The bus we booked from Kampot brought us a few hours West to Sihanoukville with an immediate transfer to a speed boat to an island a few KM off the coast.  There are two major islands most people go to out of Sihanoukville , Koh Rong and the smaller Koh Rong Sanloem.  The larger island is much more developed and has a few proper buildings, roads and services.  Koh Rong Sanloem dose not have any roads and few services but the majority of people I talked to said to head to the smaller island for a super chill laid back few days on a beach island!  The logistics of getting from the bus to the boat were a bit confusing and nobody seemed to ever know what was going on, but eventually everyone boarded the boat and we were off to the island!

The ferry ride took about 40 minutes and cost $20 round trip, which initially seemed like a lot, but once I saw the boats and the speed in which we travelled, I am sure they were burning a decent ammount of fuel and it was a far ways, so the $10 per way was appropriate.  Once we got to the island Anna and I had booked different hostels so we parted ways.  I headed to the Easy Tiger hostel which had been recommended to me by the cousins Joe and Jack who had done the Thakek motorcycle loop with us.  They stayed there for two weeks so I figure it has to be decent.

The hostel was pretty chill, but also pretty dead when I arrived and the sun was going down so I couldn’t really go to the beach.  I decided to just go for a walk by myself and hopefully find people to meet up with.  It seems like the island economy is centered exclusively around tourists.  The entire island is basically just hostels and restaurants and there are a lot of foreigners walking around, so I figured it would be pretty easy.  I ended up not really running into that many people and on my travels saw an all you can eat BBQ buffet for $8 and so my dinner decision was made.

I walked in and saw two larger tables full of people, the one was full but the other had an open seat.  I asked if I could sit down and was invited to join the group.  The table consisted of a girl from Belgium, another Canadian named Mike, two guys from Japan and two Germans.  I feel like I dissapointed myself a little bit with how much I ate because I got full pretty quickly which I guess in the long run is a good thing since I for sure ate enough.  The food was great and the lot of us decided to head down the beach to a place to grab a drink and hang out.  The night was pretty chill and things ended pretty early.  I had planned to go for a 20km long run the next day, so headed to bed early so I could beat the heat in the morning.

I woke up bright and early the next day and laced up my shoes for a run.  I didn’t really have a game plan for this run because like I said before there aren’t really and roads on the island and so I was stuck with beaches and jungle trails.  I misjudged how bad the jungle trails would be as well as how much harder running on sand is.  I ran out to the end of the furthest beach you could get to by foot and back while adding in a few detours for more distance.

Let’s just say the going was slow and things did not go as well as expected.  I ended up quitting at 16km, which still ended up taking me over 2 hours which is usually the ammount of time I can bang out 25-30km.  Pace aside, I think the training run did it’s work as the legs were hurting pretty bad.

During the run, I ran into Annie from the initial motorbike crew from Day 1 in Vietnam.  I knew she was on the island but was having trouble getting a hold of her.  Her friend was giving props to the guy that was on the island running and as I got closer she was like “that’s Mike!”  We chatted briefly and made plans to head over to the beach on the eastern part of the island which was on the other side of the jungle trail I had just run.  I agreed to join them after I had a shower and ate and stuff.

The walk up the trail the second time was not very fun and for some reason I decided to try my luck walking along the water because it was low tied and the rocks were exposed.  This turned out to be a bad idea as it was a lot slower going than the jungle trail.  I eventually made it to the beach and had a super relaxing day in the sun!!!  I was wearing legit sunscreen this time so didn’t get burned!!!

When it was time to go back I had seen advertisemnts on signs around the island for water taxis but this beach was a bit more remote so I didn’t think I would be able to find one.  I had said to myself that I would take a boat if I could if it was under $5.  Just as we were about to enter the forest to head back on the jungle trail, a guy yelled out to us and asked if we wanted a water taxi to our bay.  I asked him how much and he said $3 which meant it was an absolute yes from me.  We jumped on the boat and had a relaxing return to our bay.

The girls were switching hostels that night, so we went to their new one for a drink.  That hostel was doing family dinner that night, so I decided to just stay there and eat with them.  The power went out for a considerable time so we ate by candle light which was actually pretty nice.

That evening I was feeling pretty tired after a long day, so called it early.

The next day I woke up and went for a short jog down the beach just to get my legs going, it was just as bad as the previous day but I wasn’t actually planning to do a training run so it was ok.  After the short run, the people at the hostel were organizing a boat trip out to the southern tip of the island and I decided it would be good to get off the beach.

