Koh Rong Sanloem Island

We are on the move again. We head to the west coast of Cambodia and the Island of Koh Rong Samloen. This is the smaller of the two Koh Rong islands. We are following the path that thousands of backpackers take each year, as the Koh Rong islands are a destination for those looking to party and chill. We had a three hour car journey from Phnon Penh to the coastal town of Sihanoukville, where we catch the fast ferry to the island. As always when travelling in the region the scenery is beautiful. Our drive to Sihanoukville is through a sparsely inhibited tropical landscape, but on a newly constructed motorway, which is probably one of the best roads we have been on since leaving home. The boat trip is equally beautiful. The islands are covered in tropical forests with golden beaches.

 

The final stage of the journey was the best bit. Our ferry dropped us at the jetty. Our hotel boat was waiting to pick us up a drop us to the hotel. It meant walking to the boat in the water, but the temperature of the water was perect. Known as the "belly man" , the boat driver carried our bags to the boat and then sped us to the hotel. We walked up the shore to checkin. This was a first.

The rooms are built on the sand and overlook the sea. Each room stands on its own and are circular. They are really nice, but not perfect, but we are on a remote island so you have to admire their ability to build here. The owner is Toby who is German (we haven’t mentioned the football result - 2-1 to Japan) and clearly an entrepreneur. He lives in Thailand, but is visiting this week. This is his second hotel he has owned on the island,. He was the first person to build on the beach back in 2012. The forest went down to the beach when he arrived. He built a backpackers hostel, but this was destroyed by terminates, so after a lot of investigation and using research from California, he figured out how to build terminate proof. He used sand filled rice bag tubes, with a small amount of cement, layered in the circular shape, secured with barbed wire. He then plastered to give it strength, apparently Tsunami proof. Hopefully we don’t need to check if he is spinning us a yarn, but it all seemed plausible.

Looking up from our bed

A beautiful place to spend a few days. We are looking forward to a few excursion free days.

         
We have found our entertainment for the evenings,  a game in the local backpackers bar. It became a little competitive. We are enjoying our glimpse at backpacking life.