Sorry it's been so long, but the islands here don't have the greatest WiFi!
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| Angkor Wat |
Anyway, my last stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap. As it turns out, the town itself is really neat and small with lots of markets (and pub street) just along the river! The main attraction, however, is Angkor Wat and the temples around it. Two of us got a tuk-tuk for a half day tour around the complex and explored ruins of temples that date as far back as the 9th-century! Needless to say, it's pretty impressive how they built them with the detail that they did so long ago. I can also now say that I've been to Lonely Planet's #1 Travel Destination in the world! Siem Reap was also the site of my most shocking adventure yet. A large group of us from the hostel went on a boat trip through a floating village in a river, out to Tonle Sap--the largest lake in Southeast Asia--for sunset. However, we obviously shouldn't have all been on the roof to watch the sunset as our weight caused the boat to flip and sink. Luckily, there were several other boats around to help pull people out, but I managed to climb on top of the boat as it flipped and stayed completely dry! Thankfully, no one was hurt, but there were lots of broken IPhones!
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| Monkey Beach, Koh Phi Phi |
From there, it was 25 hours of travelling to get to Phuket in Thailand. While I'd heard mixed things about Phuket, I met up with grandpa's friend's friend's son (confused yet?) and it worked out well. I got some much needed rest at his house and met some of his friends, one of which actually ended up going to Koh Phi Phi with me. Obviously my next stop was Koh Phi Phi, which is a beautiful island, somewhat ruined by the town in the middle. The nice thing is that there are no cars or motorbikes, but I've heard the island was far prettier several years back. Anyway, it was still fun ad we spent one day kayaking and in the evening I even had a go at a Thai kickboxing fight where I beat an Irish guy!
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| Beating up an Irish guy! |
From there, it was on to Koh Lanta, which is a much more laid back island. There is less development and more local communities here, especially during low season, when lots of the resorts are shut down. It was a great place to hang out and I ended up running into a few friends from Siem Reap again, which was nice.
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| Sunset in Koh Lanta |
After a couple days of relaxing on Koh Lanta, I went to Ton Sai near Railay Beach. I was recommended by several people to stay in Ton Sai, which is a very hippy little village. There's not much there besides a few guesthouses and a couple restaurants, but I got my own, very basic, bungalow where I could sit on my porch and watch monkeys swing from trees. The village runs on a generator and only has power from 5pm until 6am each day. However, the main attraction here is world-renowned rock climbing, so I did one half day lesson, then did a day of "deep water soloing" which is rock climbing without a rope on cliffs over the water. If you fall, you just go into the ocean and if you make it to the top you get rewarded with a cliff jump back down!
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| Climbing in Ton Sai |
My last stop was Koh Tao, which turned out to be my favourite island. It was the second most developed, but has a very laid back, diving atmosphere. So, I figured I'd join in and spent one day diving and the rest of the day relaxing on the beach!
Now, I'm back in Bangkok getting ready for my flight to Nepal at 7am tomorrow morning! I have seen, smelt, tasted, and heard a lot of very strange things in South East Asia and it has opened my eyes to another part of the world, but I have truly loved it and met amazing people along the way. Of course, I can't wait to get into the Himalayas either!
