PLACES: Road trip day 2 - Kep, Cambodia

To get an idea of how Cambodia was like during the French colony it's the best to get to Kep. I would call it the posh Cambodia. You will be surprised of the cleanliness and the European influence in architecture and infrastructure. You'll even see trash bins and fancy cars everywhere. It's just 30 km away from Kampot and easy to get there. If you just follow Rd 33 towards Vietnam you'll get there in just 40 min. Take a ride through the paved road by the beach and enjoy the cool breezy weather of the south coast. There's not that much to do in Kep that you have to stay there overnight. Just do a day trip from Kampot and you'll be fine. Arriving from Kampot you'll notice various restaurants by the beach selling fresh sea fruits from the Gulf of Thailand. Have a seat by the water and watch the fishermen do their job. The main dish of Kep which you really have to try is crab. There's nothing more delicious than fresh crab from Kep with Kampot pepper. Mmmh... yummi!
If you plan to stay in Kampot overnight then you should better get back before it will become dark. The road is good though but you don't want to get stuck in the dark if something happens to your motorbike. Trust me!

- AJ -

PLACES: Road trip day 1 - Sihanoukville to Kampot, Cambodia

There's a lot of beauty to discover at Cambodia's south coast but it's a bit tricky to get away if you're not into traveling individually and you prefer to depend on public transportation and travel agencies. Just think of how exciting it would be to just go around places on your own without booking expensive bus tickets, letting tuk tuk drivers break your head our wasting money on time pressuring day tours. So if you really want to travel through Cambodia's south coast and discover the non-touristic areas depending all on yourself then the best way to get away is by motorbike. This will always be an unforgettable experience and it will definitely not be the last road trip you want to do. My friend and I weren't sure of how to go to the main spots in the south - Kampot, Bokor Hill Station, Kep and Sihanoukville - without spending too much money and time on transportation. So after two beers and three strong whiskey-cokes we started being silly and came up with the not-so-serious idea ("Schnaps"idee) to just travel on our own by motorbike for few days before seperating. The not-so-serious idea didn't leave our minds for days and it turned out to become really serious and an unforgettable travel experience full of good memories and hopefully a friendship that will last for a long time.

So the most important question is of course - Where do we get a good (it turned out to be not as good as in the beginning) and cheap motorbike for three days? 

There are a lot of travelers who want to get rid of their motorbikes at the end of their journey after 1-2 months of driving through Asia but why spend 250$ and having hard time to find a buyer after the short road trip if there's a possibility to rent a motorbike? We started in Sihanoukville, the only city-like place in the southwest of Cambodia where we found a beautiful old Honda Phantom for 10 $ per day which was owned by a friendly Cambodia guy. After checking the bike (not properly enough though that it actually gave us real pain in the a** after two days) we got it. We packed all what we needed in one backpack and left the rest of our belongings in a locker. There are always hostels where you can rent a locker and leave your belongings there for the time you're out of town. So that's all you need for the road trip - a motorbike and a locker where you can leave your stuff. We left ours as the "Utopia hostel" for 0,50 $ a day (plus 5 $ deposit).

Check the fuel and check the weather before leaving and then you should just head to road NH 3 for about 120 km east. It's really not difficult to get to Kampot. Just make sure that you won't get lost on your way out of Sihanoukville. The complete way of NH 3 is newly paved so don't worry about any bumpy road trip experience. After leaving Sihanoukville and entering the high way there will be a border where vehicles must pay a fee. But for motorbikes it's free to get on the NH 3 just drive through the exit on the right for motorbikes and you can continue driving. With few stops on the way and an average speed of 80 km/h it will take you about 2,5 hours to get there. Be aware of cows suddenly crossing the road and school kids riding their bicycles. If you see more and more stalls by the road selling smelly durian fruits then you know you're getting closer to Kampot, the town of durians. 

You notice that you're in the town's centre when you get to a roundabout with a huuuge durian sculpture. It's impossible to not notice that the Kampot people are really proud of their well-running "durian economy". 

