Koh Rong, the BEST beach in Cambodia!

It's quite a mission to get here, the Wi-Fi spotty, and the beds aren't exactly Pfizer. Here we go. But if you're after something real, something a bit rougher around the edges, a bit more raw, these islands are for you. Welcome to Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem. Some call them the Maldives of Cambodia, but to us, they're more of a Honestly though, the adventure really starts with the journey here. It kicks off with a couple of backpacks, a train, and a lot of the unknown. If Koh Rong is on your list, stick around because we're going to share some tips you'll need for your visit. First leg, Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville. We caught the train expecting a smooth ride through the countryside. And for a while, it was just that. Then the AC died. Just like that. And the windows? They're stuck shut. So we're basically in a giant metal oven on wheels. With a train car full of sweaty strangers. A couple of hours later, we pulled into Sihanoukville in one piece, albeit a bit sweatier and slightly dehydrated. Sihanoukville wasn't exactly a place we wanted to linger. With construction everywhere, half-finished high rises and cranes. Overhead, we grabbed a ride and made a beeline straight for the A 40-minute train ride from Phnom Penh to where we are now. It was late and slow, taking over 7 hours, and now we're at the ferry station to catch a speed ferry to Koh Rong. I'd highly recommend booking everything in advance because it gets really crowded in there. Are a lot of salesmen trying to pull you in all directions, so you should have a clear plan of what you want to do and where you want to go. Definitely book in advance so it's all handled. Alright, well. It's been a long travel day, we're almost done. Just one more ferry to catch to Koh Rong, then find our way to our hotel. Which will probably mean a tuk-tuk, but we're almost there. Thank you. The thing about these ferries. If you get seasick, buckle up. Because we're hitting some serious swells. Think ocean roller coaster with no seat belt. Meanwhile, Sarah's out cold while I shamelessly film her. Who could possibly sleep through something like this? Oh. So to recap, the train was late, the AC broke, and we slowly baked a life. The boat ride over was a bumpy mess, bordering on seasickness. And 8 hours later, we arrived in Koh Rong. And you know what? We do it all again. Because when you finally step off the boat and see this, the rough travel is worth it. Sometimes paradise makes you earn it. We've officially made it to Koh Rong. It's 4.30 and I haven't eaten all day, so we're heading to our place. I wouldn't really call it a hotel, that doesn't feel right. I think we're close. The dream. Resort. Sounds nice. Look at this sign. Beautiful, so welcoming. Yeah, we're not. Staying here. This is our spot. Just a shack right on the beach. Here we are. Who needs a fancy hotel when your front yard is the ocean? This was $23.76 a night, so it's top of our budget, but I can. See the beach. It's like 30 yards away. There are like 3 bars. Right here, so yeah. I've changed into beach gear, now let's go find some food. About 20 feet from our shack was Ocean Blue Bar. It seemed pretty popular, so we stopped in. Menu's got pizza and beer. It's a little rough getting here, but this is a pretty great start to our time on Koh Rong. No fancy dinner for us tonight, just some good old pizza. I need something greasy because we haven't really eaten anything all day except for a handful of I know what you're thinking. Pizza? Really? A tropical island in Cambodia and your first meal is pizza? Well, guess what? The pizza was delicious. Turns out the chef moved here from Italy to open this bar. I mean, look at this cheese. So yeah, it's like that. I don't know if it's actually that good, or if it's just the first thing I'd eaten. And it's 5 30 already. And I was joking about ordering. Is it good? Is it? Like I said, I was kidding about the pizza. And then Sarah broke her chair. I was joking about ordering pizza, but this might be some of the best pizza we've had in Southeast Asia so far. Maybe we should make this our last one too. Bala didn't get much sleep last night, but he still made it up here for the sunrise. And it is pretty nice. I think Sarah's gonna be a bit annoyed that I didn't wake her up. I'll wake her up tomorrow. But man, it's so peaceful. I guess most people were hungover from last night, so the beach is really quiet. It's our first morning on Koh Rong. We just wandered down the boardwalk until we found this pier with some breakfast. It's a little rainy this morning, which isn't a bad thing because this place is so beautiful. We're sitting right by the water. It's so clear. I haven't even seen the water yet. Anyway, breakfast. We grabbed some coffee to wake up. Tony went with a classic. Ham, eggs, and toast. And I, on the other hand, found something I've been dreaming about since we left Thailand. A ham and cheese toast tie. My first toast tie in two months. Straight from 7-Eleven. Not exactly fine dining, but sometimes you just need comfort food. Something familiar. Better or worse? Worse. 