Top 5 Destinations
We were not here for long, in fact, I think we only camped
for one night as we were following a very strict schedule I had made to, ironically, try and avoid disaster on our first multi-country trip. Subsequently, we avoided little disaster and
often had to rush, but many a lesson was learnt.
Genoa was peaceful and small, with a grey, stony beach and crystal-clear sea. We camped at the top of the steepest hill in the entire world (maybe) and had to drag ourselves and our bags up it. Thankfully, when we were on the verge of death a kind stranger picked us up and drove us the rest of the way. However, the positive of being up so high was the breath-taking view, overlooking the ocean and picturesque town below. Tiny restaurants dotted around filled the air with the scent of gorgeous Italian food, and the serenity was unreal.
We dined at a family-owned restaurant for a six-course lunch before departing and were treated to home-cooked-style Italian authenticity. The quietness of the beach travelled lazily into the restaurants, we were surrounded by well-treated diners but didn't have that crowded irritable feeling that inner-city restaurants often ooze.
I look forward to our inevitable return to Genoa to explore further and once again breathe in the calmness.
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| Sunset over the sea in Genoa |
4. Khoa Lak, Thailand
Khoa Lak was my first ever taste of the Southeast Asian coast, so will always be an important place for me. The beach is vast and flat, making for huge waves which we revelled in.
We first visited here over Christmas in 2018, after spending a few days in Chaing Mai. We stayed at two different points along the beach, first Suwan Palm and then Khoa Lak Orchid. Suwan Palm was right on the beach with a cocktail shack and our room has the most stunning view overlooking the ocean. Khoa Lak Orchid offered a more luxurious stay and similarly overlooked the waves, but had limited access to the beach itself.
Khoa Lak was one of the places affected by the tsunami in
2003 and in Khoa Lak Orchid one of the pools has a boulder left in it as a
monument. Not too far from the hotel there is a museum exhibiting photos of the loss and destruction suffered after the tsunami, and poignantly a small courtyard which holds a thought-provoking silence as people wander through taking in what they have just seen. It's a great tribute but as with all disasters, nothing could ever demonstrate what must have happened there during the
tsunami and for so long after.
During our first visit, we spent the new year at a party on the beach, with fireworks being set off and large open fires with no regard to health and safety causing an unbeatable freeing atmosphere. The weirdest part was that one minute the beach was full of music
and dancing, momentarily we left to dive into the pool and change our clothes and when we returned there wasn’t a person or any remnants there had been a party, just peace. We
stumbled around until we found a hidden beach bar and drank away in there with
a swiss couple, until Ev could no longer see and I was in charge of
directions- not ideal.
Nursing hangovers the next day we decided to come away from the beach and walk into nature. We spent the day exploring Tong Chong Fa Waterfall
and were often completely alone. A few raindrops fell as we jumped into one of
the small pools beneath the waterfall and it felt magical, pure bliss and peace
after a hectic night. One of my favourite parts of traveling is the contrast
that night and day can bring and learning how to let yourself move between the
two. I find it so refreshing, I am usually full of stress and anxiety around
change but find the change when exploring thrilling.
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Walking to Tong Chong Fa Waterfall |
We loved Khoa Lak so much that we returned in 2019 with our friends and this time discovered more. One day we headed to the far end of the beach to rent surfboards, as advised by our hostel, Monkey Dive. We hired them from Memories Beach Bar, fairly cheaply, and spent the day (trying) to surf, Ev had surfed before but I hadn’t and being inept at most other sports didn’t hold much hope for my surfing skills.
I knew it was going to be fun but had no idea how fun. I was useless, utterly, but still so content. I rode just a few waves out of the hundreds I tried to catch but regardless it was so fun. I love the sea and spend as much time swimming as I can when away, and this felt like a new connection to the water. We all screamed laughed and rode waves together until we were completely bruise-covered and exhausted. I cannot wait to do this again, it didn’t matter that I couldn’t do it well the freedom and exhilaration was euphoric.