There are several cheap guest houses around town. The farther from the river you get the cheaper the accommodations are. Take your time to look around so you won't end up paying too much money for a crappy room. 

- Welcome to Kampot, the town of durian.

Things to do in Kampot:

- eat durian of course (no matter if you like it or not, it's a must-to-do!)

- roam around the crowded town market and get some really cheap baguettes, hopias!! and fresh fruit

- have a (or two) beer by the river in the cool evening and watch the sun set

- have dinner at one of the nice riverside restaurants

- do a day trip to the Bokor Hill Station

Keep cool,

- AJ -

PLACES: Otres Beach - Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Sihanoukville isn't that bad at all. After hearing all these bad experiences from other travelers who have already been there I was almost going to skip this place. But after doing some research on my own it actually didn't seem to be that bad at all. And no matter what others say - You should always make your own experiences to get your own opinion.

So figuring out that the Otres Beach is a pretty laid-back place it immediately caught my interest. The best way to get there is from Sihanoukville town where you can ask a tuk tuk driver to bring you there. During day time you might pay min. 3 $ but as soon as it gets dark the drivers will charge you min. 5 $. You should always stay resistant when you bargain. It might take time and patience to find a cheap driver but it's not impossible to find one you can easily bargain with. 

Otres is just one long road by the beach with bungalows and beach bars on both sides. I recommend to get a bungalow on the beach side of the road. Well, it's not really a road it's just a dirty, stony, sandy path next to the beach. Go further down the road to find cheaper accommodations. A 2-person bungalow varies from 10-30 $. My travel buddy and I stayed at "Chez Paou" in a really nice bungalow right by the beach with a great view by the water. At night we fell asleep to the sound of the waves. The bathrooms outside are shared with the others but they are clean and mentained very well. In one of the showers there's even a huge tree growing. It was an amazing place with a friendly staff, a nice bar and great pool tables. We got a bungalow for 15 $ a night instead of 20 $ because it was low season. It's a bit far from Sihanoukville town so you would need to rent a scooter to get around. And once in a while the electricity cuts off for several minutes, so you have to be aware of total darkness sometimes. It's a great place to stay in Sihanoukville if you want to prevent young backpacker kiddies getting drunk, taking drugs like stupid and sleepless nights in noisy hostels. Otres beach is definitely the most laid back beach in Sihanouville. There're also few travel agencies there which would arrange  bus tickets to your next destination.

- AJ -

LIFE: Solitude - Hello and good bye homesickness!

Hello homesickness and good bye again! Traveling alone is one of the most exciting things you can do. You make such amazing experiences and there's always something or someone new to discover. It can either be a new travel buddy, a friend, locals but mostly it's yourself who you discover from a new side each and everyday.
Something you're definitely going to discover is traveling's biggest enemy - homesickness. Thinking of how much better you would feel like being back home with your family and friends and feeling comfortable in your trustful home with all the familiar surroundings will just ruin your travel experiences. When you're homesick it feels like your discovering the world through a pair of glasses of negativity. Everyone and everything seems uninteresting and you're not feeling like you want to go out and discover the world. You will mostly like to crawl away into a hole just spending the whole day in bed reading a book or siting in the most western cafés which looks like at home to use their WiFi so you can connect to the digital world of back home and feel like you're there. Your diary entries start to sound pessimistic and your backpack starts to get more chaotic than in the beginning. Everyone in your dorm who tries to make friends with you is just bothering your privacy and you wish you would be in your own room back home instead of staying in a 6 to 12-bed dorm for months sharing a bathroom with several strangers. You start taking lesser pictures than in the beginning of your traveling and you spend more time sending long messages to people back home hoping to receive a long massage back. And you just feel like you're out of place and you're missing out all the great stuff happening back home while there's actually nothing exciting going on back home that you would miss out.
Don't let homesickness ruin your days while traveling because these days should be unforgettable and you know that one day you will return back home. Just remember that it was your own decision to travel alone so stop complaining and destroying your amazing experience. Treat yourself with a nice breakfast and start the day with wanderlust, motivation and positive energy. Look forward to all the amazing countries you're still going to visit, all the strange food you're going to taste and all the interesting people from all over the world you're going to meet. Traveling alone is like riding a roller coaster of  emotions. You just have to deal with it.

