In search of the perfect Beach in Cambodia

Ha Tien, the last Vietnamese village before the border was only about 8 km to Cambodia. No need to face the motorbike mafia again since our hotel kindly booked a taxi for us. The border was pretty harmless compared to others in the region: friendly and uncorrupted officials charging the normal price, no queues, no harassing money changers or taxi drivers.

No man's land between Vietnam and Cambodia with a massive casino just behind:
Gambling is prohibited in Vietnam so it was opened just for rich Vietnamese...

The change of atmosphere after the border is radical! The road is no more asphalted and it looks like we are back in time. We are surprised not to be assaulted by any motorbike mafia...

The first road into Cambodia...

Here's the equivalent of about 10 USD in local currency "Riel". We found out in fact
that dollars are accepted everywhere, sometimes even as main currency. Actually

you get even only dollars from ATM's.

We managed to hire a private minivan (that's one of the advantages of traveling 6 people together!) directly to our destination of today: the beach town of Sihanoukville. Ok, the town itself is rather boring and ugly, and the beach is quite crowded, but it's great for BBQ and sunset views!

First evening in Cambodia and on the beach!

Sunset cocktail on the pier...

Beach restaurant with fresh fish BBQ!

We wented to head to a pristine island the next day, only to find out that the few resorts on the island are fully booked for the next 2 days :-(... We were not sure what to do at first until one of the travel agencies offered us a private boat (again, it was quite affordable since we're 6!) to a nearby deserted beach 1 hour boat ride: that sounded like the right plan for us...

On our private boat!

Picnic, alone on the beach! Just what we needed
after the crowded beach of Sihanoukville.

The next (waiting) day, we booked a tour through a mangrove to yet another empty beach followed by a jungle trek. The approach 1h boat ride through the mangrove was really good, and it just kept going better until we reached a beach much better than yesterday's.

Another lonely beach, air 30°C, water 28°C, no one but us...

After a short walk through the jungle (we had booked a 3-hour trek, but it turned out to be just 30 min, which was actually sufficient by 30°C and on empty stomachs), we reached a small fishing village where our guide had prepared a great BBQ fish.

After lunch before returning to sihanoukville.

So these 2 "waiting" days were really amazing, and actually we were a bit puzzled because each beach kept getting better and better each day, so we were starting to wonder: is the beach on our next destination Ko Rong Island going to be even better? Sounded impossible, yet the next day we arrived at ....

Our beach at Ko Rong

The hamlet with nice restaurants, directly on the beach

Our bungalows, 20m from the beach

Local shop in the evening

This family-run restaurant became our favorite place for
fresh BBQ fish and fresh coconut



Fetching a fresh coconut (there's someone up that tree)

But this was not sufficient, and there was a myth that an even nicer beach, with even less people existed on the island. But the price to pay for it was a hard 1 hour walk through the jungle. So in search for the perfect beach, we went on that walk to the other side of the island.

Going down with ropes to the best beach ever

And we found the perfect beach!!!! Calmer sea than on the other side, and 7 km even whiter sand with shallow clear waters!




So we went to 5 beaches and each one kept going better and better, until we did find the perfect one... In fact that last one was so nice we didn't know where to start once we reached it!

David

Mekong Delta and the motorbike mafia

We started our Mekong tour with an organized group from Saigon, so the first places we visited were really touristy, but still we could get a nice insight into different things:

Visit of a old-fashioned brick factory

Inside of a brick oven

Concert of sleepy folk music

But it quickly got better as we jumped off the AC-bus into a weird kind of local tuk-tuk and then into a rowing boat.





The rowing boat took us into tiny canals of the Mekong, were we had great views of the palm mangrove.

The rowing lady

Mekong Canals through palm mangrove

Lunchbreak was great too just on the side of the canals, with fresh fish and fresh shrimp spring rolls!!

After that, we had chosen the option "homestay", which just turned out to be a hotel with nice wooden bungalows just outside a small village. We took a walk to the local market, still lively just before the night.

Local market, everyone does the shopping on the vehicle

skinned frogs, looking like miniature humans

(maybe that's why we use to play with them in biology lessons...)

Local Bánh Bao dispenser (sweet bun stuffed with pork and eggs, yummy!)


Dinner at our Hotel: again fresh fish and fresh roll-your-own spring rolls

The next day, we went to the main floating market of the region near the city of Can Tho.

Local fisher on the way to the market

Dragon fruit wholesale!!

Pineapple seller

Unmotorised boat going shopping

Just before lunch, we went to a tropical garden. That's where we found out how pineapple grow, but also dragon fruit: in a cactus?!

Baby Pineapple: 1 fruit for 1 plant

Dragon fruit cactus-like tree

But the real backpacker adventure started when we left the organized tour to slowly make our way to the Cambodian border.

Getting on our first bus after the package tour

Some 500kg of local fruit being loaded on the local bus on our way to Ha Tien,

the last town before the Cambodian Border.

We were received in Ha Tien by the "Motorbike Mafia". We had been warned that it would become more serious as we approached the Cambodian Border: we arrived at the local bus station after dark and there was no Taxi in sight to bring us to town (2km from the station). With our big backpacks and the 6 of us, it was out of question to go with motorbikes to town, but each time we were asking someone to call a taxi, the boss of the motorbike mafia would force him to say "no" which was becoming kind of scary. Luckily some "guarding angel" stepped out of a bus and ask us in perfect english what was going on. In spite of the obvious threat of the motorbikes mafia, he called us a taxi (and immediately left with his bus, afraid that something would happen to him). The Taxi brought the 6 of us to town to 1 USD (a motorbike would have cost at least 2 dollar per person...). We quickly found a good hotel in the center of town were we had a good night rest (though sometimes checking the streets if the boss of the motorbike mafia had follow us to town...).

Before taking a taxi to the Cambodian border (we had noted the number of the Taxi company after last night ride...), we went to the local market. The fish market was amazingly clean and interesting.