A primitive paradise!

After Phnom Phen, we decided we needed some beach time so we hopped on a bus and headed down to the coast to Kep in order to catch a local boat over to "Rabbit Island".  Rabbit Island is about 3 miles off Kep and is completely off the grid.  It feels like you fell off the side of the planet.  They only have electricity there from dusk to about 10pm as they run off generators and everything else is done the old fashioned way - you scoop water down the squat and drop to flush for instance.

The beach there was about 1km long and was beautiful.  No waves to speak of and we spent most of our time there either in it or looking at it.  We spent two days there and quite enjoyed it... we even had some of the best meals of our trip there as the Cambodian food is really good.  One of my favorite dishes was called Amok.  It is a coconut curry soup like dish with either Shrimp, Chicken or Fish.  Very tasty.

We didn't take a lot of pictures as recharging the batteries was a hassle and we were out of internet, etc for a few days which none of us really missed.  I wouldn't recommend the place for anyone looking for the usual niceties of life but as a spot to relax...  fantastic.  The rooms were $7/night and a meal for the 4 of us never cost more than that including drinks.  The bungalows were quite "rustic"... rough sawn boards on the floor with gaps you could drop peas through, reed walls and no screens/glass in the windows but the beds had mossie nets, and separate bath/shower so was actually OK for our purposes for a few days.  I've slept in worse in North America!

The dock at Kep and Rabbit Island in the distance

On our way

A bit closer

Another boat like ours

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Gilligan's Island

Shawn's really stretching out

Shawn trying one of the few local dishes he'd tried....  he got about 7 crabs there for about $2.  The guy ran down to the water and pulled in his trap for them!

After our few days on Rabbit Island, we hopped another 7am boat back to the mainland and then caught a minibus to the Vietnam/Cambodia border in Ha Tien about 45 kms away.  Then it was on another boat, this time a 100 passenger ferry, for a trip back to a much larger Island called Phu Quoc which is actually further EAST than Rabbit Island and was taken over by Vietnam in the war to liberate them from the Khmer Rouge.  We should have been able to just take one of those fishing boats over which would have taken 20 minutes or so but we spent 3 hours on a bus, 1 hour going through the border checkpoints and then 2 hours on a ferry and another 40 minutes on a mini van getting to our hotel.

Let me finish up with some general comments on Cambodia.  We loved it.  We didn't get to spend as much time there as we'd have liked but so far, it was our favorite country in SE Asia.  The people were amazing - especially when you consider what they've been going through in the past 40 years.  You really get a sense of the optimism of this place.  They know that any direction is up and they are excited about the future.  They haven't discovered capitalism to the same extent as the Thai's or Laotions and we never experienced a hard sell on anything.  Everyone is trying to learn English and they use US currency even though their Kip isn't as bad as Laos or Vietnam.  The ATM's dispense USD only and the only Kip we ever got was change for when things are under $1 US (4000 Kip/USD).

The place was inexpensive... even in Siem Riep or Phnom Pehn.  Everyone is trying hard to make tourists feel welcome and they are doing a good job cleaning the place up.  Laos had beautiful scenery but the smog distracted from that and it never felt as relaxing as the guide books made out it would be.  Plus the roads were terrible for the most part which made getting around a real hassle.

The roads in Cambodia were great and it is FLAT with the odd hill stuck in the middle of a flat plain except at the coast but beautiful in its own way.  We loved the upscale tuk tuks (trailers attached to motor cycles).  Each of those trailers was usually a work of art... much like the old horse drawn carriages or early motorcars.  I'd definitely go back.

The Vietnamese boarder crossing.  The Cambodian one was a 3x5 metre tin shack that looked like a strong wind would push over.  The disparity was shocking.