I write to you today after a long hiatus from the quaint town of Koh Kong, on Cambodia's southern coast. We arrived here three days ago via a 15 hour bus ride from Battambang. It is here that I have caught my first glimpse of the ocean, and where it is starting to feel like I am really on a vacation -- how can it not when you are lounging in beach chairs, the warm ocean lapping at your feet while you read and drink a coke.
Our first day here we rented bikes for $1 and road about 12km outside of the town to a nice little beach. We ended up spending most of the day reading and hanging out at a little 'restaurant' right on the water. The bike ride wound through dirt roads between mangrove forests and little fishing huts before finally ending at the beach.
Yesterday we joined an organized tour that took us to a remote island -- about a 2.5 hour boat ride from the mainland. We were hoping to see the endangered Irawaddy Dolphin on the way, but alas, no dice. The island is inhabited only by a few coconut farmers, so our boat (about 8 of us) had the place to ourselves. We snorkeled around the rocks -- which was actually quite sad. The coral is almost entirely gone, but is starting to grow back in a few places. We did see some fish, hermit crabs and sea fans though. The rest of the time was spent lounging, reading, and building sand cabins. It wasn't until we returned that we realized just how suburned we were. Despite our best efforts, the sun here just seems to be too strong for our very white (er, red) skin. On the boat ride back we detoured through Asia's largest mangrove forest. I had hoped that the guide would tell us a bit about them (to supplement my knowledge gained from my 11th grade marine biology project) but really we just sort of sped right through them. It is a pretty amazing forest though, that seems to go on forever and ever.
We plan to go east along the coast and spend a few days in Sihanoukville before crossing the border into Vietnam by the 3rd or 4th of December when our visa's expire. There we will visit an island we've heard a lot about and explore the Mekong Delta before venturing further north.
Since I last wrote we have also been in the city of Battambang. For some reason, unbeknownst to us, we spent five or six days there, even though there wasn't much going on. It is Cambodia's second largest city, but is quite small and everything seemed to close around 8pm -- quite a change coming from the super touristy city of Siem Reap. We spent a few days on Tuk Tuks visting temples and Khmer Rouge sites and visited a school we considered volunteering at before ultimately deciding to head south.
LoveLoveLove
No comments:
Post a Comment