Happy Monday - Koh Kong, Cambodia to Koh Chang, Thailand

Morning everyone!

Our last few days in Koh Kong was spent exploring the surrounding countryside... Mangrove forests and waterfalls, such a beautiful place.

Tatai waterfall

Mangroves

After leaving Koh Kong last week it was time for our final border crossing, into Thailand! This was actually one of the easiest we've ever done and in a little under 4 hours a tuk tuk ride, one bus, two trucks and a ferry later, we were settling into island life in the second largest island in Thailand, Koh Chang.

Koh Chang from the ferry

The island is very big and split into lots of different small towns, on the ride from the ferry to our first hotel it all felt a bit touristy. For the first three nights we stayed in a hotel quite near the top of the island where it was quite a bit quieter so we had a very relaxing time on the beach and by the pool!!

Lovely beach 5min drive from our hotel

As you all know, Rachel celebrated her 30th birthday on Monday, and what a day we had!

First thing in the morning we transferred to a hotel on a different part of the island before being picked up and whisked off to a cooking course for the day.

As I'm sure you have all noticed, sampling local food has been a very important part of our trip and the cooking course with Blue Lagoon cooking school was absolutely amazing! Our teacher was lovely and very personable, and not only did she teach us how to make six different dishes she also taught us a lot about the culture and how the people of Thailand connect with food and why certain ingredients are so vital to their existence....I don't think either of us will look at a grain of rice in the same way again!

We both thoroughly enjoyed the experience, we did a cooking course whilst in Phnom Penh but this one was just incredible!!

After eating so much we wondered how we would fit dinner in, but, never fear after an hour or so sipping bubbles on the verandah of our beach villa, we were ready to go again!!!

Cake and bubbles on the veranda 

Birthday girl!

Suffice to say after a very food filled day and a couple of bottles of fizz later we felt extremely happy!

The next day we spent most of our time soothing our heads by sipping coconut water and....you guessed it....hanging out by the pool and beach!

 Great chill out views

We're just about to move on to our third and final hotel on the island for a few nights before trekking our way back to Bangkok ahead of our flight home on Monday...

We've had such an amazing 6 months and we really can't believe that we're almost at the end, so this is the last of our Love Mondays, but hopefully we'll

carry on the sentiment and Mondays will never be a dull day for us again!!

We hope you've enjoyed following us on our journey....see you very sooooon!!

The weeks highlights:

Best View: The view from our beach villa... Nice little treat from the places we have been staying at!

Best Food: I think that for sure the best food we've had this week, and in Thailand for that matter has to be the food we learnt to make at Blue Lagoon cooking school! Below are a couple of the dishes that we made... Looking forward to cooking them at home too!

Pad Thai 

Penang and green curry

Mango and sticky rice

Love Monday funday: Rachel is 30!! What better way to spend a love Monday funday than eating and drinking copious amounts of food and wine?! Finishing off our Love Monday fun days with a bang!! 

Number of hours on a bus: 1

Number of hours on a tuktuk: 3

Number of hours on the back of a truck: 1

Definitely taking a slower pace (less traveling!) as it's the end... Enjoying every last minute :-)

See you all shortly for some great catch ups,

Love Rach and Lisa xx

Colin's sad to be leaving the sun but super excited to see Morgan :-) x

Happy Monday - Kep to Koh Kong, Cambodia

Afternoon everyone,

After leaving Kep we travelled 4 hours along the coast to sunny Sihanoukville. Well, it was sunny, for the first two days...

We stayed in a little beach hut on Otres Beach and for the first couple of days we enjoyed white sand, cheap beers, dazzling sunsets and lots of cooling off in the sea....

Beach trade

View from our hut

Sunset

Catching fish 

but on our third morning, it all changed....

After being woken in the early hours to great claps of thunder, lashing rain and flashes of lightening, we began to understand more than ever the toils of traveling in rainy season. The rain poured for three days and on a washed out beach we had nothing to do but drink, eat and read which was actually really quite relaxing.

Finally the rain began to let up and the sunshine resumed so our last day on the beach was spent soaking up the sun pool side and planning our next move...

After a whole week in Sihanoukville we decided it was time to make a move, to Koh Kong.

Koh Kong is a small town about 10km from the Thai border and most people usually use it as a stop over into Thailand, but we decided to stay for a while and see what the town had to offer.

We stayed in the town for the first few days, getting our bearings and checking out the best places to eat, as usual we found that the best places were the cheap ones full of locals!

Riverside cafe

We then headed down river for two nights to experience life in the Cambodian jungle. 

Boat ride down the river Tatai

We stayed at a small eco resort run by a friendly german chap and rented one of his three basic but spacious bungalows set in the trees over looking the river.

Our Bungalow (no2)

Relaxing view

Panoramic of jungle and river view

It was so nice to be in the middle of nowhere with only the sound of the jungle and the river, with nothing to do but eat, kayak, swim in the river and enjoy the wonders of nature! (Even if this did include being scared half to death by a water snake falling out of the rafters and landing right in front of us!)

Morning coffee

Rainbow raft

The weeks highlights:

Best view:

Definitely watching the river go by at Neptune River Bungalows... So peaceful and so so green

Best food:

We've had loads of great noodle and curry dishes recently... Have clearly eaten them too quick to take pictures- sorry!

Love Monday Funday: As our Funday this week we decided to take a kayak down to one of the waterfalls recommended by our German friend Thomas......

Kayak selfie

Our pit stop for the waterfall

Blissfully quiet river surrounded by the lush green trees of the cardamom mountains

Seriously those people who see Koh Kong as just a border destination are missing out on so much! The Khmer Rouge and civil war here (as devastating as it was) has ensured that this is a serious biodiversity hotspot, retaining species that are scarce to non-existent in the rest of the world... So if any of you are going to Cambodia, make sure this province is on your 'to-do' list.

Number of hours on a bus: 9

Number of mosquito bites: 20 or so each!

Have a great Monday all, 

Love Rachel and Lisa xx

 

And Colin...

Only two weeks til we return home folks!!