Freedom In Isolation

From Kampot we got a good nights sleep and the next morning we were on a long tail boat to Rabbit Island. Cambodia is a country I’d never associate with islands so the fact I was visiting a second island during my stay was quite shocking to me. Coco informed us in his own way, lots of roundabouts and repetitions, that Rabbit Island itself isn’t the most beautiful island but is secluded, and as natural as any island you’re likely to find in modern times yet can stay on in relative comfortability.
We stayed at a guesthouse on the island but it wasn’t a guesthouse per se. There were about twelve beach huts spread out along the grass verge above the sand of the beach, we stayed in one of these. Our day there wasn’t spent doing much. We explored as far up the beach as we thought we could, read books, and listened to music on the beach while watching the waves. Then I chilled out in a hammock while Christina went snorkelling.

At the centre of the beach huts was the main building, a beach hut bigger than the rest. We all surretipiously met outside the entrance late in the evening, as we congregated one by one to order food or drink beer. In my case you can substitute beer with Jim Beam. I’d ordered Jim Beam and coke but what I actually got was the reverse of what you’d expect, a large glass of Jim Beam with a shot of coke. I was definitely feeling it after.

We met Phil and Mim, an english couple who are just as cool as they sound. We spent the night chatting away with them, drinking, and eating barbecued fish. I was disappointed in myself that they were so much more experienced at eating their fish than me. They could have gotten twice as much fish off mine as I did. We exchanged hilarious stories and in the end it was a really great night. During said night I laid awake without electricity, in the dark, sweating, listening to the dogs barking and howling just wishing beyond everything I could sleep, charge my kindle, or jump into a bath of cool water.
After managing to sleep at around 5am, we were up at 6.30 getting breakfast before we left to Pnomh Penh. It was this morning that I had one of my favourite memories of travelling so far. Waking up in a hut on the beach, opening the door to an amazing view of the mainland framed by the harbour, I ran out into the sea, arms stretched wide in victory as well as to embrace the openness of the experience. I swam out until my feet couldn’t touch the bottom and floated, allowing myself to spin and drift, soaking in the views and the freedom I felt. Sadly that freedom only lasted so long as we did have a boat to catch.

Fireflies Light Up The Night (or not)

Since we’d hopped off we had a new guide: Monsieur Coco. A lovely Cambodian man with great English but a tendency to ramble on and repeat himself multiple times. On the way he described to us two potential plans for the day, it took him about half an hour to say we could drive out and see the salt and pepper farms, something Kampot is famed for, or we could go see some waterfalls.

Instead our group decided to do neither. Me and Christina couldn’t really afford to pay to go on either trip without a group so were left with exploring Kampot. It was actually a really nice town, though I still wasn’t feeling 100% so wasn’t up to exploring too much. We searched in vain for a bakery Christina had seen on the way in for about an hour before we stumbled upon it. It turned out to be disappointing but I ordered bread and butter pudding which was decent. It’s a traditional English dessert but this was the first time I’ve had it! In Asia.

Dusk was beginning to settle over the small town of Kampot as we made our way towards the river. Coco, our guide, had walked us around the town showing us certain monuments such as the Durian statue, a statue of a bowl of fruit weirdly enough. There were Lychee’s, Guava’s, and something else that I quite simply couldn’t get my head around, I’m pretty sure whatever it was I was mixing it up with the Lychee’s. The Durian stood in the middle, larger than the rest about three metres in height. Thankfully it wasn’t real, issuing it’s sewage-like smell at a larger than normal scale, otherwise I think we’d all be dead.

He also stopped us at an insect stall where we tried local delicacies like frog and grasshopper. The frog was not what I expected, small and whole, bones ‘n’ all! As you can imagine it was crunchy but was interestingly tasty. It was nice of him to do that as without him exerting a little bit of pressure on us to do it, I’m not sure I would have.

We walked along the path next to the riverbank, watching the water run slowly and smoothly looking like glass, reflecting the setting sun and the old bridge like a mirror, it was refreshing to feel the river suck some of the heat out of the day. Our final destination was a riverboat that would take us to see some fireflies. Fireflies are something I’d only ever dreamt of seeing, they’re such amazing and beautiful creatures, on the surface anyway. They are flies afterall.

The riverboat arrived, looking slightly like a barge and with a confusing design. The deck and stairs looked detachable from the boat, confusing Christina as to whether or not we were actually on the boat. We got some great seats, grabbed a couple of beers, and enjoyed chatting about where we’d been, and finding out about the countries and travels of the other people in our group.

As we’d been drifting for twenty minutes or so the sun was way into it’s downward cycle, throwing beautiful shadows and bringing out dusky colours I never knew existed in the nature around us. To our left were a large spine of hills running paralell to the boat. The sun was setting behind them, throwing them into a deep silhouette. A seemingly perfect backdrop.
We ordered some local food on the boat which turned out to be less than average, but we were too busy looking around us to really pay attention. When it had gotten fully dark we stopped next to a group of trees, the boat shut off it’s engine and all the lights we’re put out. We waited expectantly. For myself I was expecting bulbous bugs emitting bright lights you couldn’t possibly miss. I admit it, Hollywood got to me. The reality was like looking at a large christmas tree, lacking in lights, and then said lights lacking in power. After I got over my initial disappointment I could appreciate the beauty of such a natural phenomenon, although in my heart of hearts I hope I see better fireflies in my lifetime, if they do exist.