Plankton and Prostitutes

Sihanoukville and  Koh Rong Sanloem, Cambodia

Sihanoukville was probably the most touristic part of Cambodia that we visited. Neon lights and the thump of bass pounding from nearby bars greeted us as we stepped off the bus. Kerry had – unintentionally – booked us a hotel bang in the middle of the city’s red light district. My venture for water that night turned into an assault of men, women and men-women, all eager for business. One girl pretended to trip in-front of me, in hope that I would catch her in my arms, where she could then deliver her pitch with no chance of me getting away. Her mistake was thinking I was gentleman enough to catch her. The she-males were especially hard to refuse, dressed in revealing outfits, displaying their big feet, deep voices and delicate adams apples... I soon found myself walking quickly back to the safety of the hotel, thankful that we had only booked one night.

Koh Rong Sanloem is an island just south of mainland Cambodia. We decided to book 5 nights on the island for a break from the busy cities we had been spending so much time in. Laura and Graham also joined us. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t great. Typically, after days on end of cloudless skies, scorching sunshine and blistering heat, the rain decided that now was the time to arrive.

And not just rain…

2 of our 5 days on the island were host to some of the craziest storms we have seen since we came to Asia. I’ve never heard thunder crack so loudly or seen lightening strike so close! Graham and I were close to jumping into each others arms when one struck just meters from where we were standing.

Weather aside; there was one particular sight that certainly made our trip worth while:

Fluorescent Plankton.

It wasn’t guaranteed but we were told that you either see it, or you don’t. You have to disturb the water at night, but it all depended on how dark the sky was, and what position the moon was in, and whether or not it’d been raining… and even then it wouldn’t always show up. With this in mind we thought our chances of seeing it were next to none, so when Laura threw a stick into the water, we were pretty amazed to see the ripples burst away in fluorescent blue circles… We couldn’t believe our luck! Moments later we were throwing everything we could find off the end of the pier (biodegradable – of course), to witness the vibrant splashes and incredible ripples they caused.