Monday 2nd August return from Koh Rong

Monday

We had never fully decided how long to stay on the island it was slightly dependent on the weather. Our aim had been to expose the children to "about as remote as you can possibly get" within the core backpackers circuit and we thing we achieved this. The logic was as follows. Many backpackers go to Asia but Cambodia is still outside most people's itinerary. Off those that do go to Cambodia most only go to Siem Reap or Phnom Penh only some get to the coast at Sihanoukville. Of those who get to Sihanoukville, only a few go to Islands. off those who go to Islands most go to Koh Rong only a few go to Koh Rong Samloem. Off those who go to Koh Rong Samloem, most do not do the sweaty hike across the island hence there being only a very few people on our 1 km of beach

During our group  conversation over evening food yesterday we realised that  the choice was essentially 2 more nights then a night back in  Sihanoukville then straight back to Phnom Penh or we could leave today and take in Kampot and Kep which the backpackers circuit told us were well worth a visit. The fact that all our stuff was damp by being on the island (and I mean everything) plus last nights torrential rain made our mind up. Fortunately the rain stopped by 7 am and at 10 am we set off in bright sunshine for the walk back across the island. A delightful Chinese family also crossed at the same time, he was a university professor so had reasonable grasp of English. He said we were lucky to have 3 children, they of course have 1 a very shy 13 year old girl. Stereotypically they took photos of everything that moved! Unsteriotypiccally they were well off the beaten track and travelling individually. We gave them travellers tips for Battambang where they were next heading to next and they invited us to China and took umpteen more photos!

We had an hour or so on Saracen beach and a drink in a cafe before our boat arrived. We jumped on in blazing sunshine and blue skies. The boat went first to Koh Rong island (comparatively  much busier but still plenty of beach per person) then returned to Sihanoukville and the Ropanha hotel where we were reunited with our bags. We surfed tenet to identify somewhere to stay in Kampot and arranged a minibus taxi. Our clothes from the island really did smell with ingrained dirt and damp so we took them to a laundry and jumped in the hotel pool which was bliss. In the evening we had BBQ fish to eat - lovely.

Every day, we have a "spot the hippy backpacker  of the day competition" - think we excelled today!