What Could Koh Rong? Top 5 Things I Liked and Disliked About Koh Rong, Cambodia

Ok enough with the puns...or maybe not, I love puns. After traveling through Cambodia and seeing more of the serious side, it was time for some vacation...finally.  The purpose of Andrew being with me was to celebrate our marriage with an AWESOME honeymoon and the whole trip had been work focused with a side of fun, until now. We started off our "real" honeymoon in Koh Rong, an island off the coast of Cambodia. We had originally planned to beach it up in Phuket, Thailand, but a coworker of mine from Thailand said that we should skip the touristy beaches there and head to Koh Rong. So that's exactly what we did.

The boat ride over kicked everything off to an interesting start. We had booked the ferry over on a "faster boat" that took about an hour but when we got there, they had over-sold (which is apparently always an issue with them) so we were bribed to go on the "fast boat" that was supposed to take about 1.5-2 hours to get there. They offered us 2 free beers, and we weren't in a hurry so we figured, hell, why not. The boat was jam-packed with young people...probably ranging in age from 18-30 but mostly on the under 21 side. Off we went on our lovely boat ride to the island when suddenly, we stopped...we were broken. While they were trying to fix the boat, some of the crazzzyyyy youngsters said "are there sharks?" and when "no" was the answer, they all decided lets go swimming! So off they jumped in to the water...and Andrew went right along with them haha. After some time of not moving, a new boat came to rescue us. We piled on the smaller boat and finally headed on our way to the island. All in all the trip took about 3 hours.

Koh Rong is a very small island, with a very small strip of restaurants/hotels right when you get off the boat. And when I say very small I mean like 10 restaurants haha.  No roads, no tuk-tuk's, just sand, young people, and beer. Lots of beer. It was quite funny to watch these girls with their rolley bags going through the sand...luckily we had backpacks. Our hotel was called Paradise Bungalows, and though it was a bit expensive compared to other places on the island (still only $50 a night) we liked it. The first 2 nights we were in the honeymoon suite, not sure why it was called that, then the last 2 we were in a much better spot - beach front bungalow. It was more expensive ($65/night) but it was beach front so WHO CARES?!

We spent most of our days lounging around reading and thinking about our next meal. We tried almost every restaurant on the island and especially loved the burgers at Bongs. The highlights included making friends with Boris and Morris (the two water buffalo we named), seeing a monkey, and being able to finish our books haha.  We also met a really fun Aussie couple that let us go with them on a private boat tour to see the glow-in-the-dark plankton one night.  Pretty much the most amazing natural wonder I've ever seen.  Every time you moved in the water it sparkled like the stars. Think of that one scene from Life of Pi.  Amazing.  Absolutely amazing. I think that was one of our most exciting nights because we got to see the plankton and we got to drink with someone other than ourselves haha.

We spent a total of 4 days there, which I think was plenty. You wouldn't want to stay longer unless you like the party 24/7 and sleep all day vibe.  I'm a bit more in to seeing and doing things than that.  However, with 4 days, it was just enough relaxation and getting yourself out of your routine to make it an awesome trip.  I would say it's definitely a place I would recommend, but only to certain types of people...to make it a bit easier to see why, I made a list of my top 5 favorite and least favorite things about Koh Rong.


Top 5 thinks I liked about Koh Rong:

1. Lots of young people - meaning lots of fun, laughing, and having a great time. Most of them were westerners but it was rare to see an American. Everyone spoke English. 
2. Lots of outdoor activities you can do - There's trekking, kayaking, fishing, boat trips, beaches, scuba diving, snorkeling, and my favorite - glow-in-the-dark plankton!!!!! All if it is really relaxed too - totally on beach time. You just take the kayak for the day and bring it back - or as one of the bars/hotels if they can take you to see the plankton. 
3. It's small and pretty undiscovered - This place is touristy, don't get me wrong, but it isn't commercialized touristy, which was really refreshing. It's going to explode so fast once people discover it. We talked to a few people that had been there for a year and said that the "town" is double in size. If you want less people though you can go to Koh Rong Samloem which is very remote like Koh Rong was a few years prior. 
4. It's beautiful and cheap and friendly - All of the people that run the businesses are friendly, the food and hotels are cheap, and its absolutely gorgeous. The water is super blue, the sand is pretty white, and it's pretty natural. We especially loved the monkeys (that I hear can be pests) and the water buffalo. I love water buffalo.
5. It's basically Neverland - This is the place you go when you don't want to grow up. You party all night, have no responsibilities, and sun tan all day. When I feel really stressed out and ready to quit life - this is the place I take myself back to in my mind. 

