Khmer New Year - Koh Thonsay (aka Rabbit Island)

Next day we jumped on a boat to Koh Thonsay - locally known as Rabbit Island, as the shape of the island is supposed to be that of a rabbit.

There were about 10 boats all heading out that way, the boat ride is really exposed, so we covered up for the half hour ride out there.

Nearly there.

We landed, hopped off the boat and found some wooden sun loungers in the shade to lie on and read our books. The view was lovely and it was great to have some relax time in such a stunning spot.

"It is nice finding that place where you can just go and relax." - Moises Arias

I had a walk down the beach and a dip in the sea. I also checked out the VIP shacks - 2 beds and a bathroom for $15 a night. Pretty fancy considering!

We had a quick stop off for lunch, and I shared my fish with some of the local cats - all had strange tortoise-shell markings. Like half grey tabby and half tortie.

Soon it was time to head back, we had to wait some time in the boats for everyone and it was then I started to notice my legs were a little warm. I had stayed in the shade all day, so surely couldnt be that burned?!

Soon we were heading back to the main land...

...and not long later the sun was going down.

Soon enough it was clear I had burned - t took a week for the blisters to come out and they were the size of saucers! Second degree burns - so painful. I definitely need to go from being super careful to being super super careful!!

Ouch!

Keep out of the sun and definitely take a trip to Rabbit Island, its an amazing place! 

"My dream is to go spend a week on some island with no phone." - Cara Delevingne

Khmer New Year - Kep

As we headed to Kep and throughout Kep there are some really lovely old buildings all from the French Colonial period and abandoned once the Khmer Rouge regime took hold. Some of them are still owned and some being done up - if and when they are restored they will be stunning!

"I wish people could have seen what they called our mansion. They would have been so disappointed, because it was just an old house that we fixed up, and I love the old house." -Tammy Faye Bakker

We were staying in a nice little hotel called the Beach House, lovely fresh blue, seaside 'ocean feeling' rooms.

We arrived at the end of Khmer New Year, so there were lots of families still down from Phnom Penh, so the coast line was really packed with families in hammocks and dipping their toes in the sea.

"In a crowded marketplace, fitting in is a failure. In a busy marketplace, not standing out is the same as being invisible." - Seth Godin

A day or so later everything was much calmer...

Kep is not massive, and there isn't a huge amount to do here, but its lovely for a few days R'n'R and some seafood.

We headed to the Sailing Club for cocktails and a few tunes - as we knew the DJ.

The Kampot area - just down the road is famous for growing pepper and Kep is famous for its crab shacks. The atmospheres arent so glam, but the foods amazing! Our favourity was the Diamond Jasmine. And we did find the less glam looking the crab shack - the better the food!

Crab and fresh pepper.

"A pound of Alaskan king crab legs and buffalo shrimp = happy Travie." - Travie McCoy

We also had prawn krueng (a type of curry paste) and rice - of course!

On the way back we also checked out the local market, where they had lots of dried fish....

...dried squid...

...dried shrimp...

...and pepper.

There weer also lots of stalls BBQing...

....a lovely little town an just a short sail away from Rabbit Island, where we went the next day...

Khmer New Year - Kampot

We decided not to set off too early as we had been partying the night before, so booked our bus from central Phnom Penh around 1.30pm. As Khmer New Year is such a family time Phnom Penh was totally dead - really eerie for such a extremely busy city. As many people had already set off for home or holidays the roads were easy and we were in Kampot in about 3 hours.

Every town seems to have a roundabout with a statue on it - this one looks like a Hindu goddess to me.

We checked in and got some pool time...

"Give me a sun lounger, a pool and a sea view, and I'm happy." - Miranda Hart

...before a nice chilled evening at Villa Vedichi...

 ...and a cracking sunset...

Next day we hired motos and took a look around town.

This was the old Fishmarket that the company my friend works for (and the works do we had just been to) had done up recently - such an iconic building and such an awesome job - really nice place on the river.

We headed over to the Greenhouse on the other side of the river for lunch and a dip in the river...

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." - Heraclitus

...and another cracking sunset...

"Keep looking up! I learn from the past, dream about the future and look up. There's nothing like a beautiful sunset to end a healthy day." - Rachel Boston

I noticed a durian tree on the way out - the smelliest fruit ever, I am still yet to be brave enough to try it!

