When we bought our tickets to come over to Koh Rong Sanloem, we purchased return tickets. However, we later discovered that the ferry wasn’t all that reliable and could be late or even not show. Since we had a flight to catch, it was a little nerve wracking. Not far from our resort was another ferry and it had one scheduled that was a good hour earlier than what we had already booked with the other company. We decided to get a new ferry ticket. Not only was it earlier, it was a lot closer to our resort.
We got up and enjoyed our last breakfast at the Sara Resort and settled up our bill with the front desk. We had been given a credit of $80 due to the fact that our room had been advertised as having a refrigerator in it and it did not. We still owed a good chunk of change as the meals were not cheap here.
We grabbed our stuff and headed down to catch the ferry. This was a very frustrating experience, as the ferry was late showing up by almost an hour. We actually saw our original ferry booking arrive, and depart, before ours showed up.
Once everyone was loaded, the driver really booted it, but came to an abrupt stop. They pulled the engines up out of the water and checked them. I guess everything was okay as they lowered the engines back into the water and we were off full speed again. It was really hard to get any pictures as we were really going fast and it was bumpy and wavy. Banging across waves. No comfort on this ride. We didn’t end up docking at the port we were supposed to be at and where we had a taxi driver waiting, that the girl from the hotel had arranged for us. I felt really bad about this, but there wasn’t much we could do about it. Apparently, because the ferry had been so late there was no room for them to dock at the intended dock. We did get to see a couple of cruise ships in port as this is where they dock when stopping here in Sihanoukville, Cambodia.
Getting a ride to the airport wouldn’t be an issue as there were Tuk-Tuk drivers offering rides left, right and center. We asked one guy how much to the airport. He replied with $US50. I replied “no’. I offered $US20, which I already knew was the going rate. We had checked this out before we left our hotel in Sihanoukville. I always like to have an idea of what taxis should cost. The Tuk-Tuk driver agreed to the US$20 and we were on our way.
Had a short stop for gas on the way, but we still had plenty of time. Turned out this port was quite a bit closer to the airport than the original port was.
We had booked with Air Asia to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It took a little time to get checked in, as there were people who had not prepaid for luggage, and were arguing with the agents that they wanted to carry their large & heavy backpacks onboard and not check them. It was so much cheaper to prepay for your luggage than it is to pay once you get to the airport. I don’t know what happened, as they were still there when we had finished checking in.
Flight was uneventful with the tiny seats. Guess you get what you pay for. Took us some time clearing customs, but had no issues. I always get nervous when having to go through customs. Not sure why.
We purchased a pre-paid taxi voucher as that seemed to be the best method of getting to our hotel. We had booked the Ramada for three nights. The first 2 drivers refused to take us and this was getting a little concerning. Turns out that our hotel was over an hour drive and I guess these taxi drivers wanted shorter distances for the same amount of money.
The drive was really quite pleasant and there were thousands of palm trees along the highways. Our driver was friendly, spoke passable English and we were able to carry on a conversation.
By the time we arrived at our hotel there was a heavy rain coming down. We checked in and went to our room. It was really quite nice with what turned out to be a view of the bar area street.
Once the rain let up, we headed out to look around and get something to eat. Found a large shopping mall that even had an indoor basketball court.
It had been a long day and we called it a night.
The owners saw us still sitting there and we mentioned that our ride hadn’t shown yet. Waited some more. Finally the owner got a hold of the ferry company and discovered that they had forgotten to pick us up. By now it was 1155, so the owners grabbed us a tuk-tuk from outside of our BnB/Guest House to get us there. The owner phoned the ferry company back to let them know that we were on our way. They were going to pay for the tuk-tuk as we had already paid for transportation with our ferry tickets, which we had purchased through them. I am guessing that the ferry company will reimburse them the transfer portion. We arrived at the dock around 1205 and the ferry had already pulled away, but was in the process of coming back to get us! Thank God as these ferries fill up days in advance. We had to jump from dock onto the boat, which was about 3 feet, while we were still wearing our day packs. It was scary!! Also didn’t get to take any pictures.
We were hungry and decided to grab a pizza, beer and dessert.
Watched a delivery arrive which was quite fascinating.
We had a nice dinner at the resort, but it was not cheap here considering we are still in Cambodia.
We enjoyed watching a kid practice his fire twirling talents.
After breakfast we did some hand laundry.
So hot here we are hoping it will dry…..turned out it’s too humid and not drying. There was rain in the forecast for 10:00 am. Didn’t happen but some dark clouds all day. Guess we’ll be packing some wet clothing tomorrow as it’s another travel day. Sihanoukville was really only a place to stop to arrange the ferry. Turned into a great place to work on our blog as their wifi actually works. Hadn’t been able to upload photos for a few days. Took a few photos of the ‘resort’
We headed out to walk the beach. If we went right it would take us along Ochheuteal Beach and into town. The resort owner, Gerald told us this morning that going left would take us to Otres Beach and was a shorter walk. We opted for the shorter beach to start with. Cambodia along with many SE Asia countries just don’t realize just how beautiful their country is. Garbage EVERYWHERE! Just disgusting.