Top 5 things I didn't like about Koh Rong:

1. Lots of young people - Though it can be a pro, it also means lots of drunken loud people partying all night and keeping you up. They were also rude in that a lot of them didn't respect the local customs (lots of girls sunbathing topless though it's considered disrespectful to the locals) and they threw their trash everywhere.
2. No air conditioning - We were lucky and had a fan, but it was HOTTER THAN HELL and all we had was a dinky fan. Our hotel was one of the few that had power through the night so we were lucky to have the dinky fan.  It got cooler by the middle of the night but the heat definitely woke you in the morning. 
3. Expensive for Cambodia - Hotels were a bit more expensive as well as the food and drinks - but it was still like  $3-5/dish and $1-3/drink soooo that's just me nit-picking. It was also frustrating to see the price differences. If it's not high-season and sold out, it's definitely cheaper to just do everything once you're there rather than booking in advance. Our hotel charged WAY more for the boat ride over, WAY more for food, and WAY more for a room. There were places on the island you could have stayed at for $5 a night. You probably shared a room with drunks, but still. Speaking of money, DO NOT BRING LARGE BILLS ON THE ISLAND - no one wants them so it took us a while to find a place that would let us eat there. 
4. Lots of trash - Unfortunately, Cambodia is filled with trash and they don't know what to do with it. One of the days we were there, the wind blew the wrong way and trash came floating by. Not just a little trash, so much trash that the tourists that were trying to clean it got so overwhelmed that they just stared at it. 

All in all - I am really glad I went. Would I go back? Probably not. Especially once I'm over age 30......however, I think it was the perfect experience to kick-off our honeymoon. We were able to relax, have fun, drink cheap beer and meet great people. The island really is a beautiful place, but as I said before, it's just a matter of time before it's over-run with tourism like any other beautiful place ends up being.  So if you're going to go, go NOW before it's too crazy.  We definitely had some experiences that I will never ever forget and for that, I will always remember my Neverland, Koh Rong. Now off to Thailand!!

Impressions of Cambodia

Most of our time in Cambodia was time spent in conjunction with my job. We traveled from Siem Reap down to Balang to visit our first orphan home that receives meals from Stop Hunger Now.  Over the next 3 days we traveled down to Phnom Penh, stopping at different orphan homes along the way in Pursat, Kampong Chnang, and Tumnup Island.  Each of the homes were really interesting, having some great sustainable practices such as growing gardens and raising animals. They also re-used our meal bags and boxes in very creative ways which was awesome to see. Overall it was a really great experience, traveling through the countryside and getting to spend time with people that are living day to day life there. It's a completely different scene (as you could imagine) to what tourists normally see in Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, or at the beach towns on the coast.

When we arrived in Phnom Penh we saw our partners headquarters office and then they took us to a museum, Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. The museum was actually an old high school that was turned in to a torture facility during the Khmer Rouge.  I think this was one of the most important stops we made in Cambodia. As mentioned, you can go all through Cambodia the tourist way and never understand the country. Now I don't feel like I realllly know the country (I would need way more than 2 weeks to be able to say that) but I do feel like I know it better than most.  As a child, I was never taught about the Khmer Rouge, and if you're like me, and had never heard about it until now, I highly suggest you Google it. It was a very horrific time in our recent history, key word being recent. The Khmer Rouge happened from 1975 until 1979, however the government party responsible didn't dissolve until 1999.  Some say it was around until the early 2000's in the remote places of Cambodia. During those 4 years an estimated 2,000,000 Cambodians, a quarter of the country, were killed.  And just at the facility we we saw, it was estimated 20,000 were tortured and killed.

