Day 37 of The Big Adventure, according to Sarah (Lauren has pretty much given up at this point).   

  
Our alarm went off at 7am (a little too early for my liking) and we began packing up our things in preparation for the island day ahead of us. The minibus came and collected us at 8am and took us to their ‘restaurant’ for breakfast (all included in the day tour, of course). We arrived at what can only be described as a metal shack with plastic table with 6 plastic chairs around it. There were already two couples seated, so we said our hellos and pulled up the other two chairs. 

One couple was Russian and the other was German. Lots of harsh accents for such an early hour. 
Halfway through our breakfast of fried/scrambled egg and a baguette I looked up to see that the German that I had previously thought was a man was, infact, a woman. 
We sat around for half an hour, when the tour guide told us to follow him and we all walked to the pier. A couple of Cambodians visiting from Phnom Penh also joined at the pier, but had decided to skip the western-style breakfast.

  We boarded our boat, which was the same size boat as we had been on for previous tours, and we thought to ourselves: this boat can’t just be for the 8 of us. But it was.

We set sail and about 10 minutes away from the pier, the engines began to make a funny sort of low grumbling noise. Second later the tour guide announced we would be taking a quick 10 minute break to fix some engine problems. Oh great. 

Lauren and I were at the front of the boat (best view, obvs), while the others in our strange little group all sat further back. The local Cambodians were rather chatty and began talking and joking with the rest of the group and they ended up cracking open a bottle of red wine. They came to offer us some and Lauren readily accepted. 

I’ve never been a huge fan of red wine (especially not straight after breakfast) but Lauren informs me it was actually rather nice. 

Thankfully, the crew managed to fix whatever problem there was with the engine and we were on our way 🙂 

First stop was Koh Tas – a very small, uninhabited island that is mostly visited for just day trips. 

The tour informed us this was the snorkelling stop so we donned our masks and snorkels and jumped in. As always, time seems to escape us when we’re floating around with the brightly coloured fish and before we knew it we were being called back to the boat. 

Next stop: Koh Rong Saloem. This is the smaller and quieter of the two islands. When we pulled up to the pier we were both left speechless. It was literally paradise. 

  Pristine white sands, turquoise waters and just a few bamboo beach huts lining the beach. We all disembarked and followed the tour leader to a little wooden restaurant where we would have our lunch. 

  
We sat and over looked the crystal waters and came to the conclusion that this would probably all be ruined in a few short years, very much the same way most of the Thai islands have gone. 

But for now, this was the perfect slice of paradise. 

  
We were allowed an hour to swim in the waters and wander up and down the beach. 

  As always, the time went too quickly and before we knew it, it was time to head back to the boat. 
Next stop: Koh Rong, the larger island of the two, with a lot more going on. 

We arrived on the pier and could already see the different between the two islands. The beach was strewn with sunbathers. The shoreline was packed with restaurants, bars, hostels and shops.  

 We walked along to get an ice cream and were stopped a couple of times by promoters trying to get us to go their bar that night. This was the annoying thing with tourism – you need a certain amount to make things easy to do (like buy a pint of milk, have aircon in your room) but too much and it becomes an annoyance (like these street hawkers). 

We bought two magnums (we’re still to find an elusive white magnum, apparently the whole of south east Asia only has classic or almond) and tried to pay with a $20 note. 

The old lady behind the counter looked at it and then looked back at us and then looked back down at it. She was clearly concerned with the small tear that it had in it and began trying to squish it together on the table. We hadn’t a clue what she was doing but had decided to start on the Magnums as they melt so quickly in heat and we had no time to waste. The old lady called over a younger woman who clearly spoke English, who explained to us that the note had a tear in it and did we have another one. 

We told her it was the only one we’d had, and we’d been given it from the currency exchange so it must be fine. After some umming and ahhhing they said it was fine and gave us our change. By which point, we’d both pretty much finished said ice creams. 

We walked back along the beach and found a nice spot so that we could go for a dip. 

  April in Cambodia is the hottest and driest time of year, with temperatures reaching 40degrees most days so we relished any chance we got to go in the water. 

  
Again, after seemingly no time at all, it was time for us to get back on the boat. 

The journey back to Sihanoukville took about 2 hours and while Lauren had a cheeky little nap on the top deck, I watched the sun set off the back of the boat. 

  

  
I wish we’d had more time to spend on those islands, but when we’d looked at accommodation we’d found prices were much higher for worse quality so we’d opted not to. 

Maybe next time… 
When we reached Sihnoukville we headed back to Zana beach house to grab our backpacks and then got a tuktuk to our new hostel: Sihanoukville Grand Plaza. 
We were both pretty shattered from our day and just had a few bit and bobs from the snack pack for dinner (a marmite and crisp sandwich for me). We ended up watching some horrendous thriller movie on TV and I tried once more to book some flights. Again, with no success. 

After the film ended Lauren said she wasn’t feeling quite right and wanted to try and get to sleep. So we settled in for what turned out to be a long night of toilet runs for poor Lauren…