Travel: Koh Rong Snapshot

Koh Rong snapshot – this beach, where the last few seasons of Survivor have been shot, is beautiful; however, it does not come without flaws. Cambodia is no doubt a third world country and from what we’ve seen in the places we’ve visited is that the country lacks infrastructure. Last week as we took the bus from Phnom Penh we watched a women take a trash bag and dump it out in the ditch right in front of her own house. I don’t understand.

Back to the beach – one flaw is that it is littered. Not massively, but it lacks the fine finesse found at resorts in say Mexico, or in the Caribbean. It seems that on some parts of the beach no one takes responsibility for picking up discarded water bottles or plastic beer cups.

As I’ve mentioned before, we made all of our bookings a head of time. Having a limited amount of time, 23 days, and wanting to see 7 cities/places we couldn’t waste 1/2 a day trekking around to find a hotel. As a result, I made all of our bookings in early April, about 2 weeks before our trip. On Koh Rong Island we booked in at Monkey Island. My suggestion, don’t stay there. There were two highly reviewed places for Koh Rong, Paradise Bungalows and Monkey Island. Both seemed great, yet the beach out from of Monkey Island wasn’t so cleanly kept. Also, their private bath was a bit run down. We stayed two nights and then on the morning of second full day we ventured down the beach to see if Paradise Bungalows had any room. They did and we were indeed in paradise!

Koh Rong Snapshot

Paradise Bungalows keeps their portion of the beach clean – I saw staff raking the beach and picking up trash. Not that such amenities means you can litter – no way. When I do a full review of the accommodations on our trip, I’ll be sure to include a lot f pictures of their bar/lounge/restaurant.

Koh Rong itself is beautiful. The waters are warm and the sun shines brightly, keeping the temperatures high in April. It was 36 on the full days we had and dropped to about 28 at night. The downer part, no air conditioning to be had. For two Canadian’s like us, who live in the north, the heat was a bit much. We lived in our swim suits and showered often to cool down.

We also learned that we could have gotten away with two nights on the island. The down time was great, yet we felt reset after two days and two nights. It was interesting to find this out, since we know if we book a 7 day ‘hot’ vacation in the future we’ll be sure there are a lot of things to do and attractions to keep us busy.

Overall, Koh Rong is paradise, depending on where you stay! I’ve heard rumours of large corporations moving in which may destroy it’s beauty, so visit soon before this turquoise paradise has changed.

Our travels continue – up next, we’re off to Ho Chi Minh City. It should be noted, though, that we miss home a whole heck of a lot – we miss our Great Dane, Lily so very much. This trip is amazing, yet it makes us so grateful for the life we have.

Thanks for visiting! Vietnam here we come!!