The museum we visited was the site of S-21, one of 150 execution centers in the country. The museum isn't like you're normal American museum, it wasn't filled with facts and figures, it was almost 100% imagery.  I've never in my life felt such bad energy. I walked in to one of the rooms of the school and instantly felt like the happiness was being sucked from me. My heart sank. My eyes welled up. It was the strangest, saddest feeling I've ever had. It is absolutely mind blowing that something that horrific happened in our recent past.  Even more mind blowing is that no one really did anything about it - no one seemed to care. Cambodia was eventually saved from the Khmer Rouge by the Vietnamese but it wasn't out of "this is bad we should stop it", it was more out of the fact that the Khmer Rouge was trying to take over Vietnam as well so they decided to put the kibosh on it all. I don't think I'll ever forget that day at that museum. I started to understand the people of Cambodia a bit more - and understood their recent struggle and why they are going through what they are today.

There was something odd about the people of Cambodia. They were wonderful, sweet, and a joy to be around, but it was a strange because people treated us as superior.  I rarely received eye contact from people, and a lot of people lowered their heads in your presence. We also noticed that the government and officials were corrupt and easily bribed. It was all about who you know and who you can pay off, which I think is the case everywhere but here, it was extreme. At one point while driving through Phnom Penh we were stopped for no reason...when our driver (who was American) started speaking in Khmer, he let us go.  Our guide told us that it happens all the time, and basically all they're looking for is people to give them money to go away. Police and teachers are paid as much as factory workers so they themselves become corrupt just to get by.  So strange. However, after visiting that museum, I started to understand why. The people were forced in to labor, the educated were killed, they were brain washed in to thinking the Khmer Rouge was improving the country and there was no one could stand up to them. Horrifying. The children we had met in the orphan homes were so shy. They were malnourished (like the 14 year old girl in my picture, left), doing bad in school, and we were told that school is just not a priority for people in Cambodia - surviving is. Such a different way of life...

After the museum we went down south to Kep City to visit another partner. This partner...oh my...beyond amazing! We visited the Salesion Don Bosco Technical Schools in Phnom Penh, Kep City, and Sihanoukville. The schools are technical colleges for kids from Cambodia. They have programs ranging from electricity to cooking to welding. Each of the classes are taught by previous students or volunteers that come from around the world (if you're looking for a place to retire and pass on wisdom, do it here).  The students were all SO impressive! We were shown around by many of the kids who used to go to that school and now are department heads. The people we met were so welcoming and kind. They let us stay there, fed us, and we even got to see their first day of school celebration where they had cultural dance and singing performances! It was so amazing and the campus was absolutely beautiful! It was right on the water with the mountains behind it...stunning. They have such great dreams of turning the program in to something that changes the country. They want to make everything sustainable and green, they try to grow their own food and use solar energy. It was fantastic!!

On one of the days in Kep, they took us to the caves. The caves were a place that some Cambodians came to flee from the Khmer Rouge back in the seventies. There were all kinds of crevices and caves to hide in. Now it's a Buddhist temple, where people come to worship. It was a bumpy ride past homes and rice fields and we even had a few kids jump on to our truck and ride with us up to the caves. When we got their, the kids assumed their position and became our guides for the trip. "The throat of the dragon...mind your head!" they would say as they pointed to the different rock formations. It was the cutest thing ever! They had learned just enough English phrases to become tour guides and get a few extra bucks for their families.  It was a bummer that they weren't in school though...

After the trip to the caves we went to one of the teachers childhood homes in the rice fields. The drive was absolutely gorgeous. There's something about those rice fields up against the blue sky. I've never seen anything that green. Gorgeous. We arrived at their home and they had an adorable set-up for us of fruit and coconut to drink. We sat and talked to the student who grew up there, Sehya, about his life and how he used to walk about 5kms to school each day and how he has like 10 brothers and sisters. He said that the girls couldn't go to school because it was too dangerous for them to walk that far. There is still a big fear of the girls getting raped on their way to school...which I knew was an issue in some places around the world but it was different to hear about it happening first hand.  He said that when he was a child, he decided he wanted to be an electrician so that he could bring electricity to his home. So he got a scholarship (like most students there have) to go to the Don Bosco Technical School and studied electricity. He is now the head of their department and though he hasn't been able to bring electricity to his home yet (he said it was much harder to do than he had hoped), he has been able to bring water and a toilet to their home. So inspiring.

