Backpacking in Cambodia — Day 6— Sihanoukville + Koh Rong
Day 6— Sihanoukville + Koh Rong [November 24, 2022]
Head here for Day 5
One Belt One Road Initiative
We have been reading about China’s grandiose OBOR initiative from a geo-political context in India for a while. This was my first experience with seeing the end product of that initiative. Sihanoukville being Cambodia’s only deep sea port has seen massive investment from China and the demographics of the city highlight the same. Most signboards are in Mandarin, the architecture is dull and dreary — to the point of primarily being functional in their existence. A lot of casinos also dot the landscape as compared to the rest of the country we had seen so far. These were my first impressions as we landed in the city on a downcast morning at 5:45 AM. Enquiring about the ferry at the bus terminal and folks selling tickets right there, we first decided to grab something to eat. The bus terminal gave me Madiwala (Bengaluru) vibes with all private operators lined up one after the other. As we walked down the non-descript roads with industrial vibes, we found one place open at this hour called DFC (Delicious Fried Chicken) Burger Shack. If you ever wondered who eats DFC at 6 in the morning, we were soon to find out.
Fast and Breakfast
Whilst Jagnoor enquired about a washroom which the cashier pointed to behind the kitchen, I looked at the menu and showed her my Khmer text of “I am a vegetarian and list of what I cannot eat”. She was lost reading it and asked her colleague if he had any ideas on what I could eat. By the time Jagnoor got back, I realised it was Thursday. For background context, I have been doing a one meal fast for more than a decade now on Thursdays and so didn’t need to grab anything at this point. (Why do I do it? I’ll tell you 1:1 someday). Jagnoor ordered a combo and we sat outside in the garage space converted into a seating area with two tables with their delivery bikes for company. We whiled away time watching the rains and two of the delivery boys fooling around washing their bikes and sharing memes/videos on their phones till one of them got an online order and dashed off. We asked the remaining boy and the lady about ferry service via Google Translate and they replied back that they had never used it in their life. The boy googled up something and shared that we should be able to get the tickets at the ferry terminal itself. With the drizzle taking a break, we decided to walk down near the bus stand and find more info before we headed to the ferry terminal.
Master and Commander — Far side of the ocean
After checking the rates with a couple of folks, we figured it was standard price of $25 for a two leg round trip and you could buy the tickets from the brokers here or at the terminal. It was also sort of first cum first serve on the boat as you could buy the tickets in advance since there were no dates associated with the ticket booking. A tuk tuk driver charged us $5 but helped us pick up 2 tickets from a random stall owner he knew and dropped us off at the ferry terminal. Jagnoor and I discussed that we could have simply bought the tickets from the terminal instead of a shady roadside operator but there was this air of trust we had developed that people weren’t out to cheat out here and were fine to go ahead with it.
The ferry terminal is about 3 km away from the bus terminal and is basically an oversized garage with a lot of fancy parked cars and small counters for each of the major ferry services plying their trade. The key difference is the timings of their boats but otherwise cost wise and set up wise, there seemed to be no difference between them — Buvasea, Speed Ferry, GTVC etc. They got us onboard the 8 AM ferry which is basically a speed boat with about 40–50 seats and life jackets on each one. The luggage is all dumped in the front as there isn’t much space in each row to keep luggage too. The ferry does a couple of stops in its round trip — main pier (Koh Touch) , Long Set and Sok San beach. There are similar ferry rides to Koh Rong Samloem which is the smaller of the two islands.
Touchdown Koh Rong
About 50 minutes later, we were getting off at Stop number 2 which was the Koh Rong main pier — which also is the main market area of the island. A bunch of kids excited to see new visitors welcomed the incoming group of folks — about 5 of us who had got down. An old bearded Caucasian man smiled and pointed to a shop for the best coffee he has had on this island. Reorienting ourselves, we headed to White Beach where we had booked a stilted beach facing cottage part of the White Beach Bungalows resort. Another Caucasian man who seemed like a volunteer receptionist was unable to find our booking initially on his tablet (we shared the printed booking from agoda) and made a few calls before finally getting us to our room — a single room with a tiny attached bathroom and a small porch with a hammock and a few cane chairs. You need the curtains if you want privacy else you can draw them out to see the ocean and the white sand beach in front of you. We were settled in the room by 10 AM.