We set off around noon and took off towards lonely beach which was a more isolated beach on the west part of the island.  There are a few hostels there but in general pretty deserted.  It also had a reef for snorkeling which we did for a while.  After hanging out on the beach for a while and getting lunch, we hopped back in the boat and took a ride up to the southern tip of the island, where there is a lighthouse on a hill with an amazing view.  It was about a 25 minute hike up to the lighthouse, but the sun was starting to come down and the view was amazing.

After hanging out at the lighthouse for a little while, taking the necessary selfies and enjoying the view, we headed back to the boat and set sail for our hostel.  That night I was pretty tired so just called it quits early.  I booked my boat for the next day off the island and went to sleep.

The next morning I woke up, packed my bags, had breakfast then jumped on the noon ferry back to the mainland.  I was initially planning on staying on the island for one more night, but the lack of running roads and the fact there was a jungle party being thrown on the day I left, I figured I should go check it out.

Upon arriving in Sihanoukville, I wanted to check out a brewery in town, before heading outside of town to otres village where the party that evening was taking place.  I got a ride to the brewery and it was deserted, save for one guy working in the back.

He still poured me a beer and I hung out there by myself for a bit.  I was a brewery/KTV which was a litle strange but they did seem to distribute a little but as a delivery truck came by at one point to pick up some kegs.  The place was pretty dirty and the water in the bathroom didn’t work (sorry next person to use that toilet) but the beer was surprisingly good.

They had a lager, a stout and a strong ale.  I wanted to go for a run that evening, so I only tried the lager and the strong ale as they did not have tasters.  I had arranged for my driver to come back and pick me up and he eventually took me to Otres Village where I would be staying that evening.

I arrived at my hostel around 3pm and so I gave myself a bit of chill time before starting my run.  Initially I was thinking to do something like 13km or so, but once I got going, I decided to make it into a proper half marathon and do 21.1km.  I started about 2 hours before sunset so it was pretty hot, but luckily there were plenty of vendors selling cold water along the side of the road, so it was easy to stay hydrated.  Upon my return, the hostel owner poured me a bar and I took a quick dip in the pool to cool down.  After showering and getting ready to go, I headed into town to meet up with Scotty, Dirk and Cherise (part of the crew I met in Don Det) for some pre jungle party embibing.

I kept hearing about this jungle party in Cambodia from various travelers over the past few weeks and never really got any details until I got to Ko Rong.  Turns out that every Wednesday night, a group puts on a party in the jungle called the kerfuffle party.  It’s basically a rave in the jungle that starts at 10pm and goes until 10am although most people don’t show up until 1am or so.  The venue has some pretty rickety carnival rides, a giant stage for the DJ and some wooden structures for chilling.

A few people wanted to go before 11pm because cover was half price but I knew that people wouldn’t be there until at least 1am so suggested we wait but the majority won out.  We arrived and things were predictably pretty dead so I gave my belongings to a friend and had a nap for about an hour and a half.  When I woke up there were a lot more people and things were starting to pick up.  This is also around the time the fire performers started.  There were three and they all took turns performing with various implements lit on fire.  They were pretty good too.

In general, this type of party is not my style, but I am always open to trying new experiences.  It was probably a bit different because most people there were on some sort of drug and I hadn’t really even drank that much.  Not doing drugs myself, I guess I had a bit of a different perspective.  The good thing though is that I really like to dance and don’t need any form of intoxicant to have fun dancing into the wee hours of the morning.  The music was a bit repetitive and not really my style but I made due and danced the night away.  I gave the ferris wheel a go and met up with some people I had met along my travels including Emily, who popped up again after not seeing her for a few weeks.

At around 4am, it started to pour rain, which was actually pretty refreshing, the only problem was that the ground turned to mud and it got a bit messy.  I stayed until about 5am before I decided I had had enough and went home.  I had to check out of my hostel at 10am so I needed to get home so I could sleep a little bit.  There is apparently an after party in town starting at 10am and some people continue to party all through the next day as well.  I can say that I did not do this as I had booked a bus to Batambang that evening.  That day, I hung out in the lounge chatting with the regulars at the bar, had a burrito for lunch and then went for a short run.  I then had a few beers with my new friends before getting a ride into town to catch my bus.

Overall the party was pretty fun and a nice experience.  I had fun and was totally glad I went.  That pretty much finishes up the southern part of Cambodia, time to head north to Battambang then Siem Reap and Ankor Wat!!!!