I think that my final impression of Cambodia is that the country is corrupt and suppressed...yet filled with hope. The people we met along the way were so amazing. They were doing all they could to empower the children of Cambodia to make a difference in the world. They knew that the adults were a bit broken, and the government is still quite corrupt, so the children were the only way to really turn things around. We met so many people that had dedicated their lives to empowering these children. It was beyond inspiring. I'm so glad that we are working there.  Though it is a difficult place to be, it is the right place to be. And I cannot wait to go back.

Angkor Wat?

Before coming to Cambodia I did a little bit of research on the country to see what I was getting myself in to.  I read a few things online, watched some YouTube videos and tried my best to learn a bit of the language.  However, being there, is completely different from reading about it.

When we arrived, we had to apply for our visa. What an easy process that was! In my past job I booked a lot of travel, so I applied for a lot of visas.  The process is always dreadful and takes forever and your visa can get rejected for the tiniest mistakes made on the application. In Cambodia, not so much. We handed them the money, a one page form and our passports, and then paid $2 extra since we didn't bring a photo. Then our passports were passed along a line of about 10 people, stamped at each stop, and then they called our names and we picked them up.  Took about 2 minutes. Wow.

I asked for a pickup from our hotel since we got in late. They were there with a sign and we grabbed our backpacks and headed in to the parking lot. Andrew made a joke saying "are we driving in a tuk-tuk?!"...and he said..."yes". AWESOME! So off we went in our tuk-tuk, through Siem Reap, Cambodia. We stayed at the Wooden Angkor Hotel. It was completely adorable and the staff was amazing. We took our shoes before going inside and they gave us a warm towel to wipe off with. When we got to our room, they had made us an adorable display since it was our honeymoon. So cute!

We decided to spend the next day sleeping in and then going out on the town to explore. We walked all around the town and went to markets, a few shops, and then we were starving so we went for food.  We decided to stop at a Mexican/Khmer restaurant...because Andrew wanted Khmer (Cambodian) food and I wanted Mexican...because who doesn't want to try Mexican food in Cambodia? After that we went to the local convenience store to grab something to drink and some chocolate.  As we were browsing the sweets I noticed some Cadbury chocolate and got very very excited...and then I found it...MY FAVORITE CHOCOLATE FROM NEW ZEALAND! Cadbury Black Forest...YAY! So we bought a few bars and headed back to the hotel to gorge on our chocolate and get a good nights rest.  Even though we had figured out what my stomach problem was (taking my malaria meds wrong), I was still suffering from it and wanted to take it easy to avoid making it any worse.  So we went to bed early to get ourselves rested and ready for our big day at Angkor Archaeological Park.

Angkor was absolutely amazing! We decided to go with a tuk-tuk driver rather than a scheduled tour or a bike rental. It was a quick way to get around yet they gave us enough time to explore at our own pace.  Funny enough, our pace was actually quite fast.  We left in the morning and started touring around 9am.  By the early afternoon we had seen all of the temples in the "small loop".  We started with Angkor Thom with our first stop being Bayon Temple. On the way we saw some funny tourists taking pictures of monkeys...walked by people riding on elephants...seemed like we were in another world. Getting there early was a great idea. There weren't that many people in the park so we got to take our time and take great photos. We wandered through Bayon and Baphuon, through Phimeanakas and then out through Elephant Terrace.  I think my favorite part was the ceiling. It was so amazing!  As we tried to leave, we had to walk through the dreaded vendors.  Goodness it's hard to say no! So many people selling the same things over and over. The worst part was how they enlisted their children to sell things for them. Oh it was heartbreaking. Surprisingly we were able to say no almost the whole way through.

