Cambodiyeet: Koh Kong

oh so fashion

so glad I went on this trip even though I was worried about not knowing anyone, all the Cambodians were sooooooooooooooooooooooo friendly and kept making sure i was ok and feeding me beers and taking photos with me just sighs why is everyone so nice here??

King Island

So last weekend (Sun-Tues), I went on a work trip to Koh Kong Province with some of the hospital staff and the Provincial Health Department (PHD) staff. Was invited by the PHD director who is the guy sitting on the left of me. Super friendly, speaks good English but didn't drink the whole weekend because he has stomach problems. My homestay mum, Rotana, also came because she works at the PHD heheheh so I wasn't too scared.

I was told that I was on a different bus to her so I was a bit :///// BUT when I got on the bus, the dep director of my hospital plonked down next to me and he could speak pretty good English so I was happy. Such a nice dudeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. He's probably like 50 though and he has three kids and is not married lmfao.

Bus trip was 10 hours in total grrrrr. For lunch the bus just stopped at a random field with a nice patch of dirt and then it was a communal effort from everyone to get out the picnic mats and food. It was the dirtiest shit ever like people were chucking their bones and scraps onto the mat and then flies starting coming but people ate the shit that had flies sitting on it?!?! IDK such a public health hazard. Also some cows were in the bg just chilling.

Got back on the bus and had a beeeeer. TrTheied tamarind which was sweet. The whole bus ride they were blasting karaoke and I was so over it I just wanted to sleep. They had a competition running and the best karaoke singer as voted by the people won a phone??? It wasn't just an ordinary competition though, there were rounds and semis and finals HAHAHHA.

Arrived at a random pier in Koh Kong and then took a ferry to King Island woweee.

Getting on the ferry was so scary cus it was just one plank to the boat suspended like 1 meter above the actual boat.

This is my homestay mum!!! Rotana ~~~ 

Viewsssa

Got to the island as the sun was setting and it was sooooo pretty hehe. Settled into my room and then went out for dinz. The eating area was like in the water on like a pier. idk how to describe

Ate lots of fish soup because everything else was seafood. They learned that I didn't like any seafood besides fish and after that they ordered special food for me so I would still eat :) SO KINDDDDD. Got quite tipsy and then got baited to dance with them. 

Ok so Cambodians have three dances:

1. Traditional - lots of strange curly hand actions whilst walking around and worshipping an ice cooler. Its feels so unnatural to do but if you do it properly its really pretty. Not be because I wanted so hard to just muzz. 
2. Slow - swaying with a partner, pretty normal
3. Ham - POWER WALKING ARM ACTIONS ON THE SPOT I was trying so hard not to laugh

Then went to bed zzzzzzzzz

Woke up next morning for breakfast with the directors again. Got some mii chaa then we hopped on a ferry back to the mainland.

Stopped downstream from the Tatai Dam to take some photos! When I was walking to work the day after the trip ended, the lady in this picture with the hat offered me a motorbike ride after she saw me walking hahaha. 

Then saw a sea water forest? Idk what you call it cus they're not exactly mangroves but they're very similar.

Parts of the path were covered by sea water so had to take our shoes off and trek through >:(

The little blue hut is one of the places where people had to sit down and eat lunch. WAS WHACK there were so many flies and wasps and fkn ants crawling all over the food but yo they were unphased. I think lunch lasted for a solid 3 hours that day.

Whilst waiting for the food tho, got offered this banana wrapped in sticky rice and JFASJDF;LAJDS;FLKJA  it was so so so so good.

After lunch, was offered to take a boat ride to see more of these weird little tree forest islands. Did we got on the ferry via a pier? NO we just fkn climbed over the railing of where we were eating lunch, climbed through some of trees then jumped into the boat. 

more travelling and bus riding, then eventually arrived in the Koh Kong city and checked into the guest house. I was so glad to not have insects in my fucken bathroom omg.

Headed out for dinner on the side of a random river. People got so so so drunk but I didn't want to use the public bathroom so I didn't drink too much. New me is so disappointed in old me HAHAHA I peed in some ratchet ass toilets the next day.

Lots of dancing, was super duper tired. Group called Cambodia crew again during the chaos. They finished their karaoke competition hehe

Had breakfast in the morning opposite Garry and Joo-Hong's hospital so like while waiting for food I just saw two figures in the distance in fkn blue scrubs and I knew it was them. Went to say hi and also have a peek in their workshop and askdfj;lasjkdf;lakj so envious they have so much stuff to fix >:(

Hopped back on the bus and again didn't wanna drink because I didn't want to pee. 

Lunch, cambodian style again. Pretty sure the fish I ate made me diarrhoea the next day but yolo

During lunch I accepted a beer and then that was the beginning of the end. I KEPT DRINKING AND DRINKING AND DRINKINg because the adults kept offering hehehhe. so fkn munted

But yeah I danced on the bus with them and it was super fun :))) What was also fun in the moment was all the public toilets i peed in but fk some of them weren't bathrooms like I had to pee on the side of the road, squat in a hole in the middle of a field fk it was ratchet.

BUT SUCH A GOOD TIME. The guy I was sitting next to was basically a tour guide. He was pointing at things the whole way back and explaining what they were!! 

everyone was super duper tired during dinner but managed to dance nevertheless. 

got back to Preah Vihear at midnight and just wanted my bed but i had to shower. 

I feel truly like a Cambodian now. ALSO I learnt so many new words on the trip like luk ey, pek ors, muoy dtiet XD