4000 Islands

On the boat you can see them. Dubbed earlier as the '4000 rocks,' gorgeous little green burst ups of island, amongst a gorgeous clear sea. The air is quiet as we approach don det, the more popular island to stop at. When you get there you have two choices: sunset side or sunrise side. Basically, starting at the northern tip of the island, this means turn right and get a bungalow with a view of the sunset, or turn left for sunrise. I followed paz who was looking for two of his friends, with their only instructions being sunset side. We walked the entirety of the sunset side, screaming their names, but eventually gave up and picked the first reasonable bathroom-containing bungalow we found.

Moved in, changed, and sat at their restaurant (all the restaurants were open air with various pillows to sit on and stare at the gorgeous surroundings.) Fruit smoothies went down and paz mished to find his friends. It was rather quick that I realised this island's similarity to nimbin, as menus sparkled with the word 'happy' as an alternate way of ordering things, or an additional topping. We found the aforementioned friends and all hung out enjoying the beautiful peaceful place. Eventually I finally showered (ish) and then relaxed for a bit before going back to catch the sunset. It was gorgeous, reflecting perfectly off of the water. With the end of the sun though came the start of bugs. 

We moved to another restaurant and got what should be known as dinner 2. Happy shakes were ordered and after a bit we moved to the happy bar, a reggae like bar owned by an awesome british indian dude. He was a great time and treated us well, until we were so tired that we had to head back to the bungalow for bed. 

After failing to wake up for the sunrise, we were up eventually and ready for breakfast. The weather was scorching, so instead of going for a bike ride, decided to rent tubes. This started off fun, but rapidly got terrifying as our tubes became difficult to control, and we could hear the waterfall not too far in our future. I grabbed on to the branches of little islands, and thankfully the company made sure I got to a rocky shore safely. The water was filled with green seaweed like plant matter, which was difficult to walk through, as it clung around our ankles. 

Once we were out and comfortably on land we went to an organic garden area gone pizza restaurant, owned by a sweet (british?) couple. They were to have a pingpong tournament that paz's friend wanted to participate in, since apparently he was the best in israel when he was 9 years old. We all got pizzas and the tournament began. I had a small nap in a hammock, and as planned, the friend beat everyone out easily.

Next we raced to catch the sunset, which I had wanted to timelapse, but my gopro died too early :/. Next time! When that was done we went out to another random place to eat, and then the bar that was their 'movie theater' of sorts to watch superbad. Twas another gorgeous 4000 island night. 

Again I failed to wake up for the sunrise, but I was up and moving at 7 to catch my bus to siem reap at 8. The instructions were 'meet at the beach.' Really? Please be more vague. I got some muesli, yogurt, and bananas and went. Easy enough, there were heaps of boats making trips. I got onto one and was off. Upon landing, we had another hour to kill before getting on a bus.

I bought snacks and weird street donuts and eventually piled onto the uncomfortable 'vip' bus to cross the border. Before leaving we had to fill out visa and entrance cards, pay, and leave our passports with the bus driver. I was definitely overcharged, and I was uncomfortable leaving my passport, but the majority of the bus did it and I figured it'd be easier in the long run. We got to the border quite quickly and all had to get out and walk across it.

We waited over an hour on the cambodian side for the bus to come through. When it finally did we piled in again (more people now) and were off. We stopped once at an overpriced pitstop area, and then again to switch busses at like 730pm, when we were splitting between people going to siem reap, and people going to phnom penh.

We didn't get in until 11pm, where I followed two german girls looking for accomodation, but ended up settling with the tuktuk driver's suggestion of some hostel.