A lot of the temples began to blend together over the two days. They were all a bit similar and we squished so much in to a short time. At that point I decided it would have been helpful to have a guide.  I'm sure there were lots of details that we missed.  However, there were some temples that stood out.  We jetted through Thomanon and Ta Keo, but the next stop was one of my favorites, Ta Prohm.  Most people know it as the spot where Tomb Raider was shot but I definitely see it as the tree temple.  And as all of you probably know...I love trees :) The temple was absolutely amazing. I can't believe how resilient the tree's are! They grow over the largest walls with roots surrounding the temple and touching back in to the ground. So beautiful!

We went quickly through the next temple, Banteay Kdei, took a look off of Sras Srang, got suckered in to buying some drinks from two kids who gave us bracelets, and then went to my favorite temple, Angkor Wat.  I really loved how grand it was. The entrance was gorgeous and the temple inside was huge!  We were able to climb to the top and the view was wonderful.  Unfortunately the pollution in Cambodia makes things a bit hazey, but you could still see throughout the temple which was really awesome.  All around the base of the temple were these carvings that told a story. That was definitely my favorite part.  We walked around the whole thing trying to understand what was going on. It didn't really work out for us, but after going home and googling it, it turns out the carvings were actually Hindu, which was surprising to me because I thought the temple was Buddhist.  It made much more sense after figuring that out though because I knew I saw Vishnu in there...

That night we decided to go out to the night market and try some food we found online.  Unfortunately we couldn't find the restaurant but we did do a bit of shopping.  Andrew found that he was quite the haggler.  It was like he was fighting back after sucking at it in Hoi An haha.  He was amazing! I would just leave him and let him do his thing...they would go back and forth and back and forth "there are lots of other shirts I can buy" (that was his line haha).  After some shopping we went and had dinner at a place on the legendary "Pub Street".  We decided to split some spring rolls and crocodile curry. Tastes like chicken ;) After that we went to the Blue Pumpkin for some ice cream and man was it delicious!!! Oh how I love ice cream shops. Especially ones that sell cinnamon flavored ice cream...

The next day we decided to do the "big loop" of Angkor.  The first stop was Preah Khan, right outside of Angkor Thom, which was our first stop the day before. There was basically no one there. It was so peaceful. The only person we saw was a guy reading when you walked in to the temple. This temple was pretty cool. It had lots of intricate carvings and some more fun tree's growing over the structure. The next temple was Neak Pean, built out on an artificial island. It was so peaceful walking out on the wooden bridge over the lake in to the temple area.  There wasn't a lot of people so it was nice and calm.  Little boys were fishing off the bridge. It was a really nice break from the chaos of the temples and the town.

Ta Som was the next temple and had some really neat carvings scattered around the temple. We also found another really great tree :) The next temple was East Mebon which had some lovely elephants hanging out on each corner. This temple was different from the others we had seen so far. It was a different color and it had a different feel to it.  The temple was very tall and had a wonderful view. We decided that giants with chicken legs (or tiny feet) built the temple because of the huge height of the steps vs. the tiny width of them. This temple was one of Andrew's favorites, so was Pre Rup, a similar temple and our last stop.  Pre Rup was rumored to be a temple where they performed funerals.

At the end of our tour we decided to go out on the town.  We started with lunch at a restaurant we found on Trip Advisor called Genevieve's Restaurant. I was finally feeling up to eating and wanted to celebrate so we went on the hunt for this restaurant that was a bit off the main street.  The food there was so delicious! I ended up ordering some Khmer noodles and Andrew had some sort of bean salad.  Those noodles were the best thing I ate in Cambodia! It could have been that it was my first real meal since my stinking heart burn went away (that I got from taking my malaria pills wrong), but either way, they were FANTASTIC!  Our waiter actually ended up being one of the owners. He was a nice Aussie guy and gave us great recommendations. He was really nice and didn't understand why people had given him such good reviews online. He said he was ranked the number one restaurant in Siem Reap by one Chinese reviewing site so he always had heaps of Chinese customers. He mentioned a restaurant around the corner that is also gets great reviews and said that they get so packed that you have to have a reservation to get in...so naturally we were curious.