They even had what looked very similar to Canada Geese.
Even saw a random cow every now and then, either walking along the road or crossing the road. There was pretty much everything on this road.
Choeung Ek is the most well-known of over 300 killing fields throughout Cambodia.
Our driver dropped us back at our hotel around 3:00. Have to say that it was really great having our own driver and not dealing with a bus load of people at every stop.
Since I was starving we ordered a jug of Anchor Draft and a plate of spring rolls to start while we looked over the menu and decided on what to eat. Doug chose beef tacos and I went with chicken satay. Both were delicious and my satay serving was so large that I gave Doug one to eat. There was no way I could eat all three of them. But of course I had room for dessert! The ice cream with Baileys on it just sounded too good to resist. Doug ordered strawberry ice cream with no Baileys and I ordered vanilla ice cream with Baileys. Both came with Baileys! LOL The ice cream was more expensive than the jug of beer.
Total for our meal with a jug of beer was $21.75 US. There is a story behind this next picture.
If you wanted to take pictures of the pieces you needed to purchase a ticket for your camera also. I didn’t think I would take any until we entered and I saw part of the collection. Headed back to the entrance and purchased my US$1 camera ticket. Turns out this museum holds one of the worlds largest collections of Khmer art. Over 14,000 pieces. Needless to say I would be taking a few, okay maybe a lot, of pictures. So many of the pieces were just magnificent.
We had to cover up to enter here so Doug had to zip on the lower part of his pant legs and I had to put on my sarong. The King’s Palace was made up of numerous buildings with many that were closed to the public or under renovation. Probably a good thing as there were still many to see. The Throne Hall was the only building that we could really enter and from the lack of inside photos I am guessing we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside. There were lots of people, but everyone moved through quickly. Doesn’t take as long when no photos are allowed. 
As I was looking through the last couple of buildings Doug was off making friends with the four legged inhabitants of the Kings Palace.
Guzzled that down in a few seconds and headed back to our room to rest up and cool down for a bit. Well a bit turned into 4 hours and we were getting hungry so decided to head out in search of some place for dinner. The burritos sounded good but I was afraid of what might actually be in them, so passed on this option.
Just as we often seem to do once we have found a place we like, we gravitated back to the Angkor Mithona restaurant, which is just up the street on the corner from our hotel.
Definitely can’t complain about the prices here. Of course it was happy hour on the drinks. Draft beer was buy 1 get 1 free. Cocktails were also buy 1 get 1 free. Can’t go wrong with US$20 for 6 drinks, 2 meals and 1 dessert.
After checking into the Silver River Hotel we were extremely happy to find that this hotel finally had an elevator. Of course I took some pictures of the room and ‘admired’ our view. Room was quite nice, but the ‘view’ left a bit to be desired. This is what you get when you book the cheapest room in a hotel on Expedia. What more could you want for $46.00 a nights, taxes and fees in?
There were so many people begging for money. Some seemed to be in real rough shape and many others were missing limbs. We gave money to a couple of legless street people but had to stop as there were just so many of them. We actually crossed the street and out of this area as it was a very uncomfortable feeling there were that many. Further along the street we crossed back over to take a few pictures of the flags that lined the pathway.
Our next road side stop was a Rice paper factory (wooden shack) where Peter explained to us the process of making rice papers. Now I know why they have the pattern on them that they do. It’s from the drying racks. 
While I was ordering a fresh and a fried spring roll, Doug was chatting with a couple who were sitting at the same table as we were. Next thing I know he’s standing there with a piece of BBQ’d rat in his hand. He ATE IT!
We headed back to the area where the pickup had dropped us off and back it came for us. Dropped off another load of people and we climbed into the back and continued on to the top of the mountain to tour the Pagoda. I was really starting to regret the decision to sit in the back. Really had to hang on as the road was steep. Once up top we got out to climb the rest of the way.
There were so MANY monkeys here that it was almost scary.
While we were waiting we saw a middle-aged Asian woman (dressed with a coat on) climb the steps up to the unfinished Buddha. The Buddha is in the upper right quarter of the first photo below. Peter had told us a little bit about it. The man who had been carving the Buddha fell to his death while working on it. No one has ever finished it since. I think that is partly because there is no money to pay someone to finish it. The steps may not look too steep but they were VERY steep. The Buddha is also very high. Out of all the hundreds of people there, no one else attempted to climb up. The woman climbed down the stairs backwards holding onto the rungs as she descended down. A very brave woman in my opinion and I don’t think this was her first time doing something like this.
This is the entrance / exit to the cave.
Old & Lost 