Good ways of curing homesickness:

- write down your emotions in your travel journal
- write a blog post about homesickness (hahaha)
- look for a café or a restaurant where you get the same food as back home (it is expensive though but once in a while you should treat yourself)
- send pictures to friends and family so they can take part of your experience. This will let you feel less alone
- ask people in your hostel to join you having breakfast, lunch, dinner etc.
- talk to other travelers about your homesickness - everyone had, has or will have the same problem so don't think you're the only traveler who misses home

Always be curious!

Love,
- AJ -

PLACES: Killing Fields and Prison S-21 - Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Missing out the Killing Fields and the Prison S-21 when coming to Cambodia is a shame because nothing else in Cambodia has deserved as many visitors as these places which make us conscious about what happened in Cambodia's terrible history during the authority of the Red army in the late 70s. I know these pictures are terrible but I actually even chose the most harmless ones. I kept away all pictures I took in the Prison S-21 because these were too horrible to show on my blog. You should better just go there and make your own impression of these memorial places.
The best way to go to the Killing Fields which is a bit out of town is by tuk tuk. You can share it with others and pay around 13$ for the whole day. The driver will pick you up at your hostel, bring you to the Killing Fields, to the Prison S-21 and back to your hostel. Use the amazing audio guide at the Killing Fields to understand the history better and watch a documentary at the end. If you already had enough of Cambodia's history then you should maybe skip the Prison S-21 because this is even more terrifying than the Killing Fields. But it's easier to imagine how horrible the days were that time if you visit both places.
And if you still didn't get enough then you should go to the Flicks Community Movie House and watch Oscar-winner "The Killing Fields" by Roland Joffé.

Visit:

- Killing Fields on Wikipedia
- the Flicks Community Movie House

- AJ -

PLACES: 4000 Islands, Laos

4000 Islands in Laos is the place you have to come to if you want to be a bit isolated from the rest of the world for a while. It's not exactly 4000 islands in the middle of the Mekong river but if you would count every single pile of sand then you'll probably discover 4000 "islands". The most laid-back island would definitely be Don Kong or also known as the "Big Island". Spending more than one day here is not really recommendable for people who like it when there are things going on. It feels like time would never go by when you stay here. If you are more into spending your evenings in a bar and  discovering the nature around with a kayaking tour then you should better stay on the Island Don Det.   

This is an island full of small cheap bungalows you can share with others or just stay in one of them on your own. Better chose one which is by the Mekong river so you'll have a nice view from your little terrace which mostly will have 1-2 hammocks and an outdoor fan. You can choose from bungalows with your own bathroom or with a shared bathroom outside which of course are cheaper but I wouldn't recommend them. Be sure that there's a mosquito net in your bungalow and check it on any holes or damages before you check-in.

It's a great islands which is easily discovered in 2 days. Spend one day discovering the island by bicycle and spend the second day with a kayaking tour around the islands where you get to see one of South East Asia's biggest waterfalls.

- AJ -

LIFE: Sporty Cambodians & aerobic session - Phnom Pehn, Cambodia

Just by looking at these active mid-age Cambodians make you want to put on your sneakers and get moving to the loud boom-box music at the Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh. Waking up at 4.30 pm it totally worth it to see this wonderful morning scene of elders getting their joints loosen and their muscles active starting their daily aerobic session at 5 am (YES! At 5 am). All you couch potatoes out their should take a look at these Cambodians and get your body moved.

Foreigners are more than welcome to join their aerobic sessions, you just have to pay the more than motivated trainer 1000 riel at the end of the session. It makes you so happy to see these elder Cambodians moving their hips and enjoying the sun rise to really 90s-like trance music. Also watch Cambodian tennis players at the Olympic Stadium hitting the balls on the courts in front of the beautiful city view or watch groups of Cambodians practicing their tai chi skills.

- AJ -