Paradise Island, also known as Koh Rong.

So after several days of wonderous temple ruins, great food and quality time with Boyfriend's family we decided that we needed a break from central Cambodia's red dust and we should head to the beach. It took a long and uncomfortable bus ride to get here, and when we arrived in Sihanoukville we were exhausted. First couple of days we slept a lot and wondered at the sheer number of tourists and establishments to serve them. I guess we expected something a lot smaller. So we were certain we had to get out to the islands, and as we had heard good things about Koh Rong, that's where we went.


We stayed at the Broken Heart Guest House, at the end of a 5-km white beach without any other guesthouses, and the closest village was an hour's jungle-hike away. So it was very secluded, and it was very basic, as there was no running water or electricity. But it was such a heaven! When we arrived by the boat the first thing to notice was how incredibly clear and turquoise the water was, and how long that almost deserted beach was. Then we realised that all of our belongings, and we ourselves, would be ferried to the beach by massive basket as the beach is very shallow.


When we arrived it was close to the sunset, and we rushed to our bungalow to get changed and get that first swim as the sun sets. Luckily we understood to get out of the water before it got dark, as there was no lights except in the restaurant and candles in the bar. Also, we came to learn that you would not want to walk anywhere without a flashlight, as there were quite a few typical residents of jungle about. My absolute least favourite were the dozen-or-so species of lethally poisonous snakes that luckily never materialized, whereas there was not much harm done by the rats eating our soap and food or sandflies biting us (edit: oh those sandfly bites itch now, five days later).

There was something absolutely magical about the style and pace of life. Wake up, go for a swim, eat some tropical fruit, read a good book, go for a swim, eat some barracuda, look at the sunset, sit in a hammock in candlelight, have relaxed conversations with lovely people, look at the stars, go for a midnight skinny dip to look at the luminescent plankton around you. Magical, I say, magical.

We planned to stay for four nights, ended up staying for six, and still wished we would've stayed longer. It was such perfect cure to so many weeks of hectic sightseeing and running from place to place trying to see it all. It truly felt like a holiday, removed from everything else except the nature and yourself. And the handful of people, luckily very interesting and friendly, who were there with us.


The unfortunate reality of this little paradise, however, is that the whole island has been re-sold by the government to the Royal Group. They plan to develop it to a five-star "eco-tourism" paradise with golf courses and an international airport (very ecological!), in the process relocating the four fishing villages on the island into one bigger one. In some sense it would be silly not to cash in the natural resource they've got there, but having had such a pleasant week on Koh Rong it just seems wrong to destroy the nature, the quiet, the lack of light and music, the absence of the rowdy tourists... The building work hasn't started yet, so go now before the magic's gone!

Water buffalo pulling (illegally?) freshly-cut wood out of the jungle.

(c) all photos by Boyfriend.

The return to civilisation was a bit of of shock after a week in the sticks, and we've finally gathering momentum to return to sightseeing mode. Since that week away, we've taken everything slower and we like it this way!

Charity work in Siem Reap.

Despite the millions of tourists visiting Angkor each year, Siem Reap province is the poorest in Cambodia. Most of the tourist money ends up in the pockets of international businesses running hotels and restaurants, and the profits from the expensive tickets to Angkor temple area flow into a big company, out of which perhaps only a small fraction goes to renovation work.

Most of the local people live very modestly and eke out a living where they can. A lot of the children sell postcards, drinks, books and trinkets on the streets of Siem Reap and outside the temples in Angkor. It is really difficult not to buy as they are very persuasive, but you still know that any money you give to them will keep them on the streets where they have a bleak future and not in school improving their prospects.

The schools are free everywhere in Cambodia, but the school uniforms and other materials needed require a big sum of money from the families (about 55USD each year). Also, as the schooling is not compulsory, many parents take their kids out of school around the age of ten to work, either on the fields or on the streets.

Example of local housing in Siem Reap. (c) Boyfriend.

We had the pleasure of learning of the important work that charities do in the region first hand, when an acquaintance from Penang introduced us to the president of Education for Population Support (EPS). EPS is a small, local organisation encouraging children to stay in school. They support children to stay in school from age of ten (when they tend to drop out) until the beginning of high school, stage where they tend to be motivated themselves to finish their studies.

