Anna Wildman

I woke up at 8 am after a casual 10-hour slumber. I had no idea I was that tired.

I had breakfast at the hostel with some food I had bought the day before: a baguette with banana and coconut butter from Backyard Cafe (this I bought in Phnom Penh).

I went to Long Beach, which is a really long (hence the name) beach about 10 minutes away from my hostel. I saw Guy, the Israeli guy I had met the night before, also chilling on the beach.
I plopped down next to him and we chatted, took turns going in the water, and laid around. I showed him my book, The Power Of Now, and let him read it for a bit. After just reading the intro, he was obsessed. He said he’s been thinking all the points in the book, but wasn’t able to articulate it. It confirmed everything that had been ruminating in his head.

We got hungry so we went to find lunch. We went to Sunset Bungalows, which is this really beautiful cafe right by the water where you take off your shoes, sit on pillows, and eat on nice wood-carved tables.

I got veggie noodle soup. I have no idea if the broth was vegetarian: When I asked the waitress, “Is the veggie noodle soup broth vegetarian?” She said, “Yes, chicken vegetable broth.” I said, “Is it vegetarian or no?” And she said, “Yes, vegetarian,” So I’m really not sure if she understood what I was asking, but… if it wasn’t veggie broth, I will reconcile it by telling myself that at least the chicken meat was used to its full potential.

We went back to hostel to ask about the snorkeling tour that the hostel organizes. The tour started at 2, and it was just past 2, so we tried to join— we walked up to the meeting point, but no one was there so we just walked back down the hill to find something else to do. We ran into two girls Guy knew (Eunice is Swedish, Sophia is German) who were just about to leave to go to Sunset Beach.

We decided to join them.

This is what I love about travel: spontaneous decisions like this, where one plan leads to another and your whole day takes a completely different turn.
We got a taxi boat to the beach since there was no way to get there by foot, and the island has no roads (or any motorized vehicles, for that matter). The ride was longer than I thought it would be; it took about 45 minutes to get there.

The beach was really nice, but a bit smaller than I had imagined.

However, once I was settled down with my beach blanket laid out, staring out into the ocean, I realized how special this beach was. It has really chill vibes, nice small waves, and super clear water.

We all swam for a bit before relaxing on the sand.
Guy and I got beers for the boat ride back. I thought it would be nice to have a beer in hand and watch the sun go down as we cruised back to our bay.

We got back, showered, and then chilled in the common area.

I was starving by 6, but we didn’t get going for dinner until about 8 pm.
We went back to Sunset Bungalows, where Guy and I had ate lunch, but they told us the wait would be 1.5 hours since they were so backed up on orders.

We decided to go somewhere else: we chose a Turkish place near the hostel called Blue Quay.
I got a vegan pizza (aka the vegetarian sans cheese)— it was good but not amazing. I thought it was going to be more of an authentically Turkish pizza, but really it was just a standard thin-crust pizza. But I love thin-crust, so no real complaints.

We went back to the hostel, played Uno, and Guy jammed on the guitar.
The rest of the group left to go see the glowing plankton around midnight, but I just went to bed.