stepping out alone

So, my first few days outside of Ratanakiri since our visit to Hoi An in October were interesting. Gilly, Vera and I were set to leave Banlung at 6am on the 17th, by 6:30, Bella had come to join us in waiting, and by 7:30, when the bus finally arrived, the entire UWS team was there to see us off, having all arrived at the house to start working, or to pick things up. We spent a few days in Phnom Penh, being cosmopolitan; shopping in the Russian Market, watching live music and having coffee in gleaming white cafes with huge windows and balconies overlooking the river. Gilly left after one day, and the rest of us split up last Saturday, when Cathy and Ingvill went to Vietnam and Vera and I headed down to Kampot.

On the bus ride I watched as the landscape slowly morphed into flat plains with huge rocky hills protruding from them. Kampot itself is a very French colonial style town on a salty, clear river-estuary. We stayed in a dormitory in Bohdi Villa, a beautiful carved stone building with a wooden terrace extended out in three levels right down to the water’s edge. I was able to swim everyday and have proper English Breakfast tea and the guest house was completely full with a mixture of friendly young travelers and older hippies who wished they were still friendly young travelers. At night, if you touched the water, you would see thousands of phosphorescent algae that lit up whenever they came into contact with something. I had never seen phosphorescence before; it is the weirdest feeling to swim in the water and have a glittering glow around you wherever you move to.

On the first day in Kampot we went open-top kayaking on the river, and though I didn’t have time to complete the wonderful looking route that was suggested to me, it was really nice to get back in a kayak and do some proper outdoor sport again. It was nice to know that I can still do it. I suppose kayaking is like riding a bike; it becomes instinctual once you know how to do it.

The next day we went to the Kampot cave, Phnom Chnork. We arrived in a tuk tuk and we immediately bombarded by young children all with wonderful English. One girl was faster at talking to us than the others and became our guide around the caves. We had picked a good day to go, because the foot of the stairs to the cave was crowded by people and everywhere was decorated with banners and tinsel because there was a celebration of Buddha. The cave itself, up 203 steps, was full of stalactites and stalagmites, which according to our guide, were all in different shapes of animals, though that, as far as I was concerned, was down to personal interpretation. In the heart of the cave was a tiny, brick Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva. The simplicity of the 1,400 year old building is a complete contrast to the ornate natural structures around it.

Shiva's shrine

On our last full day in the South, Vera and I took a bus to the seaside town of Kep and then a rocky boat to Koh Tonsay (Rabbit Island), a journey on which we saw, not the shaols of fish promised by the guide book, but a couple of dolphins, not more that a few meters from the boat. If ever there was and island paradise, it was this. Golden sand led from the flat sea up to thatch-roofed restaurants and massage beds and behind them, the island rose into emerald hilltops. I spent the day beach-combing, reading, swimming. I also spent a good part of the time snorkeling, following shawls of tiny silver fish and watching bigger ones nibbling at coral. What cut into this paradisiacal day, was that, where ever you looked, there was litter, albeit more hidden than in other places. And the first thing we saw on coming back to the mainland was another beach, not golden, but grey and piled knee-high with rubbish. That evening we went out to a British style pub with some people we had met at our guest house - a German girl, a Canadian boy and a French boy, who hated France and lived in Barcelona. The pub was hosting a pub-quiz and we entered as the “international team”. Considering all of us were under 25 except the Canadian (who answered most of the questions) we did quite well and managed to scrape 2nd place. The team that won were given a huge jug of beer to share, and because of our effort, one of the winners came and offered us some free beer. The boy who came over ended up being a Steff from Caerdydd who was fluent in Welsh so I spent a very happy half hour speaking Welsh for the first time in 5 ½ months - a time period which I embarrassingly discovered has a significant impact on your ability to speak a language! Then, after teaming up with the French boy to be thrashed at pool by a middle-aged Northerner and his stunning Khmer wife, we called it a night and the next morning headed back up to Phnom Penh, where Vera and I finally parted ways. So, now I’m out on my own…