling the ‘machine man’ who owns a metal detector to get him to come and look for them. He only charges if he finds them, so he turned up and managed to find them! I think I paid more for the metal detector man than the rings were worth but they are quite sentimental!
Then just when we thought things had settled down the wind really picked up and a little fishing boat broke free and was sailing down the beach front quite a distance on its own – almost like a ghost ship! Eventually a man started to drag it back up the beach before its owner came to rescue it. Cha Am is normally a very peaceful place so for these things to all happen within a couple of hours was quite exciting.
Cha Am has a forest park and we headed there one morning to see wild gibbons, they hang out in the trees there and it was fantastic to see them in the wild swinging from tree to tree.
We headed back to Bangkok for a final stop before flying back to the UK. This is not the end of our travels, just a little rest before we head to the other other side of the world. It will be a welcome opportunity to change our clothes and eat some cheese!
Meandering Maxwells 
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