Koh Rong - Night Time Boat Journey

Just after new years I left Sihanoukville to an island that was about a 2 hour boat ride called Koh Rong.

I was told by another traveler that it was amazing and that I should check it out. Most people stay on one side of the island where most of the resorts are. As you can see below here is one of the bigger places called tree house bungalows or something. As you can also see there isnt much beach.

Here is the beach my place was on

And there were no other buildings on that beach as well so we had the whole thing to the guest staying at Broken Hearts Guest House and the few people who hiked over the whole island from the other side to come see the view.

I spent two days with a group of people I met on the boat just hanging out on the beach. One of the guys had a slack line so that provided a lot of entertainment. Its a lot harder than it looks if you ever get a chance to try one.

So two days of just beach, beach, and more beach.

We would break up days at the beach by going up to the restaurant in the forest where the food wasnt very expensive considering they could charge you whatever they liked cause there was no other places selling food. But I dont think that I have ever had to wait that long for food in my life. It took forever! there must have only been one burner in the kitchen cause when we all went to eat together the dishes would come one by one and take forever!

Also the beds were super super super basic, and the buildings were really run down. But we were paying for the beach I guess. 

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And it was totally worth it.

Lots of great photo opportunities

So one the time finally came where we had to go back to the mainland we packed our bags and got on the boat to take us around to the other side of the island where we would get a bigger boat. At about 3 the were paddled out in a basket boat to the little boat to go around. Bouncy ride in the nice sunlight to the other side of the island where we ended up waiting at the pier because there was another boat unloading food supplies. About 15 min later we hopped off the boat and got onto the one we though we were taking to the mainland. Then one of the ladies asked which place we were staying at that night. We were pretty confused and told her that we were going back to Sihanoukville. She said that our boat left 10 min ago while we were waiting for a spot on the dock. She asked our driver and he told her that we were staying on the island. This was all in Khmer so we had no idea the conversation went on. She said that we could go over to the other dock and try and get back with the dive shops boat. So we all grabbed all our bags and ran as fast as we could to the other dock across the beach. Once we got there the lady told us that the boat was too full and she couldnt put any more passengers on it. Obviously safety was more of a concern so she helped us negotiate with one of the locals who said he had a boat that we could charter. 

First he wanted to charge us $150 to take us back to the coast and we said no way. The lady that worked at the dive shop was trying to convince us that even though we were "Barang" (Khmer name for "European person") it didnt mean that we were rich. We were willing to pay $10 each and there were 7 of us. He wouldnt go lower than $90 even with us threatening to sleep on the beach and get another boat in the morning. Eventually forked out cause it was getting late and we just wanted to make it back.

We all piled on this fishing boat and were pretty excited cause it was the first time that any of us had chartered our own private boat. About half an hour later after watching a nice sun set there was a loud noise and the boat slowed down to a stop. The driver was going around doing things and saying stuff in Khmer which none of us could understand. We guessed something with the engine was broken and he kept pointing this way and that way. So we decided to wait it out and see what happens. Maybe another half an hour later a boat a little bit smaller and without a roof pulls up and they start throwing our bags over onto it. So it looks like thats our new ride back.

Here is our engine an our driver who we had to put all of our faith in.

Eventually it got dark and the ocean got rockier. We were bouncing around in the waves being sprayed with salt water and shivering as we were all dressed in our hot Cambodian day temperature singlets and shorts. For 3 hours we occupied ourselves by huddling, trying to sleep, huddling for warmth, and chatting. About half way though we discovered that there were cockroaches on the boat which i accidentally threw one that crawled onto my hand onto the face of my friend who was laying across from me. In the end we made it and the clouds cleared just as we were coming into the port around 10:30pm. 

One of the families who lived I guess in the building on the dock said she would call some tuk-tuks for us but they wanted to charge us $10 for each of them and since there was 7 of us we would need two. we eventually got them down to $7 and $8 just because we wanted to find a place to stay. 

As we walked out to the road a pick up truck pulled up in front of us and said "town" we said yes please and all piled into the back. We arrived onto the main street of Sihanoukville in style for a low fee of $10! Quite I successful night I would say.

I think just the people that I was with made my whole time on Koh Rong super amazing and I'm so glad I spent it with them.

For more photos see the Koh Rong album

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