Catching-up on web stuff now we are in Bangkok with a fast pipe…
After the craziness of Hong Kong and China we flew to Phnom Penh with our HK-based friends Nic and Emmet for a wee interlude between bustling Asian megacities, plus a quick recce of the islands off Cambodia’s southern coast.
These 40 islands are mostly undeveloped: much as Thailand’s islands were thirty or forty years ago. We didn’t know what we’d find beyond white sand and palm fringed beaches.
Cambodia is an endlessly fascinating country brutally ravaged by the Vietnam War: American B52’s dropped huge amounts of ordinance, in the confusion that followed the radical communist Khmer Rouge ceased power, emptied the cities of the educated, and attempted to radically remake Cambodian society by butchering three million citizens in the Killing Fields.
After decades of civil war the nation is finally back on its feet, with huge amounts of international aid ensuring everything is far better organised, and far safer, than when I last visited in the early noughties.
We spent a night in Phnom Penh at the wonderful Raffles-owned Le Royal Hotel, where Rachelle had a run in with a cheeky monkey…
www.simoncrerar.com/travel/monkey-business-phnom-penh
Next day we chartered a taxi and headed, via the Killing Fields, for Sihanoukville on the south coast, our jump off point for the islands. Unfortunately Rachelle and I got stuck in this rather ugly town for a few days while we fought various fires with suppliers in India.
So it was with blessed relief that we finally made it across to Koh Rong Saloem for several days of much needed R&R, lazy days and nights on this stunning, almost completely deserted tropical island: a little slice of paradise in the South China Sea.
Photos of Lazy Beach here I Sauce & Nosh report on Lazy Beach’s food here
Could we live on an island off Cambo’s southern coast? Absolutely. Could we run a business catering to the booming numbers of tourists beginning to explore these islands? Not without one of us pretending to shack-up with a local boy or girl (businesses need to be 51 percent owned by locals, at least in theory).
Would we want to live here? One day perhaps, at the moment we need reliable broadband and mobile connectivity: we’re almost certainly going to be wedded to the modern world for a wee bit longer yet, wonderful as living on a deserted tropical island sounds on paper.
Batteries recharged, we left Nic & Emmet on Lazy Beach to continue their deep unwind, and spent nearly 24 hours travelling to Bangkok by boat, tuk-tuk (x3), bus (x3) and taxi (x2), eventually arriving at our hotel in the City of Angels at 05:00 this morning.
Follow our continuing culinary adventures at sauceandnosh.com