"You can be the ripest and sweetest durian in the world, but there's still going to be someone who hates it. " - Jhanghiz Syahrivar

We drove back into town and bumped into some friends of my friend, so had dinner with them. Lovely to meet new and interesting people! At the time I was weighing up some of my future options and it was really nice to connect with someone else who was doing the same - but more of future plans in future blogs...

For some reason the guesthouse had a hammond organ and a pool table, both directly by our room and largely enjoyed by children from around 8am, so, after a rude awakening,  soon we were up and enjoying our day. We abandoned the motos and any plans and had a real chill day by the pool. Reading and relaxing, swimming in the pool and the river...

...chatting to people, drinking malibu coconuts and trying out the hottest sauce this side of  'Satans Revenge Ghost' Sauce! 

"I've got this thing for spicy stuff. Now, if you give me hot chocolate with chili pepper, a book and a bubble bath, I'm a happy girl.  - Shiloh Walker

Since moving to Cambodia I've started to really love my chili and the heat and seem to have built up quite a tolerance,  this was the third strength of hot sauce I was given and it wasn't so hot?! - for some reason this scares me a little!

We did try to book a sunset river cruise, but the boat never stopped for us, so we watched it pass and had a beer as the sun went down, to be fair we weren't sorry as it was really over crowded!

Next day we were thankfully not woken by children playing the hammond organ and discovered someone had removed the plug - what a shame! breakfast was somewhat more relaxed, and soon we were off to the next spot via Kampot town...

...on our way to Kep, the coast, seafood and abandoned houses...

...I do love a good old abandoned house!

Khmer New Year - Parties and Phnom Penh

"The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective." - Gilbert K. Chesterton

Soon enough it was time for Khmer New Year again and some games and fun out by the Baray.

The water in the Baray was really low compared with last year and it was clear we were heading for a drought.

We got comfortable in the shade, had some speeches and reflection on the year we were leaving and prepared to welcome in the new year. 

It newer ceases to amaze me how much energy the students have, they get up to study about 5.30am/ 6am, go to uni, our learning center, evening class, do assignments and often volunteer on the side and are always up for fun and activities. They rarely look tired and work so hard. To me, they are truly inspiring! They played games all afternoon, danced, organised all the food and some still had energy left to ride out to one of the temples.

"To succeed, you need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you." - Tony Dorsett

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." -John Quincy Adams

Most Khmer games involve some element of inflicting pain or laughing at one another - in the nicest possible way. This game involved picking someone to chase with a rolled up kroma (scarf) and hitting them til they got back to their spot again. 

There is another one where songs are sung in Khmer boys v girls and they try to be offensive, others where you throw something and if the other side doesn't catch it they do a forfeit. We also saw some great eating competitions, like apple bobbing, watermelon eating (hands behind your back) and getting covered in talc competitions.

Its lucky to cover everyone in talc - the more talc the more luck!

"Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships." - Michael Jordan

Lots of dancing!

Some of the guys had a swim in the baray and played a game where they had to carry baray water in their mouths to a container - first to fill it won. I was very hopeful Khmer New Year was not spent on the loo! But there was no curbing the enthusiasm.

At the end of the day we decided to drive out to West Mebon - one of the temples, usually only reachable by boat, but as the baray was so low we drove our motos. I'm not sure how my Honda Step made it there and back through all that sand, but it did. One of those times I would have loved to still drive a LandRover.

 We made it!

West Mebon, under (re)construction.

 On the way back we popped out though Wat Svay (Mango Temple) which was a really pretty little temple.

After the celebrations we were off on public holiday for a week, so it was time for me to take a little break from Siem Reap and I headed was headed to Kampot and Kep with a friend. 

"All holidays can be good times." - John Clayton

Our first stop was in Phnom Penh, for her works Khmer New Year party, which I was kindly invited to. Great fun! Lots of dancing. The company is a construction company and never before have I seen male builders slow dancing with one another. Love how the guys are always the first on the dance floor and love it in Cambodia.

And of course more games (this time a type of ceramic pinata) and more talc!

The company is doing some work on the airport in Siem Reap, now whenever I go to the airport all the builders say hello, which is lovely!

Next day, Phnom Penh was a ghost town as everyone had headed to the provinces or the coast for the holidays. After partying the night before we chose to set off a little later and the roads were clear as we drove down to Kampot...