I survived Rabbit Island.

My first weekend in Cambodia I teamed up with enthusiastic fellow travellers and RDI volunteers, Bailey and Lauren, and headed to the Coast to a town called Kep and then Rabbit Island.

I say 'I survived Rabbit Island' because the whole thing was much more adventurous and rustic than we were expecting. We started our trip heading downtown with a tuktuk, which is a little covered cart pulled by a motorbike. They have rainflaps that can be rolled down if you happen to get caught up in a torrential downpour, and overall, you kind of feel like a princess riding in one!

We stopped off at the 'Luckys' supermarket and stocked up on smartfood popcorn, pringles, chocolate, and wine coolers, ready for our beach weekend. The bus ride was interesting, and not too long - only about 3 hours. The scenery along the way was stunning, rice paddies, studded with dramatic mini-mountains, and tons of majestic white cattle (I really like the cows here!). The bus rides are an interesting experience. The bus, being one of the largest vehicles on the road, is the boss. In Cambodia, as in Indonesia, Might is Right. The bus driver has a technique of honking every couple of minutes to warn oncoming and upcoming traffic of its approach, because it is their job to get of the way for him, obviously. The bus also comes equip with a second handman who checks tickets and is responsible for on-bus entertainment - controlling the flow of Cambodian music videos, and comedy shows, and chinese movies. Like any music videos, they are incredibly over-dramatic, and entertaining the first time around...around the 5-6th time they run, they can get a little tired. If you have a good bus hand, you have a nice rotation of entertainment;)

We arrived in Kep, a quaint little beach town that hasnt quite rebounded fully for the tourist market, aka, its not the most popular tourist spot, but its a quick trip from Phonm Penh, so it caters a lot to the expat community there. Kep supposedly used to be a popular weekend destination for the colonial French, and it has a beautiful walk-way and road along the coast with beautiful yet abandoned villas up on the hill across the street. In its height, its not hard to picture couples taking evening strolls along the coast, taking in the beautiful sunset and ocean breeze.

We arrived in Kep friday evening just in time for a beautiful sunset.
We had a nice dinner at a restaurant called 'Pasta el Basa', arranged for our tuk-tuk and boat ride the next morning for Rabbit Island and called it a night.

The boat trip to rabbit island, was a little scary! It was a very windy, choppy stretch, and though the trip only took about 30 mins, and we could see the island from shore, it was frightful and we got drenched!

We took a 5 minute hike in to where the cabins were on the other beach from where we arrived, and it was so cool, very reminiscent of Lost. There were about 6 different sets of cabins, and we walked to almost the end to find one that we liked! On Rabbit Island we chilled on the beach reading our books, ate some so-so food (not known for its food, says me to fish sauce thats added to everything), and took a hike around the island.
Here are some newborn pups at the restaurant associated with our bungalows.
This is a view from the restaurant looking back at the bungalows.
Eating lunch, and waiting out a bit of rain. Testing the local beer.
Where I camped out for a couple hours reading and soaking up the sun.
It was fun swimming here because of the huge waves and a sandy shore...but there was some garbage floating around...as there is everywhere!
We headed out for the afternoon around the island. We had heard mixed messages about how easy the journey was. One other volunteer said that it would only take an hour, others said 3-4. We set out, under-prepared, but eager to see what we would find! The path started out quite open and well worn, as you can see above.
It very gradually got denser and denser, even bringing us to our hands and knees to get through some sections...not a well-worn trail!
It opened up to some beaches with a few fishing families residing there, very isolated...what an interesting life. You could see many islands around, some of which belong to Vietnam.


Eventually we decided to turn around because the path was so dense and we were getting thirsty and cut-up by the brush! We decided that even if we were close to completing the loop, we at least knew the way back was manageable! It was definitely and adventure:)
That evening we had the most spectacular sunset...maybe because of the rainy season and all the clouds in the sky...but it was just stunning and only got better and better!




There was only power on the island from 6pm to 10pm, so we made our way back to shower and get ready for bed, while we still had light. Its debatable whether its better to be aware or unaware of such large spiders in your bathroom...This one was hanging out over the toilet. My flashlight caught the reflection on its eyes.

That evening we ate our oreos and smartfood on our porch with our headlamps and giggled about random stuff and felt like we were at camp. It was lovely.
These are some shots from the island, it was rustic and humble,but lots of fun and a memorable experience!



Back in Kep there was a crab market and it was a little hectic, cool to check out...we were too chicken to eat any though. We opted for some delicious Pasta at a french restaurant!

The other thing I should mention about Kep, which is something of a recurring theme in Cambodia, there were these abandoned french villas along the coast, which we still standing, overgrown, scorched and bullet-hole ridden from the civil war with the Khmer Rouge. Not having any first-hand experience with war it was frightening to see evidence of it. The war is over, that was in the past, but the relics and legacy of it still live on in the present, in many shapes and forms.