A little paradise known to backpackers exists off the coast of Cambodia named Koh Rong. It is one of those places that every backpackers whose been there tells everyone else to visit. After having a less than pleasant opinion about some of the happenings in Sihanoukville we booked our tickets and were ready to go.
The morning started off a little rough. Running late we gave Ashleigh our breakfast order. The waiters got it wrong and instead of three orders of hash browns he brought only three hash browns in one order in a plate. Hahahahahhaa gotta love it.
So we scrap breakfast and go to the bus that we are worried about missing. Turns out the bus is delayed an hour. Not a good start. When the cattle cart, I mean bus collects us we pile in the back like sardines. Laughing we make our way down to the fishing port I had visited earlier.
At this point I realize that I'm not feeling too well. Not sure if my body is run down or what but I feel like poop. I can not wait to get to the island and just sleep it off.
Next we are headed on to a shoddy pier with some broken slates. The village that surrounds the area is living in extreme poverty. The makeshift houses line the streets and sea and are littered with trash. What a sad sight.
Then we get on the fast boat which will wish us away for forth minutes to paradise, or not. The water was choppy. The small dive boat swayed violently back and forth and up and down. I've never been on a boat that rocked that much. I was terrified.
I closed my eyes and waited for it to be over. Then a roar, a giant vibration, and a boom jolted my eyes open. This was then followed by a sputter of the engine then complete silence. The engine had failed. We were now stranded at sea. I swear I get all the great luck while traveling.
The boat operators rushed over and moved some seats, lifted up the floor, me got to work on the engine. Luckily they got one engine started and we slowly moved towards shore rocking in all directions. Two hours later, a bunch of sea sick vomit, and lots of cheers later we touched land.
Discouraged we dropped our stuff with Jen and Ashleigh and I went to look for accommodation. We walked around for about an hour. Each place we stayed at was unique and had its own charm. Almost every dorm we looked at was covered in awesome paintings and inspirational quotes. We settled back where we started at CoCo bungalows.
The selling point was that we were assigned bungalow 13, had a black cat waiting for us on the way, broke a mirror, and found a dead gecko. All signs were pointing for us to stay there. The four of us had our very own high ceiling bungalow. It was stunning.
We settled in and met our new friends from Sihanoukville to go on s little walk. Hugh, Tim, Marte, Kaya, Ashleigh, and Jenny made up our current group. We headed down the beach and into the jungle. A twenty minute hike through the jungle, over rocks, and through some water led us to 4k beach.
With not a sole I'm sight we swam in the beautiful water and soaked up the moment. This place is cool.
Back in town I started to notice the cool details of the island. Only a small portion is developed. There are no roads and the power frequently shuts off. At night there is no power. Half the village is run by backpackers and the other half is run by local Khmer people. It turns out they have been working together so that the locals will not be over whelmed or taken advantage of now that tourism is coming in. I found that to be a pretty neat thing.
The only road is one long walkway of sand down the strip. There are areas that water has made little streams. Planks are set down to create little walkways. The locals can been seen pushing carts of food and pop on little trolleys down these paths laughing up a storm while usually crashing at least once.
Feeling better already I settled in for dinner. The other went to nap so I sat down and made friends with the person next to me. A guy from the US. I had the most delicious BBQ dinner. Fresh tuna and they cooked the whole fish and brought it to me on a plate for five dollars.
At night it was finally time to swim with the legendary plankton. I wasn't going to believe it until I saw it. According to everyone when it's dark out if you walk down the beach to where it is pitch dark you can jump in the water and see specks lighting up.if you ever saw the movie The Beach you know exactly what I am taking about.
We waded out in the water. There it was! Between my moving fingers little specs of silvery blue sparkled in the water. What!!!! This can not be real life. Then I kicked me feet around. The water lit up glowing all around where ever I kicked. I spun and kicked and twirled making patterns int he water. It was magic. It was unreal. This only happens in movies! Things like this can not truly exist... But they do! Once more I found myself living in a movie that starred me. Happy, thrilled, mesmerized, proud, excited, blessed, and shocked are only a few of the emotions that ran through me as I watched this wonder unfold in front of me.
It was perfection.
Then the rain came. Lots and lots of ran. Where the rain hit the water a blue sparkle would appear. Something that could not get any cooler just got even cooler. I'm swimming in the stars.
Even though the walk home was cold in the rain and I would discover my legs were bitten to death by misquotes I would be lying if I didn't say it was one of the best experiences of my life.
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