Island Life: Koh Rong Cambodia

Brellowgirl
Feb 26, 2016
9 min read

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today we left Phnom Penh in search of some sunshine and sand. We took a mini bus first thing in the morning to the beach town of Sihanoukville, a six hour ride. Although my real Valentine is waiting for me at home, our bus company, Asia Win Alliance, really made our trip perfect with a spacious brand new van, little individual bags of croissants and water bottles for breakfast, air conditioning (you have no idea how important this is) and single stemmed roses upon our arrival. HOW CUTE! To top it off, the six of us were the only ones in the nine passenger van so the guys were able to lay out and sleep in the backseat during the ride.

We got into Sihanoukville around lunchtime and went to a place called “Delicious” to grab some food. A plate of fried vegetables with rice was $1.50. What can we buy nowadays for $1.50?? Actually I just got off the phone with Amy and apparently you can now buy a gallon of gas for $1.50 so that’s pretty impressive. We ate quickly and walked over to the pier to get on a ferry to take us to an island called Koh Rong, pronounced koh-row-n. Roberto found us slow boat tickets for $10 round trip so we went the cheap route. About 5 minutes into our ride we realized why the slow boat was so cheap when the entire bottom deck became a massive splash zone. We got pretty wrecked and then when we tried to go upstairs one of the crew guys told us we couldn’t because of the weight distribution and that the boat would tip over…lovely. We hid behind the pile of luggage until the waves calmed down a bit and then went back to our seats. Juan had his speaker with him so we played some music and the guys danced around for a while to pass the time. The boat took close to three hours to get to the island and when we got there our first line of business was finding somewhere to stay.

We tried a guesthouse bungalow but decided it was a bad idea to cram that many people into one room so we opted for a guesthouse/treehouse that had private rooms. I split one with two of the guys and the other three took another room. It was really basic accommodation but fairly chilled out. All made of wood right off the beach, this place was called Natural Lounge Guesthouse and had a REALLY steep staircase to get up to our room and then hammocks along the upper deck. There was a fan in our room but no air con but we thought we’d be alright…It was VERY hot. During the night it’d be okay but then around 8am we’d all just be dripping in sweat.

2.18.16

The next few days on the island were strict relax on the beach days. We would have breakfast together, find a beach and read/layout/swim the day away. Our first full day on the island we checked out a little beach called Police Beach. Don’t know why it was called that but it was small, quiet and very laid back. No tourists, just backpackers. The guys tied their hammocks and I found a quiet spot on the opposite side of the beach under a cool looking tree with some dream catchers on it. The water was really amazing. Clear blue, white sand, no waves and warm-very warm. The guys played chicken with stacks of three…ridiculous and even though we were so far out, the water was shallow and only came up to our elbows. I’ve decided that I absolutely love hammocks and I’d really like one. They’re great for backpackers who don’t want to spend money on a room for the night, you can literally put one up anywhere and then just hang a mosquito net from a tree and relax all night. I’ve also decided that I love dreads. I mean, I always did before but I like them now more than ever. I know my momma would kill me if I came home dreaded though. I’ll have to wait until I move out ;)

On the 16th we changed guesthouses because not having air con was excruciating. We moved to a place right on the beach above a busy restaurant called Coco’s. We also discovered the fruit lady. She had a little area in front of a minimart and restaurant where she sold smoothies, juice and boxed fruit. $1 could buy you any kind of fruit smoothie which was basically the fruit blended with ice and milk and a bit of condensed milk and sometimes cream. Or you could have just juice which was fruit and ice or you could have a small box of cut up fruit for the same price. $2 bought you a huuge box of cut fruit. I’m not talking just apples and oranges either…all kinds of deliciously sweet amazing exotics like sweet pineapple, papaya, mango, dragonfruit and passionfruit and then bananas, watermelon, oranges and apples. We loved her.

The guys spotted instafamous, Jack Morris walking on the beach, the guy behind the handle DOYOUTRAVEL If you haven’t checked out his pictures I’d highly suggest it, they’re sick. The guys were talking to me about being in Bangkok and how they climbed this abandoned building called the Ghost Tower one night to take some pictures because from the top because there are amazing views of the city. They said on the way up they bumped into Jack who was stuck so they helped him get down and then made their way up to the top. Really cool seeing him.

We walked a good two miles to get to a beach called Sok San that day. It was a bit of a walk through the jungle and then we walked along the beach until we found a good spot for sunset. We found a long pier that jutted into the water and there was a fisherman sitting at the end. Me, Juan and Alejandro walked over and sat with him a while to see what he was fishing for. He was catching these little silvery yellow fish with some line and bait, no pole and was very smiley even though he didn’t speak any English.