 On the way out we popped our heads in to the restaurant called Haven House which was actually the #1 ranked restaurant on Trip Advisor for Siem Reap. We put our names in for a reservation and sent Rebecca a message to see if she would want to join us for dinner.  We headed back to the hotel to rest because it's too hot in Cambodia to do anything in the afternoon.  Around 6 we headed out to meet Rebecca at the restaurant. The restaurant is actually a training restaurant for kids wanting to get in to the food industry. The staff was so attentive (unlike our past experience with Vietnamese and Cambodian staff) and the food was absolutely delicious.  Rebecca even bought a t-shirt. It was great!

After that we decided to go shopping in the night market.  By the end of it we were getting pretty pooped so we decided to try out the fishies.  We walked by them a few times and kept commenting on how we were going to do it but never did...well then we did. They sold us on it by telling us we could have 30 minutes and a beer for $3 haha.  OH MY GOODNESS IT TICKLES!!! I was screaming and hootin and hollerin and causing all the tourists to come by and see what the heck was going on.  It was the oddest experience. I highly suggest trying it.  While in the tank we got a few people to come join us and made friends. Turned out they were from the US so Rebecca and I got to talk about our job and handed them a business card ;)

From there we wandered across the street to a bar that had some interesting music playing.  We went upstairs and they had swinging tables and all kinds of fancy lounge chairs.  Some girls were singing covers of US pop songs on stage.  It was a fantastic spot to people watch.  Some of the strangest people were in that bar...from drunken kids to creepy old men who clearly had bought their dates :S  After a few drinks we gave up on the place and headed downstairs where Andrew worked his haggling skills again and managed to get himself a Beats Pill from $45 to like $17.  He was pretty proud of himself. It was the funniest exchange...I had to get a photo.  Then we went back through Pub Street and had a few beers, and called it a night.  The Cambodian heat sure does make it hard to stay up late. I was in bed by 10pm (sometimes as early as 8pm) every night. What a party pooper.

SE Asia, Here We Come!

So there's been a change of plans...After years of hoping, I've finally been chosen to go on a monitoring and evaluation trip with my job at Stop Hunger Now!  But there was a problem...or well, a hurdle...I'm getting married in the fall.  They wanted to send me to SE Asia, specifically to Vietnam and Cambodia, but the director of Vietnams program was only going to be there from the end of September to the beginning of October...my honeymoon dates.  After thinking about it and talking with Andrew...we decided to make some big changes to our plans to visit Greece and Turkey and attach our honeymoon on to my monitoring and evaluation trip to SE Asia!

Angor Wat

The plan is to leave after the wedding and head straight to Vietnam. We'll do some evaluation visits with our amazing partners at Children of Vietnam and take a few days for touring around. From there, we'll fly over to Cambodia to visit our partners through Reach Now International. We'll be there for about a week since these partners are ones we haven't visited before.  I cannot WAIT to see Angor Wat! So excited! 

The last stop will be Thailand...specifically for our honeymoon.  We haven't determined the itinerary just yet but I have a feeling we will be staying somewhere in Phuket...gorgeous. The hotels are absolutely amazing and cost wayyyy too little. I am particularly excited about riding an elephant!!!! Andrew is excited about going to some shooting range he heard of to shoot off crazy guns....That will be interesting. 

Phuket

The whole thing is just so overwhelming. I can't believe we're going to get to go to SE Asia! It was the orignial plan to go to Thailand but we decided the flights were just too expensive. With this - I have most of my way (besides Thailand) paid for by Stop Hunger Now...so all we pay for is Andrew's flight and food. It's going to be hard working doing all of the planning, evaluating, and follow-up reports...but talk about a life changing experience!  I'm SO excited to share this with Andrew. It will be my first trip seeing our Stop Hunger Now meals in action and I get to share it with the person I love most in the world. I feel beyond blessed.  Tune in for more updates on our trip planning! Yay SE Asia!