On the journey from Phu Quoc back to Cambodia, we had our last deliciously healthy lunch in Ha Tien, a town near the border, and also our last Lotus tea and Vietnamese coffee - I will miss it so much -. Bye bye Vietnam, you will always be in my mind and heart. Then I started noticing culture differences between both countries. Our Cambodian driver was moody and surprisingly unfriendly even though he brought his girlfriend with him in the bus, and after a few signs he asked me to put my bagged durian into my backpack - I then understood people in this region hate its smell, which I don't find that bad -. We arrived at Sihanoukville as a stopover to get to the Cambodian islands. Sihanoukville is very rundown and local people didn't seem particularly happy to deal with foreigners; plus there were party bars - run and staffed by expats, not a good sign - all around. And the food was seriously poor. However the beach area was broad enough and there was no building invading it, unlike Vietnam.
Cambodia is extremely different to Vietnam. People are less communicating, not as loving and don't seem to understand customer service; laidback is a kind way to describe it, it shocked me at first, then I startedt reading about its history and specially the atrocities and culture wipe-out caused by the Khmer Rouge and had another perspective, but it hinders its tourism perspectives. It is a very poor country, and an attitude change is vital. On the positive, nature seem to have been preserved much more than in its neighbor, where there's not much space left for nature parks. That different approach to nature I thought positive.
Next day we took the long boat transfer somehow to Koh Rong Samloem. We managed to walk from the pier to our room asking people due to lack of directions. The main beach was amazing, fine powdery white sand on an almost unspoiled beach resort, despite some plastic garbage. But then we walked the path to Lazy Beach, a truly spectacular beach, completely unspoilt despite the very low key resort. Yellow sand and a golden green water color on a perfect setting made it one of the best beaches I have visited, honestly. I also hiked and climbed to access Sunset Beach, another beach with same yellow sand and same golden green waters, although the beauty of Lazy Beach was hard to match. It amazed me how come these islands have so far escaped the construction projects taking place in Sihanoukville. These yellow sand beaches deserved much more publicity. But then again Cambodia is a country of contrasts, the main one to me is the one between the amazingly well preserved nature (yet) and the people strange attitude; this is not rude, but a bit dettached from foreigners, they are not lazy but laidback, they want to improve and serve tourists however they seem at times not bothered. Of course it has to do with the genocide. To me is that they want to deliver Western standards but in such an exotic and unique country that is like betrayal. The abundance of NGO's in the country has imposed these standards, unfortunately, and is seriously damaging local culture. There are way too many white foreigners living here a Western life, and this is seriously affecting the country.
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