After 5 weeks of wandering through China and a couple weeks of exploring Cambodia with Giannis, we finally achieved the travel conditions that we desperately needed: a beach, sunshine and uninterrupted relaxation. These criteria were provided by Koh Rong and Koh Rong Sanloem, which are small islands off the southern coast of Cambodia. Before reaching these destinations, we first had to fly from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville, which is a beach town and the nearest port for catching a ferry to the islands.
After an uneventful evening in Sihanoukville, we caught a ferry the next morning to the promised land. While it should’ve been a smooth, pain-free process, we instead were confronted with a drawn out, miserable process that made us all the more grateful to finally end up on a damn beach. First, we had to wait for a bus to pick us up from our hotel in Sihanoukville, which ended up being 45 minutes late. When we tried to get on the bus, we found it was jam-packed with tourists and bags such that we could barely fit on it. This bus drove us for a while to a random dropoff point in the city, at which point we were all forced to disembark and get on a second bus to take us to the port (which was different from our intended port (which was very close) because it was rendered unusable by the aggressive winds). This bus was so full that they just lined most of the aisle with luggage, effectively wedging us into the bus. After a good amount of driving, we were taken to a far flung port located on a dirt road with massive potholes where we collected our bags and were shepherded down a dock to a packed ferry boat.
Backpacks and luggage piled high in the bus to the dock. Seems safe.
Boats at the dock
Koh Rong
Three hours after our journey began, which included an hour long ferry ride, we finally arrived on Koh Rong! But unfortunately, our journey didn’t end there. Our hotel assured us that they would send a little boat to pick us up from the port on the island and take us to our rooms, but we eventually learned that the water was too rough and they were unable to provide the boat. This meant that we had to hike for 25 minutes on the beach and through the woods before finally arriving at our hotel which was underwhelming, to say the least, despite us doing extensive research on it in advance. On the plus side, we were able to stay in a delightful bungalow that had a nice, rustic feel. Unfortunately, our hotel was not on the beach and did not have a common area, so we were forced to hike into the woods to get to our bungalows. This wouldn’t normally be a huge deal, except for the fact that the woods contained birds that made the most ear-splitting “weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” sound that you could possibly imagine for most of the daylight hours, leaving us to question if this was paradise or a Cambodian torture chamber. Between the amount of time of our journey, the exertion of carrying our heavy bags to the hotel and the subpar conditions, Jess was in a pretty low mood. We all were. [Editor’s note: I still refuse to believe that these were birds. I think they were insects of some sort – the noise was so incredibly incessant and constant that we thought it was construction machinery at first and could not understand why the hotel would put that so close to the rooms!]
But we rebounded magnificently, because how bad is life really when you’re on a beautiful island? We spent the next couple days wandering to different spots on the island to lay on the beach, swim in the ocean and toss Frisbees around, really allowing ourselves to just relax and soak in much-needed Vitamin D (some of us (me) got too much sun, resulting in a brutal sunburn requiring shade and copious amounts of aloe vera for most of our time). It was delightful. We made a conscious decision to spend most of our time on 4K Beach, which is a quieter location with better beaches (but fewer bars/restaurants) than the “main town” area of Koh Rong near the port where we arrived. This decision was informed in part by the nature of the island itself. This was the more popular and developed of the two islands, which made it a haven for backpacking students to perpetually party and be debaucherous on a beach. That’s nice and all, but we’re (okay, I’m) too old for that crap. We just wanted to relax and enjoy ourselves. This is why, after a couple days on Koh Rong, we decided to relocate to the smaller Koh Rong Sanloem, another nearby island, to see if that suited us better.
Jess taking advantage of one of the many oceanside tree swings on the islands.
Ocean + Hammock = Bliss
Koh Rong Sanloem (KRS)
Once we arrived in KRS after a morning ferry ride, we immediately found the vibe to be much more to our liking. The best way to describe it is that Koh Rong was an island that had a local population and infrastructure that was discovered by backpackers, so they then tried to retrofit it into a tourist haven and, in turn, it is pretty run down and beat up. Conversely, KRS didn’t become a backpacker destination until more recently, which means that the infrastructure is newer and more thoughtfully developed. Also, because it’s not really known as a party spot, it caters to a bit more of an older, more mature crowd (i.e., us), so the vibe was more consistent with what we were generally looking for in our beach destination.
