Koh Rong

Where have I been for the past week?

Here.

It's an island called Koh Rong off the southern coast of Cambodia, about a two hour boat ride from Sihanoukville.  Koh Rong is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

I met a rather large group of 10 people from England, Australia, France, and Zimbabwe in Sihanoukville and we decided to travel together.  They all wanted to go to an island so I told them about Koh Rong, which I had heard about from a friend in Phnom Penn.  We all decided to go for it and booked tickets.  Here we are at the docks where we watched these two boats be filled with very large blocks of ice.  Why?  Because there is not enough electricity on the island to cool things to the point of freezing, all of the businesses depend on a shipment of ice once a day.

The sun setting on our boat ride there.

The view from our balcony.  The only form of accommodation on the island are beach bungalows.  Essentially wooden huts on stilts either on the beach or up in the jungle, like ours.

Here is the main beach where all of the restaurants, small shops, and bungalows are.

The most beautiful thing about the island is how underdeveloped it is.  Although there were spots with some construction, the island did not lose any of it's charm.  I say construction but what I mean by that is a few locals with a saw and a hammer.  There is absolutely no internet on the island and all of the electricity is powered by small gas generators.  In the bungalows we were staying in we were given electricity from 7:00pm to 11:00pm.  It was a very refreshing change of pace.

Here are some of the spots being developed.  I can see the island being a completely different place this time next year but I don't think that will change how immensely beautiful and relaxing the island is.

Here is the bridge up to a restaurant that had incredible food and the best choco banana shake I will ever have in my life.

Our table for lunch.

Walking around the island...

All I can say is Hadley, you best be getting excited.

The picture above was take from a boat as we went out to go snorkeling.  They took us out to a small island and we made a full circle around it.  I wish I had had an underwater case for my camera because the world underneath the sea was one of the most colorful I have ever seen.  There was coral of every color that was vibrant and alive.  When I dove down closer to take a closer look I noticed just how alive it really was.  It seemed as though everything underwater was moving, even the shells that seemed still would suddenly stand up and start walking.  There were bright green and pink fish with the wings of a hummingbird, giant two foot sea cucumbers, and schools of tiny fish moving as one.  A great day to say the least.

Beach bums everywhere.

This day we decided to trek across the island to see the sunset on the other side.

What we found was an unbearably pure and undeveloped beach.  Me and a new friend name Sean from Zimbabwe swam out as far as we could and guessed the water to be about 10 meters deep.  Crystal clear.

These little guys are very common on the island, you can always find them hanging around lights.

After many days of reading, sleeping, talking, eating, swimming, snorkeling, and general relaxation it was time to head back to mainland.

One last sunset on the way back to Sihanoukville.