A rose by any color
Having settled in, we stepped out to figure our plans for the day and get some grub in considering I was fasting. As we walked along the beach barefoot across tiny makeshift bridges over mini sea rivulets, the place truly felt it was going through off season. Rows of quiet and empty cafes , spas and resorts greeted us till we hit the main road of the town. White Rose restaurant seemed the most appealing amongst the group and little did we know, we’d be kicking off an island fling with this restaurant for the next few days. But before that we did walk down a bit till Police Beach which used to be the party place before the pandemic and the ensuing lockdown killed a lot of tourist spots in the area including an adventure park with ziplining facilities. Abandoned party shacks with colorful murals could become the Angkor Wat of the future.
We met the owner of Jungle Bar and Kitchen, another Caucasian who gave us the lowdown of the place post pandemic and tips on what to do and where to catch the sunset. Promising ourselves to eat at his place sometime during the trip, we walked back to White Rose to dig into some heavy Cambodian cuisine touristy style. Had a heavy portion of Khmer vegetable soup along with a cup of coffee. Post lunch, we decided to grab a bike from the shop next door. The guy was super chill. Since we didn’t have a smaller denomination than $100 and the cost of bike rental was $10 plus two tickets for the famous boat tour (more on that in next day’s blog) at $10 a person, he asked to carry on and pay once we were back.
Green hai paani paani aur din hai sunny sunny
Jagnoor got the honors of designated driver by default whilst I remained the photographer / navigator / pillion rider. After warming up to the scooter past a rickety bridge and unpaved muddy roads past puddles, we came across a concrete road right next to the massive construction project of a dock coming up. The road along the island’s edge provides for spectacular views with ocean on one side and the dense green mountains on the other. With the sun out and the blue skies, we spied upon a deserted pier with pristine green waters.
It was unimaginably mesmerising that we didn’t need to utter a word to each other as Jagnoor parked the scooter on the side and both of us walked down to the pier. There were 3–4 fisherfolks quietly eyeing their prey in the clear transparent waters and stringing their bait right at them. Taking in the windy cool breeze and panoramic view that no camera could do justice too. A passing cloud drizzled onto us giving us a sign we need to make a move. We continued driving down spotting the odd Caucasian jogging middle of nowhere and other “towel as a cape” sunbathers driving down.
I am a “survivor”
Not sure if I already mentioned this earlier but Google Maps has not mapped this island yet so beyond Sok San beach, none of the roads are mapped out (to be fair, there are barely any roads, just muddy trails ). So we decided to walk into Sok San Beach Resort to catch a glimpse of the beautiful beach and ask directions. Turns out season 31 of Survivor series was shot at this very beach. I credit the location director for getting the vibe right for the show. Now having imbibed the spirit of the show, we decided to get ourselves a little bit of an adventure and find our way to the Northern most beach on the island called “Lonely beach” and make it back in time to catch the sunset from Long Beach.
Driving through recently flattened forests making way for new resorts — it felt bittersweet watching the transformation of these virgin islands as they were being deflowered for tourism. Driving for miles with not a soul in sight, the concrete road gives way to muddy trails again and we skidded our way second guessing what trail might lead us to the Lonely beach based on our guesswork. Landing up at another beach where a couple of local ladies got very homely with Jagnoor, we tracked our way into a village where another random odd Caucasian was confidently walking by. Assuming he might have a clue, we asked him if he was aware of “Lonely beach”, he mentioned he had just landed and was figuring his own way around.
Lonely! I am so lonely …
Almost giving up, we decided to head back only to find an Italian couple walking by. “Do you know the way to Lonely beach?” “Ah ja! We live there! But how do we tell you the route? There is a random rock from where you turn right, an awkward tree where you turn left and a small stream from where you go straight.” said the guy. The girl asked if we had the app Maps.Me whilst having a bad interface atleast had mapped out the route to Lonely Beach and would be a good guide.
