issue 54 - AsiaLIFE Magazine

Photos by Claire Jowell
Desperate to get away from the backpacker scene on a trip across the border to
Cambodia, Claire Jowell finds some peaceful bliss on Koh Rong Island.
For pearly white beaches and
warm calm seas, most travellers
seem to flock to Thailand or
to Vietnam’s Phu Quoc island,
yet little is ever mentioned
about Cambodia’s scatter of
tropical islands. On a recent
trip to Angkor Wat I decided
I needed some serious beach
time and stumbled across one
of Cambodia’s best-kept secrets
(for now).
Most of those who have
been based in Saigon a while,
us self-proclaimed ‘locals’,
prefer to disassociate ourselves
from the scruffy, bangle-laden
backpackers on Pham Ngu Lao
Street — although many of us
were once avid participants of
this group (and have several
pairs of Thai pants in the back
of the wardrobe). When sitting
at one of my favourite cheap
and cheerfuls on Bui Vien Street
I make a concerted effort not to
be mistaken as a tourist. I pull
out all the Vietnamese gestures
and expressions I know and
nod and smile with authority
in the direction of the Aussies
on my left, discussing which
countries they’ve ‘done’ (a term
I well and truly hate). But the
truth is, as soon as I clambered
onto the early bus from Bui
Vien to Phnom Penh I reverted
to my traveller ‘comfortable
pants-beats-sophistication’
attitude.
I ended up ‘doing’ Cambodia.
With all good intentions
of venturing off the common
tourist track, I initially ended
up following it exactly, as so
often happens. As we arrived
down south, however, having
been very unimpressed with
Sihanoukvilles’s happenings,
I finally managed to stray
away from the gappies and
their neon tops and achieve a
little more than just ‘doing’ the
south. We booked a boat with
The Dive Shop to Koh Rong,
knowing little about the island
apart from the fact it had a
dive shop and was three hours
away. At 10am the next day we
approached the landmass, and
it was breathtaking. A pristine
stretch of beach lay ahead of us
only interrupted by a hammock
or two, a handful of foreigners,
and a few carefree children
enjoying the soft sand. Eager to
get involved in the frolicking,
we dumped our bags at the
nearest (and cheapest) room
and hit the beach.
Koh Rong is the largest of
Cambodia’s islands in the Gulf
of Thailand. With 43 kilometres
of beaches, it is largely uninhabited
other than four tiny
villages and a scatter of guesthouses
and bungalows, mostly
foreign-owned. Apart from
long, unspoiled beaches and a
few small wooden structures
the island is a wild and fantastic
jungle. There is no electricity
and, even on the main beach
where we stayed, very few
sounds interrupted our day,
except the children playing in
the water and the water buffalo
carting loads of timber along
the beach. The guesthouses
turn their generators on for a
few hours each evening and
the beach is lit up by scattered
lights marking small gatherings
of people drinking cocktails or
Angkor beers and eating fresh
barbecued seafood at the two
main restaurant bars. Zero
pretence, and zero pressure.
One might even fancy a wallow
with the phosphorescent
plankton that shimmers around
you when you swim in the
ocean at night after devouring a
barbecued crab.
Our few days there consisted
primarily of reading, eating
and drinking. We did, however,
take ourselves off on a jungle
exploration and walked across
the island to an even longer
stretch of sand, where there
was not a soul in sight. The
bungalows on that side of the
mountain are closed in low
season. It was one of those days
where no conversation was
needed, and all communication
between my friend and me
consisted of a few “wows” and
photographs.
There are currently no roads
on the island, although one is
in the process of being built.
And like the age-old story in
Asia, this situation shall be
short-lived, as a 99-year lease
was granted to a development
group to transform the island
into a luxury resort destination.
The island will be developed
over 20 years and phase one
will include two spa resorts, a
beach club, five restaurants and
a lagoon, equipped with an airport,
port roads, power, water
and telecommunications.
So the bottom line is Koh
Rong is currently a slice of raw
paradise, but go now. Soon it is
sure to be on the hot and heavy
tourist route with bars booming
cheesy pop songs. So I ‘did’
Koh Rong before they ‘did’ and
it was magnificent.
asialife HCMC 39