One of the many colorful boats that dot the beaches of KRS
Swings became a big theme of our time in IRS (at least for Giannis and Jess)
Told ya! Swings: surprisingly delightful.
After securing waterfront bungalows that were roughly 20 feet from the ocean, we commenced enjoying the last couple of days of Giannis’ time in Cambodia with some hardcore beach time. We took advantage of the many restaurants and resorts that put hammocks, lounge chairs, tree swings and other accoutrements right on the water, allowing us to enjoy the sound of the ocean, the sun and the relaxed lifestyle. Thanksgiving this year happened to coincide with our time on KRS, so we sought to take advantage of it by dressing up in our finest clothes (rest assured, we still remained barefoot while we strolled on the beach) and enjoyed a waterfront BBQ feast while surrounded along the beach by mood-setting tiki torches. It was awesome. We capped the evening with cocktails at a nearby tiki bar on the beach where we were entertained by a local Cambodian who did extremely impressive fire twirling. Despite our Thanksgiving being devoid of turkey and family, it was still just about as charming and memorable as we could’ve possibly hoped!
At our oceanside Thanksgiving feast in our “fancy” (read: non-beach bum) clothes
Darts became a favorite pastime of ours while on the islands. Btw, feel free to assume that I made that shot.
It wasn’t all dinners and darts for us – the beach was super pretty as well.
A day or two later we bid a sad farewell to Giannis, who had to return to NYC to resume his status as an employed homeowner, which left Jess and I to continue enjoying a couple of days in KRS on our own. Despite missing Giannis’ energy and positivity, we made the best of his absence by exploring more of the island and partaking of an activity. We had heard rumors of a place called “Lazy Beach” that was supposed to be way nicer than the stretch of beach where we were staying, so we set off on a 30 minute leisurely hike through a forest (with monkeys!) to the other side of the island where we were met with perfect beaches and amazingly clear and calm water. Jess was in heaven (I was pretty pleased too), so we spent most of our remaining days enjoying our time there. We also signed up for an afternoon boat trip to go snorkeling in the waters off the coast of Lazy Beach. Though the snorkeling was pretty unspectacular compared to other places where we’ve each done it in the past (Hawaii, Belize, Bahamas, etc.), it was still nice to just get out on a boat and enjoy the rhythm of the water for an afternoon.
The colorful boat that took us on our snorkeling outing
A closer look at our fancy ride for the snorkel trip and the random dog that swam to the boat and joined us for a while.
Selfie on the boat…
…and in the water
This is what Jess looks like when she’s eagerly searching the oceans for various obscure creatures.
…and here’s one of the aforementioned obscure sea creatures that she swooned over for an afternoon.
Sihanoukville
Though we loved spending over a week on Koh Rong and KRS, frequently contemplating whether we should just move there forever, we reluctantly pulled ourselves away and made our way back to Sihanoukville so that we could resume our travels/adventures. Unfortunately, our journey was far more eventful than we intended or desired, since the ferry back to Sihanoukville was one of the roughest we’ve ever experienced. The rocking of the boat was not just substantial enough to raise legitimate concerns about seasickness (at least for me), but it also left us concerned that the whole damn boat was going to capsize at various points. Amidst all this turmoil, the Cambodian crew of the ship continued laughing along and joyfully passing along plastic bags for passengers to use for vomit bags. Clearly everyone had a raucous good time. Sigh. [Editor’s note: I kept a death grip on Rorie’s leg for the entire trip, not just because I was nervous the boat would capsize but to literally keep myself from being flung off of the bench seat as we hit the waves from unpredictable angles. When there is a crew member who spends the entire trip distributing vomit bags to the passengers, you know it’s bad.]
