I owe you an answer from the previous post: we could resist 2 days in paradise (Koh Rong Sanloem) as it was too quiet and too peaceful for us!

So we took the boat in the morning and headed to Koh Rong, let’s say the bigger sister or Koh Rong Sanloem – bigger in terms of size (78 square km, out of which 48 km of white sand beaches) but also in terms of development, with more options for accommodation, bars, street food, activities. It’s the “action” island in Southern Cambodia, where one can do anything from snorkeling or zip lining in the jungle, trekking or just laying back with a portion of “laptic” and a Angkor beer.

Just a few hours after our arrival, a fire started at one of the piers. Everything burnt – restaurant, diving school…locals and tourists were running in all directions, trying to find solutions to keep the fire isolated. It took maybe an hour to extinguish it using just some small water pumps and hoses to pour water from the sea. Fortunately, no one was hurt! But it was THE subject for the day in all bars and restaurants.

Only a small area (2-3 km) on Koh Rong in the south-eastern part is populated by tourists, the rest being either virgin (you can just sleep on the beach, in a hammock or in a tent), either populated by fishing villages where people live in small huts on pylons. Passing by, you wander how they can be so smiling when they seem so poor, but the answer is probably simple – they are NOT poor, they have the sea that offer them food, little or no pollution, they live in a paradisiac island with sun the whole year and magnificent sunrises and sunsets each day and they probably do not know the word “stress”!

There are no roads on Koh Rong, but only beaten tracks, you can walk into the amazing jungle or reach a different beach only by foot or by boat! Think of a place where there is no ATM!

This is certainly the good time to spend few days in this part of the world as everything is still unspoiled, but probably not for too long – the Cambodian government started an investment project and plans to build an airport, roads and luxury resorts… the first construction projects already started, so rush there before the island becomes the next crowded hot spot in SE Asia similar to Bali or Phuket!