“That’s what you get for being too nice” - Neil smirks as he watches me suffer from my 100th mosquito bite of the morning. The worst ones are the top of the foot - they itch like fire and seem to go straight to the blood, but I’ve collected bites all across my body (even through my clothing on my sides and hips!) Mosquitos freaking love me.
We’re sitting outside in the bar of our new hostel in Kampot, Cambodia after arriving here from a 11 hour night bus that we took from Siem Reap beginning at 7:30 p.m. last night. Unfortunately we can’t check in yet, so we’ve been chilling watching movies, playing on our phones and walking around the area while we kill time. All the while I’ve been collecting bites since I forgot to get bug spray before we left. Rookie mistake, and something I’m hoping to remedy as soon as the stores start opening down the street.
We’ve been in Cambodia for about 4 days so far - we flew in from Vancouver via Shanghai for a 25 hour journey (2.5 hours driving from Seattle to the Vancouver airport, a couple hours in the airport, 12 hours to Shanghai, 4 hour layover and 4.5 hour flight to Siem Reap). I actually flew from Austin to Seattle the day before on a 6:40 a.m. flight, so it was a rather heavy load of travel. Our first night was spent in a Marriott hotel using points since we landed so late, but after sleeping in and a nice (delicious!) lunch at the property, we made our way to the Funky Flashpackers hostel, known as “Asia’s best party hostel”. We were greeted by blaring music upon check-in because the day’s featured event - a massive pool party with pool-side DJ - had already been going strong for a couple of hours and was slated to continue until 8 p.m. (but really it lasted until at least 11 with a follow-up roof-top party until 1 a.m.). It was epic - and the party hostel absolutely earned it’s name. My favorite part was when we walked by the bar on our way to the room after check-in the full staff yelled “WELCOME TO FUNKY!” - I knew it was a going to be a good stay! We decided upon check-in that we’d tour Angkor Wat the next morning for sunrise, which meant a 4:20 a.m departure, so we turned in early after a couple of very fun hours in the pool and attempted to sleep through the music.
Angkor Wat was pretty awesome. We went on a tour with other people from our hostel and had a very nice English speaking guide that called himself “Johnny Bravo”. Our first stop was Angkor Wat itself (the temple that gives the region its name) where we got to see it at sunrise. The temple is from the 12th century and was originally a Hindu temple that was converted to a Buddhist temple. I loved seeing all of the unique carvings and was amazed by our ability to walk through all of the structures. We followed Angkor Wat with breakfast then visited Bayon Temple and finally the one that is known for its role in Tomb Raider - I forget the name of the temple, but it used to be used as a University in the early 13th century - how cool is that?!? There are massive sponge trees that grow throughout the space as well and even on top of and through the buildings!
We made it back to the hostel around noon, so we had a quick lunch and then enjoyed the AC in our room and napped for a couple of hours before getting back up and ready for dinner, a trip to the circus, and the hostel’s pub crawl. We had dinner in a night market - I had a great flat noodle dish and Neil had pizza (!! It was everywhere - there’s so much western food in Cambodia, but we were pretty tired still so we had some coffee when we made it back to the hostel before going out. That plus the nap and some energy drink mixers gave me a ton of energy, because before I knew it it was 6:00 a.m.! I normally struggle to stay out late, but this was so natural probably because my internal clock was still set to Texas, which is 12 hours earlier. It was good company too, so the night flew by in great conversations and fun dancing. Shout out to Sonu and Sagar our friends from Calcutta that were part of what made the night so fun. The most miraculous thing of the night was the fact that I managed to get up and ready by 8 a.m. for my 2nd day of temple exploring. Neil only wanted to go to Angkor Wat for a day, but they offered a 3-day pass and I wanted to see a couple more spots before leaving, so I joined 2 other guys from our first day tour on a second day of exploring. Instead of a guide and a van, we hired a personal Tuk-Tuk for the day for $21 total, and he took us to 7 temples on the “big loop” that fewer tourists visit. I was amazed by how each temple was different, and we had the chance to see temples from as early as the 10th century. It got REALLY hot by 11 a.m. or so and we stayed out there until around 1:30, but it was definitely worth the second day exploring.