We only had one evening in Sihanoukville before departing on an overnight bus for Vietnam, so our itinerary there was pretty light. Frankly, Sihanoukville was the saddest, trashiest version of a beach town that one could imagine, replete with copious offers of drugs from tuk tuk drivers, lots of old men (typically, but not exclusively, Russian) wandering around with young Cambodian women on their arms and burnt out backpacking partiers. This incentivized us to just get in and out of the city as quick as reasonably possible, rather than seeking to sample its wares. One thing I had wanted to do was try gambling there, since the Chinese have flocked to the city in the last few years and built a number of casinos. Without lady luck (aka: Jess) by my side, my foray into the gambling was brief and disappointing. I rapidly lost a couple hundred dollars while playing blackjack and didn’t even have a good time with it (since the blackjack tables were empty, nobody spoke English and I lost the money quickly), so that ill-fated venture ended as quickly as it started. Lesson learned: no more gambling in slightly sketchy and sad Chinese casinos. [Editor’s note: duh.]
The next day, however, we participated in a highlight of our time in Cambodia prior to departing for Vietnam: a cooking class. Our goal has been to enjoy a cooking class in each country we visited, and Cambodia was real treat. We signed up for a $20 class and ended up having a private teacher – Sinoun, a delightful lady with excellent English skills – show us how to make 4 Cambodian dishes in her wonderful rooftop kitchen area. Under her watchful eye we first made a Banana Flower Salad, which was pretty easy to make and had a delightful sauce on it with a bit of spice (she said my version of the sauce was better than Jess’s – NBD). We then followed it up with two different entrees that are mostly similar but slightly different: Jess made a Fish Amok, while I made a Chicken Curry (since Jess doesn’t like curry dishes that much) [Editor’s note: Sinoun said my dish was better than Rorie’s – NBD.]. Having eaten these dishes constantly during our trip, it was really cool to learn how to actually make them and the differences between them. Sinoun was great at explaining details and making the process enjoyable.
Finally, for dessert Sinoun gave us several options of dishes that we could make. We didn’t want to make it easy on her, however, since we had our hearts set on a dessert (Banana in Coconut Custard with Tapioca) that we’d eaten (and loved) earlier in our travels and that was Giannis’ favorite. She was more than glad to accommodate the request and showed us how to make the surprisingly easy, and extremely delicious, dessert on our own. We took pictures of each step and meticulous notes on the process, which should allow us to make it for friends when we’re back in the U.S. Just in case others want to give it a try themselves, below is the recipe.
Again, the cooking class was a ton of fun and a great way to end our time in Cambodia. Next we set off on an overnight bus for a whole new bundle of experiences in Vietnam, which we’ll try to recount soon as we hastily try to catch up on the blog (we’re woefully behind!) which is a byproduct of us having both bad WiFi in certain places (e.g., KRS) and playing way too much.
It was all fun and games until the food wars began.
Methodically muddling some type of food item, probably for her fish amok dish.
Posing with our awesome cooking guide, Sinoun.
Doing Khmer-esque cooking stuff.
A close up of Khmer Banana in Coconut Custard Dessert, just to incentivize you to make it for yourselves.
Khmer Banana in Coconut Custard Dessert
Bananas (1 per person, approx)
1L Coconut milk & coconut cream (cream from top of milk)
~50 grams dry tapioca
Sugar (3 tbsp)
Salt (little bit)
Rinse tapioca several times with water, drain, then soak 1 hour in water before draining it so that it can completely dry. Do all this before cooking.
Peel and cut bananas – long ways then small diagonal pieces (you basically want them to be bite-sized). Soak them in water with salt for 5-10 minutes.
Heat coconut milk (1L), add bananas. Cook for about 5 min until boiling.
(If using coconut milk from a can, don’t shake – use the water and set the cream aside, then add it at the end for best flavor)
Add teaspoon salt to bananas as they boil.
When boiling, add tapioca, continue to cook until tapioca is expanded and clear. I know this is vague, but trust us – the tapioca will transform over time from a white color to being basically transparent. It shouldn’t take too long, so just be patient.
When tapioca is clear, add sugar to taste (about 3 tablespoons). Stir, continue cooking 1-2 min, turn off heat.
Divvy the concoction into bowls, then spoon 2-3 tablespoons of coconut cream on top! Eat until your stomach is full and happy.