We’d been hearing that the most beautiful beach on Koh Rong was called Long Beach and that to get there you had to hike through the jungle for about 45 minutes. So that was our adventure on the 17th. We packed some water and headed out after having a late breakfast. It truly was a trek through the jungle… I brought up the rear and took my time as we ascended some red dirt rubble into the brush and then followed the trail through the green. Eventually we had to descend to get back to sea level and it was pretty steep but loads of fun. We all changed into our sneakers and headed down with the help of some ropes that had been tied to trees for assistance. SO MUCH FUN. We got down to the beach with a few hours to spare before sunset. The sand was white and clean and the water a beautiful translucent blue. We secured a boat to go back to our beach after sunset and I layed out while the guys went for a swim. These are the most amazing sunsets I’ve ever seen in my life. The sun hangs in the sky then gets larger and a pink, orangey, red color as it descends. It is so full about 15 minutes before sunset and just sits in the sky. Then it gets smaller as it sets and the whole sky changes colors over and over and over until you think you can’t handle the beauty anymore. Even after the sun completely disappears the sky continues to morph into different shades of blue and purple, it’s crazy.

So the real adventure happened on the way back to our beach. We saw the boat that we were supposed to be on out in the water so we held all our bags over our heads and waded out. The water came a bit past my waist so I was a bit annoyed that I had been dry. I felt really bad for the girl wearing soaking wet jean shorts walking out to her boat…at least I still had my bathing suit on. We got on the boat and there were six others, so twelve in total plus a guy to steer and a guy to keep look out. I don’t know what these guys smoked but I literally thought we were going to capsize pretty much the entire way. We started out fine but then the waves got rough and we started getting splashed with water. THEN we got deluged with water. THEN the whole boat started rocking back and forth quite violently. I totally would have been okay with it had I not had my camera and cell phone with me. At one point the boat was tipping so much back and forth that I was sitting on the side of the boat and my back was pretty much skimming the water. I was going to cry, I was having such a bad time. Meanwhile the suns down and it’s dark out and I was soaking wet. Sigh, Cambodia.

In the morning we were taking turns using the bathroom in the room next door because ours was broken so Juan left his phone on top of his bed for a few minutes. When he got back his phone was gone. So terrible that even in a room during the day you always have to keep your valuables with you or else you risk them getting stolen. The managers of the place asked their staff but no one owned up to taking it unfortunately.

Some things I noticed on the island were in the mornings there were women down the street from our bungalows who would be filleting some kind of small fish. They would be sitting on the ground and cutting the fish open and then throwing them in a big metal bowl. We walked to the beach while they were doing that and then late in the day when we walked back, the bowl was still sitting out with the fish in it. Smelly, hot, fish meat sitting out all day in the sun. Yummy.

After seeing that it was no wonder I had stomach issues pretty much the entire time I was on the island. Having to poop in toilets where they don’t flush and you also can’t throw toilet paper down them is not fun at all.

I also saw little kids helping their parents by sitting on the ground and peeling or chopping vegetables. There was one girl, probably about 5 who was holding a pairing knife and had a big bucket of garlic next to her. She was squatting on the ground and peeling all the garlic. Who gives a five year old a knife?

Our last night on the island there was a power outage that lasted all night. There had been power outages throughout our whole time there but this one was the worst lasting the entire evening and overnight.

On the 18th we left the island in the evening. The boat was much better than the one we arrived on. We went up to the top deck and there were long mats layed out, like loungers so the guys hung out in one of those areas while I sunbathed and read out on the deck. The sunset was beautiful on the water and we got into Sihanoukville around dinner time. We had another meal at the place we went to before, Delicious. The guy that owns the place has two children, a 5 year old girl and a baby boy and he is just so hardworking. We ate then went to go find a place to stay. We opted for a place close to the beach, a guesthouse. The accommodation was fine and the guys were leaving first thing in the morning so it was just somewhere for us to sleep.

That evening we hit the beach bars to check out the scene. Not my scene haha. The bars reminded me of Rutgers parties, dirty, smelly backpackers, cheap liquor, bad music. We stayed for a few hours walking from bar to bar. Every bar was giving out free shots and the first bar we walked into was giving out “buckets” to anyone wearing a dress. I just so happened to be wearing a dress so I got myself a bucket of whatever they were offering. I watched the bartender look around, grab an empty liter bottle of sprite, take a knife and cut it in half and use that as my bucket lol.

Sihanoukville has a bad reputation of being a bit dangerous and we didn’t know until later night when Oscar walked back to the guesthouse (literally 5 minutes away) by himself. We were just 10 minutes behind him but in that time a tuk tuk driver happened to offer him a ride and then offer him weed when he said he didn’t need a ride. After being refused a second time the tuk tuk guy tried to stick his hand in Oscar’s back pocket where his wallet was. Oscar ended up with some really sore knuckles after punching the guy but he thankfully didn’t get his stuff stolen.

The guys left first thing on the morning of the 19th and just like that I’m on my own again. I’m very thankful to have met such a wonderful group of smart, young adults. It was a blessing to have joined them on their travels and I wish all of them good semesters back in Taiwan. Study hard and do good in this world, you’re all capable of so much greatness.

Much love,

Cas