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Surfboards are sooo much heavier than I expected |
Later in our stay, we took a day trip to the Similan Islands, hoping to see sea turtles. We didn’t. Apparently, this was due to the full moon the previous night, but either way, we had a good day, we snorkelled through colour filled colour reefs and saw some huge lizards roaming the island. The islands themselves were paradisal, white soft melting sand and sparkling life abundant water.
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| Idyllic |
In recent years we have spent over a month just in Khoa Lak, so won’t be revisiting for a while, but would recommend it for anyone wanting a relaxed coastal taste of Southeast Asia.
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| Each night the orange sky took our breath away |
3. Saracen Bay, Koh Rong Sanloem, Cambodia
We travelled here initially to begin a "work away" that had
been prearranged months in advance. We arrived
by boat to the tiny island and one by one everyone else got out at their
desired resort, we stated where we were headed, and the concerned face of the driver wasn’t unnoticed. When pulling up
to the rickety jetty panic set in, we had overspent and needed these two weeks
free rent desperately if we were going to last many more months. The
hostel we were planning to work at wasn’t on the beach like everything else it
was at the very edge of the bay leading more into the foliage than onto the
white sands. We paced up the jetty
called and out a few times, each time noticing more and discomforts, darkness, dogs that seemed to rule the derelict, destructed hostel before us. It didn’t
help that we were still nursing a hangover-from-hell after a sunrise rave a few
days before, so sensitivities were high. No one replied and the boat was
turning around so we thought fast and jumped back aboard asking him to drop us
on the beach, with no further plan.
He dropped us on the beach and we aimlessly lugged our backpacks along the sloping sand, sweating out all
the Changs from the days previous. We strolled in and out of resorts asking how
much for a night, looking at the gorgeous cabins and beach huts before us whilst not being able
to afford a thing. Finally, someone took
pity on us, a resort called “GreenBlue” who said for $12 a night we could sleep
in an outbuilding where staff slept, a semi-private room with shared bathrooms. We
were delighted and saved!
Once we settled we were able to take in the beauty of the
island, and absorbed everything Saracen bay had to offer. It was stunning, white
sands and endless blue sea in a 2.5Km bay dotted with restaurants and resorts. That night we went to Monkey Bar and drank
with other travellers until we were dancing on the bar. We were in love with
this place. For over a week we extended
our stay by a night each morning, after a few days they kindly put our rate down to $10
a night.
One of the best days of our entire trip was when we walked across the island from Saracen Bay to Lazy Beach. It took around an hour on unmade roads, and often overgrown, through a thick forest, where saw wild monkeys, massive snakes, and eerily not another person.
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| Setting off across the island |
Lazy beach was home to a stunning restaurant, serving fragrant curries, and
holiday bungalows from which we rented snorkels and flippers and headed
straight into the water. It was phenomenal, much more marine life than Saracen
Bay which occasionally was litter filled from the drift off the mainland, much
to the heartbreak of the locals. We
snorkelled out further and further seeing numerous large purple sea urchins and
thousands of fish. Before we knew we had let our awe carry us out far from
shore and we had to fight the tide to get back, draining every ounce of our
energy, but totally worth it. We returned here a few times during our stay on the
island and were never disappointed, lazy beach is a secluded paradise and much
quieter and smaller than Saracen bay-the perfect escape.
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| Picture perfect Lazy Beach |
During our time at Saracen we spent a lot of evenings drinking at Monkey Bar and chatting to like-minded people, or watching live musicians at The Big Easy. We ate at the Sara hotel a few times, it was a lot more expensive than other places, but worth it for the taste of luxury. Our budgeting was out of the window by now anyway.
Almost daily we ate breakfast at a beach bar called Vayo, where you can rent paddleboards, canoes, or simply let the waves push you in their in-sea hammocks.
However, the best meal we had was at a tiny local place tucked away down the road behind Monkey Bar, we were basically in someone’s home. 4 of us went and ordered 6 meals to share and I wish we had ordered more; it was so veritable and tantalisingly tasty. Real flavours, real food, and really in someone’s very small kitchen. Halfway through our dinner they lost power and we sat in darkness for a while, the whole family laughed as they scrambled to sort it, no stress or panic-I needed more of that.
