Hello from Cambodia. I have so much to update. Last I wrote
we were still in Thailand just leaving Railay. From Railay, we headed to an
island called Koh Tao. I pretty much fell in love with it. Koh Tao is famous
for it’s SCUBA diving. I figured I should partake! I first signed up for what
they call a Discover Dive, which teaches you some basic skills for a supervised
dive with an instructor. I wanted to make sure I liked it first before getting
certified. Turns out, I don’t just like it, but absolutely love it. There is
nothing like being able to breathe underwater amongst coral reef and the most
amazingly beautiful fish. I saw all sorts of them! We saw a stingray,
barracudas, squid, and I’m pretty sure every single fish from the movie,
Finding Nemo. So I decided to get my Open Water Certification. It was 3 ½ days
with a small class of three other people, a Romanian couple and a French guy.
My instructor, who was amazing, was English and has been diving for 20 years
and living in Koh Tao for two. We had a mixture of class time/watching video
and then our skills and dives. It was so fun and I learned tons! I can’t wait
to go again!
We stayed in Koh Tao for just over a week because we loved
it so much. We then decided to venture on to a new country. We actually
couldn’t stay in Thailand for our full trip because we didn’t have a visa. Now,
we’re in Cambodia. Not before a looooooooong journey. We took a 3-hour boat
from Koh Tao to Chumpon where we boarded a bus at 7pm in the evening. The bus
arrived in Bangkok at about 4 or 5am where we waited for a van to pick us up to
then head to the Cambodian border. We finally arrived there around 4pm. Not so
fun! Our one big mistake of the whole trip is soon to come. To book
transportation from one country to another, you walk into one of the many
travel agencies and they put it all together for you… boat, bus, van, etc. Well
it always works out, but we kind of got screwed on this one. The van that took
us to Cambodia dropped us off at a “Tourist Center” so that we could exchange
our money. Over the last year, I’ve had to learn New Zealand dollar, Thai Baht
and now Cambodian Riel. I have so much give-up. So they tell us what the
exchange rate was and we believed them. Come to find out several days later,
they screwed us out of about $75-$100 or so. We’re not sure how much. We
should’ve known too because we never got a receipt. Oh well, lesson
learned. If that’s the worst thing that
happens the whole trip, then we’ve managed pretty well! We also came to find
out that everywhere in Cambodia takes US dollars! In fact, they use it more
than the Riel. So weird.
We first arrived in a city call Siem Reap. We checked into a
really nice hotel, which was such a nice treat after the horrible journey from
Thailand. The staff was all super nice, which makes such a huge difference when
you’ve been travelling for so long. We became good friends with the Cambodian
bartenders. They’re amazing people. They thought it was hilarious to teach us
cuss words in their language.
We spent some time visiting the famous Angkor Wat which is
the largest temple complex in the world. It was pretty amazing and very old! It
was built back in the 12th century. We didn’t actually explore the
whole place because, well, it was 100 degrees and our Tuk Tuk driver happily
drove us around the site instead of making us walk. The heat is about to do me
in. Glad I saw the temple though.
The following day, we had to make yet another agonizing bus
journey down to the southern coast that was promised to be about 8 hours but
ended up being about 13. I’m so over buses! I have to say I really
did enjoy
the first couple of hours just watching what was happening in every city we
passed. The people all have their own trades. They might sell fruit, make
jewelry, carve wood, construct Buddha, etc. They are hustlers though… begging
for your money. The average monthly income per household is $40!!! It’s insane.
You can really see the poverty here and it’s very sad. The children on the
beach are always trying to sell you something. Locals say not to buy anything
though because it encourages them not to attend school. They ask you to buy
something, you say no, and then they ask “maybe later”? If you say maybe, they
then ask you to promise and pinky swear. It’s best just to say no and then
ignore them or you’ll be sucked in.
As of now, we’re in a city called Sihanoukville, checked
into the cutest little hotel called Coolabah about 50 meters from the beach.
The owner is so friendly as well as the staff. They have great food and it’s
clean. That’s basically all we could ask for. Oh, and it’s super cheap. Only
about $30 US dollars per night split between Taylor and me. Tomorrow, we’re
going to go diving again. It’s a full day with two dives. Can’t wait!!!
After Sihanoukville, we’ve decided to head to Vietnam for
our last bit of the journey. Hopefully by plane this time. Don’t think I can
stand another bus. We’ll see.