We thanked them and headed with renewed rigour and as fast as the data speed would allow the app and the map to be downloaded. On the trail through slushy roads and Jagnoor’s extreme biking skills , we reached a gushing stream created overnight with the rains. There was no way we were taking the scooter across that stream bed with a strong current. A fisherman standing nearby suggested we drive it up a rickety bridge that I had my doubts could barely handle us forget a scooter.
Deciding to ditch the scooter, we walked down the bridge and gave ourselves one and a half hours to find the beach and be back so that we could get back to the main road in daylight. Walking through the slushy sand banks took it’s toll on my sandals that I finally decided to just walk barefoot as the glue binding wore out across the straps. A sign board that said “Lonely Beach trail” gave us hope we were finally on the right track though just about. As we trudged through the palm plantations and jungles with loud cicadas singing, there were a number of forks where we had to pick a direction. Not sure if the forks ever combined later or we just couldn’t “koh rong” and picked the right one each time, we finally heard the crashing of the waves in the distance.
The tall green blades of grass made way for the isolated beach and crashing waves with a fishing boat in the distance for company. In the distance we found the cottage where the Italian couple would be staying at. Would make a perfect setting for a horror movie in the dead of the night but I guess some folks love the isolation. To each their own after all. Tracing our way back second guessing at forks again, we reached the rickety bridge and our scooter. As we drove back, we bumped into the Italian couple again who were excited to know if we had made it to Lonely beach or not.
Sunset @ Long Beach
After the sliding through the watery sand banks, we were back on the concrete road around 5 PM racing through it towards Long Beach where there is a small temple shrine which the owner of Jungle Bar and Restaurant had mentioned was a beautiful spot to soak in the sunset. A local family with their chihuahua-isque dog were picnicking there too. As we soaked in the last pink rays of the sun glinting off the calm tides that raced in and out the peaceful shore , we would only be intermittently disrupted by the sharp yelps of the tiny dog making his presence felt. The entire beach that we could see upto the horizon probably had 1 more person loitering around apart from us. We waited a bit for the fruit bats to get activated in the tree above us but turns out the mosquitoes had the first mover advantage. The entire coastal road had been lit up by solar powered white lights making it look a halo over the island if a drone was viewing the same.
Night Crawlers
Once back to the market area, when we returned the bike and mentioned our pending payment, the lady at the stall was miffed because the boat tour were a standard rate and the previous guy had mentioned a lower rate. She tried explaining the same and that the actual cost was $15 per head. Since that was the printed value on the brochures, we agreed and paid the delta. Next up needed to get replacement sandals and the beach slippers were randomly priced at $5 / $7 at different stores so finally went for a pair at $3 at the store next to White Rose. Also bought a 1.5litre water bottle at 75 cents (3000 Riel).
Whilst at White Rose, Jagnoor grabbed dinner whilst I stuck to my new addiction of strong Cambodian coffee with a small bit of milk to balance it out. The stroll back to the resort was desolate as the place had quietened down except for a few kids playing around and a karaoke system playing in the distance.
We decided to check out Nest — the most (and only) happening place on the island after the pandemic. It was an adventure walking through the pitch dark forest with water streams all over. A local on a bike with two kids came by, told us we were on the right path and then raced off into the dark. After 15 minutes of being adventurers with our mobile torchlights being the only source of light and the crashing waves the only sounds for company, we reached the Nest. Primarily a pub shack / party place, it was quiet today with a handful of guests busy at table tennis and few chilling on the hammocks outside. We tried retracing our path with a couple of false turns and guessing if we had seen the same stream or the same foliage on our way to figure if we were on the same route back. Finally made our way back thanks to the neon lights that the Tree House bungalows had put up at the edge of the beach.
Key Details
DFC Burger Shack — No veg options
Ferry Terminal (Sihanoukville) — $25 for round trip open tickets to Koh Rong
White Rose Restaurant- $$ — $15 for a meal for two.
White Beach Bungalows — $$$ — ~30 USD per night for a beach facing room for two.
Nest Beach Club — $$ Party vibes — bar menu type eats.
Maps.Me — Crowd sourced routes for places where even Google hasn’t got to.
Head over to Day 7 for snorkeling and the boat tour