I took the rest of the day pretty easily since I didn’t get back to the hostel until around 2 p.m - took a nap, and then joined a group from the hostel to go see a movie at a “theater” - which turned out to be a living-room style place with a projector and downloaded movies. We had 10 of us in the group and watched Tomb Raider, so it was fun, but more for the novelty of it than the quality of the experience. Unfortunately the room had mosquitos, so I was pretty uncomfortable for the first 20 minutes until the darn bugs got their fill of me and no longer needed to feed. After the movie we went to explore the night markets and ate some street food before returning to the hostel for the “Gender Bender” party - a gig where boys dress like girls and vice versa and perform on a catwalk, all while guests enjoy an open bar. I ended up skipping out on it - but did sneak up to the Sky Bar to catch a glimpse of the cat walking - it was pretty funny!
The next day was chill since we had to check out. We spent the morning planning our next move (to Kampot, to Koh Rong, to Phnom Pehn??), enjoying breakfast with friends from the hostel, and booking a night bus for the evening (Kampot won out!). Afterwards Neil went back to the hostel to chill and I treated myself to a 3-hour spa package because why not when the prices are so great! In general, beer costs between $.50 - $1.00, meals between $1-$3, transport around $2-3 one-way in the city, and tours around $15. Massages can be found for as little as $3/hour, but I opted for a nicer spa that had beautiful rooms and A/C, and paid more for it. That being said, since it’s low season the spa hadn’t been getting many customers, and the owner was incredibly kind, talkative, and grateful for the business. My therapists were ABSOLUTELY amazing too, so it was well worth the “splurge”. As a part of my package I got a facial, and it was SO different from any I’ve done in the U.S. - almost every product was food-based - a coffee scrub, a yogurt mask, and a full ice-cold cucumber compress. I was shocked, but it actually made my skin feel AMAZING - I think it may have been better and more effective than any I’d had before that are more chemicals based. It also made for a great precursor to the night bus journey as it helped me get in a very relaxed state. I only had a little time between the spa and departing Siem Reap, so I charged my phone, ate some food at the hostel (THEY HAD THE BEST HOSTEL KITCHEN EVER), and changed my clothes for the journey.
OK - so now we get to the most bizarre / unique experience I’ve had in my travels so far - THE NIGHT BUS. Neil’s done a million of them so it wasn’t novel for him, but somehow I hadn’t used one in my previous travels so this was a new experience for me. You get to the bus, put your pack underneath it, take your shoes off and put them in a blue plastic bag, walk barefoot to your bunk, climb up on the bunk and SHARE it with someone else (it’s only twin sized). Luckily I’m with Neil so we shared and it was comfortable enough despite the close quarters, but if you’re alone you could end up sharing it with a local (man or woman), and sometimes even with their child or children since they don’t count for ticketing. I saw a couple families sharing one bunk, and we kept stoping throughout the route to exchange families - not really sure exactly what was happening, and I generally slept through it, but I was curious.
We stopped 2-3 times for the bathroom (lovely squatting toilets where the floor is soaked in urine) and snacks, and arrived in Kampot around 5:45/6:00 a.m. I was rather surprised at how easy it was to sleep, and was even comfortable for most of it. My shoulder fell asleep a couple of times and my back started hurting after too long in one position, but in general it wasn’t terrible. Oh - one thing I forgot to mention - the A/C units leaked, and the first bed I was assigned was SOAKED when we got there. We wiped it up with the blanket but it still dripped a lot, so we asked to change and they allowed us to move over one - although it was still leaking. I got a couple extra “shoe bags” and McGiver’d it by stuffing it under the fixtures to collect the water before it hit us, and it worked decently well.
Now that I’m done writing down the occurrences of the last couple of days I’m not quite sure what I’ll do next - we can’t get into our room until noon or so (3 hours), and I’d really enjoy a shower. I’m hoping some stores are open now and I can snag some bug spray - that would solve one problem :) Kampot isn’t a very tourist-heavy town, but there are some cool things to do here. I’m planning on doing a caving/climbing tour tomorrow or the day after, and we’ll probably go to one of the other hostels this afternoon to play in their water park. The town is also known for it’s pepper plantations, and there’s a national park nearby so both are other options. We can also rent scooters here for $4, so may explore that way as well. Eager to meet some other travelers soon and hear their take - they always have the best recommendations! Our next stop is going to be Koh Rong for beach time and diving (hopefully I’ll snag my advanced diving certificate), and then to Phnom Pehn for history lessons and a somber trip to the killing fields to learn about and pay our respects to the victims of the Cambodian Genocide from 1975-1979. Bye for now!
