Lots of Love to Go Around

After finishing our activities in and around the fascinating Siem Reap, we made our way to Koh Rong Sanloem, a small beach resort island off the south-west coast of Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand. It was a vast change of scenery, moving from the busy city streets to a paradise with no passenger vehicles or roads at all. It was all about total relaxation and our Swiss daughter found the perfect resort on the island for us to settle into (Saracen Bay Resort). It was located near the quieter end of a 2 km white sand beach, with a wide beach area in front, yet only 500 metres from the main island ferry pier where most of the restaurants and bars were located. Each couple had their own villa for our 4 night stay and it was pure bliss.....lots of card games, beach time in lounge chairs with a book, frequent dips into the crystal clear water (pure sand bottom 100 metres out from shore), frisbee tossing and $1.50 beers. We did get some exercise one day, walking across the island to Lazy Beach on the opposite side, a 30 minute walk through the jungle.....the only time shoes were required while on the island. New Year's Eve was quieter on KRS but there still were some fireworks set off throughout the evening. I can proudly say we were awake partying longer than most of our friends back home......but that is because it was 2 pm the next day when your clock struck midnight!

With the new year upon us we took the ferry back to the mainland and moved on to the small town of Kampot, where we stayed at a small father-son run establishment right on the wide Preaek Tuek Chhu River. The wide bar area featured a diving board into the river which was used frequently by our crew. Kampot is famous for it's pepper, so some of our posse, including Pocahontas, made a trip to a Pepper Farm, while the rest of us wandered around the downtown area and had lunch. A short 2 night stay had us back in Phnom Penh for our final night together, with most of the late afternoon time spent at their rooftop pool, overlooking the city.

"All good things must end", the saying goes but we were still sad to see our 2 week family time together finish up on Jan. 4th when our young adults and their partners had to return home for work. They would have liked to prolong the adventure as well but everyone remembered that is the way it was for us when we were their age. Hopefully there will be more family travel trips together down the road.

We are now settled in the Philippines, made up of over 7,500 islands. Our first stop is on one of the most western islands, Palawan. We have made our way to El Nido at the north end of the island, renowned for it's lovely beaches and access to the scenic Bacuit archipelago.

The Koh Rong Sanloem pier as our ferry was unloading. I was thankful to be wearing a back pack since there were no paved roads for luggage with rollers.

Our fabulous Saracen Bay Resort. The villas were very clean with wide shaded decks. There was also a large guest-only area for relaxing with the public beach in front.

The only motorized vehicle we observed on the island. It was used to transport luggage to the more secluded Lazy Beach resort on the other side of the island. The guests there had to walk this same path, like we did, to get there.

The opposite side of the bay from our resort. The beach bars and restaurants, along with the accommodations on this side, had much smaller beach areas than we did, with more traffic in front.

There was always fresh seafood available for dinner in the evenings along the beach.

One of the many family card games played throughout our 2 weeks together.

During the middle of our one hour ferry ride from the island back to the mainland,  the music got cranked up and a foam party erupted. The foam eventually engulfed Jeff and Dan's table forcing them to retreat to the back of the deck where we had fortunately selected our table. Others either moved to the upper or lower decks, or starting dancing to the music in the open centre of the middle deck disappearing at times from the foam dropping from above. I am doubtful that our safety laws would have allowed this to happen but it was quite entertaining to watch and no one seemed to mind.

The bar and deck area in front of our bamboo huts at The Hideaway retreat just outside Kampot. The Kim Jong Un banner on the left had the saying "Live, Love, Laugh" posted with a submarine lurking in the background.

The 'bo tree Pepper Farm', where the pepper (black, red, white) was grown on vines.

Goodbye Cambodia, a country with a checkered past and a promising future.