In order to achieve this, EPS takes two complementary approaches. Firstly, they provide the school materials to the children of some of the very poorest families, reducing the costs to the family involved in schooling the child. Secondly, they support these poor families by giving agricultural training and materials. We spent a day with the president of EPS, and his insights into how to help people in a sustainable fashion and get them help themselves and each other were inspiring. I really hope his and EPS's work will bear fruit!

Kuala Lumpur and Siem Reap.

We've finally got a good internet connection and some time to use it, so below you can find a photo update with a couple of pictures from Koh Tao, Penang and Cameron Highlands. After that we've been in Kuala Lumpur, which was a vibrant and very developed city, and now we're already in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

We had only two and half days in KL, so we had quite a busy time catching everything we wanted to see. First day we strolled in Chinatown and Pasar Seni (Central Market) browsing all the beautiful and fake things for sale, and the Colonial Core to check out some of the majestic old buildings. Unfortunately then it started to rain, so we dropped by in Little India for quick curry dinner and then took the metro to Malaysia Tourist Information Centre for a cultural dance show. Unfortunately their brochures were out of date, so the dance show was not anymore on the day advertised. We ended up taking the monorail through the Golden Triangle back to our guesthouse in China Town and having an early night.

On the second day in KL we headed outside the city to Batu Caves, a Hindu shrine dedicated to lord Murugan and decorated with 43-metre high statue of him. The main cave was enormous, and it would've been interesting to see during the Thaipusam festivities just a few weeks earlier.

The steps leading up to the cave were crowded with monkeys stealing everyone's food, and we got some quality pictures of them.


Our final day in KL we met up with family friends who took us around the area and talked extensively about Malaysia. We first visited KLCC, the modern city centre with tall skyscapers, and the beautiful Petronas Towers (but not the Skybridge as tickets had sold out) located there. For lunch we ate the best food we had in Malaysia, which is a feat as all the food there is so delicious! Most of the afternoon we toured Putrajaya, the new administrative capital where the recent years have brought impressive ministries and monumental bridges crossing the artificial lake. We had seen pictures and wanted to visit, but I have to say that it would've been impossible to carry out on foot as there was no sidewalks or public transport to speak of at all. The day was topped off with the Blue Mosque, local coffee with kaya (coconut jam) sandwiches, a beautiful Chinese temple and another delicious meal. We were very delighted with the day and how much we could see and learn!

Next morning we flew from KL International Airport to Siem Reap, as we had found really cheap flights from Malaysian Airlines (although everyone expected us to fly AirAsia or some other budget airline). The service on the plane was perfect, and we were positively surprised by the efficiency of Siem Reap airport visa services. I think it took me longer to fill in the form than them to process it! From the airport we headed to our "hostel" and were positively surprised (once again) to find three-star-hotel-quality at hostel prices (12USD for a double with A/C, own bathroom, hot water, TV, spacious and in impeccable condition). So we warmly recommend staying at Siem Reap Central Hostel!

After relaxing night and day we met up with some of the Boyfriend's family who are here for one week to see Angkor Wat, and then we proceeded to relax a bit more. So after we had properly relaxed we had an afternoon tour of the Tonle Sap lake and one of the many floating villages. The lake is very important for providing floods for the rice and lotus fields, as well as numerous freshwater fish. The size of the lake fluctuates five-fold between the dry and wet season, and the people who live on floating houses (and farm fish under them!) move around for the calmest spot. We also saw a floating kindergarten and a school with playgrounds on the top, but unfortunately too many kids not at school but begging for money with various ruses - snake around his neck floating in a vat for an interesting photo, or a massage completely unasked for. After mentioning the kids and the not-so-well-off locals, it feels bad to say that then we watched the sunset in hammocks on a boat beers in hand and that was pretty relaxing.


Yesterday we finally headed towards the Angkor archeological park. The area is huge, and after a ten-hour tour we still saw a tiny fraction of it all. The temples are amazing, the sun is pretty hot out there, and the water bottles seem to empty up very fast! I don't think I can really summarise everything we saw (and plan to see in the next few days), so here's a couple of pictures.

Copyright of all pictures: Boyfriend.