We’d written off the Cambodian islands as we’re here in rainy season
and we were told the weather on the coast is notoriously bad. However, after
speaking to one or two people who’d had a wonderful time there, we thought we’d
hedge our bets and hop on a ferry to Koh Rong naively expecting remote beaches,
crystal clear waters and relaxation (they’d been marketed as “like the Thai
Islands before the tourists discovered them”). Unfortunately (admittedly through
lack of research on our part), we arrived on what can only be described as a
night club on a beach.
Yes the island is beautiful. Breath-taking even. And the beach clearly had once been stunning, but now the entire beachfront is crammed full of hostels-come-bars charging peanuts per night (we paid $8 for a bed and breakfast for 2!), and music pumps out from about 11am until the early hours of the following day. Don’t get me wrong, 21 year old Emma would have loved it (75 cent beers on tap!!), but 29 year old Emma doesn’t like getting woken up at 3am by her inebriated German neighbours (separated only by a partition) shouting to each other from the toilet “Jan! Jan! (Pronounced “Yaaahn”)...Wo bist du? Ich bin so betrunken, ich kann nicht sehen!”)…or something to that effect (in a ridiculously camp voice), or sharing the beach with sewage, litter, and the contents of Jan’s stomach from the night before.
A depressing fact is that this beach is actually home to a large native community who have lived here for generations. The village itself has now been pushed back behind the garish row of 30 or so guesthouses, and the tourists rule the town. We were told that the villagers largely appreciate the development as it provides jobs and income for an otherwise very poor community, but I can't help feeling that drunk westerners puking on your doorstep whilst your child tries to sleep against a backdrop of banging tunes, isn't a particular positive situation.
We did enjoy some beautiful walks though (one of which was supposed to take 45 minutes one way but ended up taking 5 hours in total and involved getting genuinely lost in the jungle…but that’s another story), and the island had some fabulous forest to explore. It also has some beautiful beaches that you can access if you’re happy to walk (and can turn a blind eye to the litter strewn across the otherwise beautiful sand), which are currently undeveloped. Currently being the operative word. Planning permission has been granted on most of the beaches of this island, and construction work is already started on some of the more remote beaches. There is also a huge road (the first on the island) being cut into the hillside like a giant sore, and we're told work on an airport is starting soon, undoubtedly opening the floodgates for a whole new wave of tourists and development. It's quite heart-breaking. A silver lining might be argued in that these islands certainly bring some much needed income to Cambodia in the form of cash-happy tourists, but the sad truth is that most of the accommodation is owned by Westerners, and any money going to the Government from what we gather is largely lining the pockets of corrupt Government officials, rather than being fed back into the economy for the benefit of the people.
Like Mantanni Island in Malaysia, you could still get a sense of what it must have been like before humans descended, and it saddens me to see the direction it's headed. We were devastated to hear that most of the development already there has been in the last 2 years...perhaps why it still has a reputation for being sleepy, quiet and un-visited (the reputation hasn't yet caught up with the reality perhaps?). It was a rather miserable realisation for Bro and I that we are a genuine part of the problem. The more people visit, the more it will be developed so this post is definitely more than a little hypocritical... Koh Rong certainly does feel depressingly doomed, and I once again find myself wondering what my future children are going to find when they explore the world....
We’d has the heads up from a friend we'd met earlier on that the neighbouring island was more sleepy than Koh Rong, so we’d finally had enough and decided to hop on a boat to Koh Rong Samloem.
Our hostel-come-beach-bar, tastefully called 'Bongs'. It got 4.5 stars on trip advisor despite frequent reports of bug bugs, so that probably tells you a little about the expectations of the people staying there...
It also rained. Lots. There’s not much to do when you’re stranded on a small island in the rain, and your communal space is shared with 20 hungover Australians.
We did enjoy some beautiful walks though (one of which was supposed to take 45 minutes one way but ended up taking 5 hours in total and involved getting genuinely lost in the jungle…but that’s another story), and the island had some fabulous forest to explore. It also has some beautiful beaches that you can access if you’re happy to walk (and can turn a blind eye to the litter strewn across the otherwise beautiful sand), which are currently undeveloped. Currently being the operative word. Planning permission has been granted on most of the beaches of this island, and construction work is already started on some of the more remote beaches. There is also a huge road (the first on the island) being cut into the hillside like a giant sore, and we're told work on an airport is starting soon, undoubtedly opening the floodgates for a whole new wave of tourists and development. It's quite heart-breaking. A silver lining might be argued in that these islands certainly bring some much needed income to Cambodia in the form of cash-happy tourists, but the sad truth is that most of the accommodation is owned by Westerners, and any money going to the Government from what we gather is largely lining the pockets of corrupt Government officials, rather than being fed back into the economy for the benefit of the people.
Like Mantanni Island in Malaysia, you could still get a sense of what it must have been like before humans descended, and it saddens me to see the direction it's headed. We were devastated to hear that most of the development already there has been in the last 2 years...perhaps why it still has a reputation for being sleepy, quiet and un-visited (the reputation hasn't yet caught up with the reality perhaps?). It was a rather miserable realisation for Bro and I that we are a genuine part of the problem. The more people visit, the more it will be developed so this post is definitely more than a little hypocritical... Koh Rong certainly does feel depressingly doomed, and I once again find myself wondering what my future children are going to find when they explore the world....
We’d has the heads up from a friend we'd met earlier on that the neighbouring island was more sleepy than Koh Rong, so we’d finally had enough and decided to hop on a boat to Koh Rong Samloem.
The new (and rather beautiful) view from our new little chalet on Koh Rong Samloem...now this is what I'm talking about! It was so delightfully stormy that it had a lovely fresh breeze and reminded me of England!
This turned out to be a great idea, as
despite the rain still lashing down and despite having to endure an incredibly
hairy boat ride in very choppy seas, we ended up tucked away in a small sleepy cove which is only inhabited by the local village and a handful of travellers, who mainly like us were not fans of the Beast that is Koh Rong. We met 2
lovely Irish girls and a fellow Brit who had fled Koh Rong for similar reasons
to us, so we all whiled away our time chatting about Father Ted (it was all
rather Craggy Island-esque!) drinking coffee, exploring the shoreline, and
curled up on the veranda of our little hut with a view of the sea while the
storm raged around us. We even had a sudden 45minute burst of sunshine where we
of course all dived onto the sand and got royally sunburned. Standard Brits.
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