In the end we stayed on the island for 10 days, and were gutted to leave but we needed to cut back on spends. It was time to move on, and we did so with heavy hearts.
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| A glorious day in Saracen Bay |
2. Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland
What an unexpected treasure this was. Switzerland is a place I have visited frequently, more so in my early years, so was keen to take Ev when we were interrailing. We were planning to go to Bern to catch a flight onwards, but I found a cool looking hostel in Lauterbrunnen for us to go to first. I hadn’t heard of it but thought we should visit on our way.
In order to get to Lauterbrunnen, we had to take a train which felt like it came right out of a fairy-tale, very small toy-like carriages, beautifully decorated, and the views kept on getting better. Traditional Swiss homes, mountains, waterfalls all rolling before us. We stayed in Hostel Schutzenbach which is a picturesque cabin type building on one of the hills.
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| Straight out of a fairy-tale |
1. Coconut Beach, Koh Rong Island Cambodia
White sands, clear blue seas, and for the most part undisturbed, yet in order to
reach the island, you must take a boat from the port in Sihanoukville, a
southern city on mainland Cambodia and arguably one of the worst places I’ve
ever had to travel through! What used to be called a “backpackers paradise” has
very quickly changed. In recent years Sihanoukville has been overpopulated with
casinos and not much else, the roads are completely unmade and full of holes
and dirt-the breeze from the sea causes this to blow in a frenzy causing what
felt like miniature sandstorms, targeting my eyes in particular. The
atmosphere was intense and aggressive, unlike the rest of Cambodia that we experienced. As this is the only access
point to the islands everyone we met had also travelled through there and said
much of the same. Fortunately for us, we were able to get from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville
and onto a boat within a day so didn’t have to stick around for too long.
We look the boat to Coconut Beach on Koh Rong Island, and were overjoyed when we approached a stretch of beach
around half a mile long with white sand reaching far into the distance and
bungalows dotted around. The lack of noise was beautiful.
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| Serenity |
We stayed in a beach bungalow, Bunnan Bungalows, that were around £18 a night – a bit more than our normal budget but so worth it! The bungalow had a front porch with seating- where our island dog slept, 2 double beds- one we used as a bed-drobe, and a private bathroom with a cold water shower.
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| Dream home |
The peaceful atmosphere of the island was so soothing, and
we relished in the quiet, swimming in the clearest water I have ever seen and
walking up and down the beachfront with the sand in our toes. We ate most
meals slightly down the beach from our bungalow at Coconut Beach Restaurant,
the food was tasty and cheap and the owners were some of the nicest people I
have ever met, Robby and his sister radiated kindness. They also had bungalows
for rent and tents right on the beach where we met a group of other travellers.
Robby, the restaurant owner, set up campfires for us each night and even
organised a tour for us all to visit the other beaches on the island which was
one of my most enjoyable day trips ever. Our snapshot of the other beaches on the island showed them to
be just as beautiful as our own, but a bit more built-up: hotels with pools rather than our tents and cabins.
One of the most unique and breath-taking parts of the island
was its water inhabitants, bioluminescent plankton. Invisible by day but by night, when there were no interfering lights, which Robby always ensured by turning off the restaurant
lights and fairy light bedazzled walks, they
glowed so intensely. One night a large group of us, after drinking about four
£3 bottles of rum we headed into the ocean and delighted in the millions of
tiny sparks flowing around us. Obviously intoxicated and in a very positive
state of mind we all grinned from ear to ear as we charged around like children
try to illuminate as many as we could. One of the coolest natural sights I have
seen.
After a few nights here we moved to another part of the island, Koh Tui, with a couple of friends to go to a sunrise rave on the beach. That night was everything it has promised to be and we enjoyed it, but trying to recover in a more populated area was much harder than it would have been on the serene Coconut Beach. It was hard to believe that these two places were on the same island as still only a small strip it was full of restaurants and bars and most noticeably people.
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| Our bear-dog Bruce, who adopted us during our stay at Coconut Beach |
If you are happy to go without some comforts and a great deal of choice then Coconut Beach holds no faults in my eyes and cannot wait to revisit in years to come.
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