7-Eleven is better. So we booked a boat tour around the island. It includes fishing, snorkeling, barbecue, and seeing plankton at night. It runs from 1-8pm and cost us 30 bucks, 30 US, which feels like all the standard prices around here. Once you get to the island, just go to any stand offering. Boat tours. They'll sell you a ticket for 30 dollars, and then you meet at the pier to hop on the boat. So now we're just waiting for the other guests to show up before we can take off. In the meantime, we're killing time the best way we know how. By hanging out with the locals. Our boat pulled up to this secluded island and the crew basically dumped us out. And told us to go snorkel. So we did. For about an hour, we just floated around. Looking at fish we can't even name. And some of us trying to breathe through the snorkels. Without drinking half the ocean. Eventually, we all agreed we were pruny enough. And climbed back on the boat. We drifted to our next stop with beers. And fresh fruit from the crew. And way too much confidence in our fishing skills. Caught nothing, by the way. Finally, we anchored near Kouroum. For some beach time. If you take one thing from our videos. It's that we're always being goofy. Even when we try to be romantic. Like trying to have a cute ocean moment. While getting slapped by waves like we owed them money. Back on the boat, they gave us boxed dinners. Nothing fancy, but we chilled. And watched the sunset. Once the sun dipped below the horizon, this little boat tour of ours turned into. A total raid. Somewhere along the way we jumped in to see the bioluminescence, but. It was too dark to get it on camera. Tomorrow we're switching gears. And driving around the island. For our own little beach and food tour. Our second full day on Kouroum. And we actually rented a motorbike today. It was 10 US dollars for the whole day. Which seems to be pretty standard here on Kouroum. If you can ride a motorbike. I highly recommend it. Because it lets us travel. To beaches that have way fewer people. And you can beat all the tours, too. So we're currently at a beach. That we visited on our boat tour. But the tours haven't arrived yet, so we've got. The whole place to ourselves. The downside to the beaches here. Or maybe all of Cambodia, but especially Kouroum, is the amount of litter and trash. I think a lot of it. Was in the water and just gets washed ashore, so I don't know if people necessarily left it here. It's a bummer, but I don't think it takes away from. The experience. Another thing to note, as you've seen, is that the roads here are sometimes barely roads and. Sometimes not even a road, I'd say, so make sure you're confident. Driver. For our beach hopping, we cut straight across the island to check. Out some new spots on the other side, but we had to make a pit. Stop along the way. We were driving along and saw a sign for a restaurant. Bar, that's all I need to know. So that's where we're headed. To get there. You follow a path past bungalows that remind me of the Dharma village. From the show Lost. It's definitely more mellow on this side of the island. Probably a bit pricier, but if you're looking to zone out and recharge. It might be worth the extra cash. At the restaurant, we grabbed a couple. Of chicken club sandwiches for 15 bucks before hitting the road again. We set off. For one last beach, but naturally, it had to be the most remote, hardest to reach spot of them all. Because apparently we love working for those hidden gems, aptly named Lonely Beach. So we're making a quick stop, or a detour if you will, to Lonely Beach. This ride is not for. The faint of heart. It was incredibly difficult, we nearly lost control of the bike. And I almost fell off. There's a sand pit in the middle, and while driving through. There's just no way around it, plus all these rocks you have to clear. It's exhausting. Excuse me, Mother Teresa, what did you think of the drive? Fancy. The whole path down is basically a giant sand trap. You could tell others tried to make it work, but we weren't risking it. This is what you're driving through. If you want to head all the way down to the beach. We ended up spending 50 cents, or 2000 real, to park our bikes at the top and just walk down. They say the best things are the hardest to get to. At least this beach tries to motivate you to keep going. Some people are actually riding their motorbikes. All the way down here. Not us, I don't think we'd make it. It's incredibly narrow, sandy, rocky. And there's traffic in both directions. So we're just walking the kilometer. Plenty of people are brave enough for this ride. So don't let us scare you off. We just weren't feeling it. But if you do make the trek. There's parking just steps from the beach. But you know the best part? About these beaches? It's not the clear water. It's not the lack of crowds. It's the perfect temperature. It's not cold to jump in, not hot. So you're not gonna boil. You walk right out, it's knee high. Get right into the middle of the ocean. Right up to these boats. I feel great. I feel comfortable. Not hot, not cold, just perfect. As the sun started to dip. We soaked up our last few moments. And raced back before it got dark. Wanted to sleep in, but it was time for the next adventure. So you might be wondering, what about Koh Rong Samloem? Well, that's where we're headed. Or we would be, if someone hadn't left something back at the bungalow. Luckily, he caught a ride back just in time. Also, if you're island hopping, choose your stay carefully. Or you might end up carrying all your luggage through the water. Like these poor folks did. But with all the wet luggage aboard, we made the hop to Koh Rong Sam Loem. As you can see, getting between islands takes some work. Sometimes it's lugging bags through the water, other times it's jumping from boat to boat to reach the pier. But we made it to Mpei Bay on the north side. Thank you. You sure? Thanks so much. Really, thank you. Can you help? Thank you. Well, that was an adventure. Yeah, that happens when you walk in the water. Yeah, true. From there, it was a short walk to our hostel. We even got a cheap private room for 54 bucks total for three nights. So guys, check this out. We're getting settled into our place here in Mpei. And our host mentioned that the name Mpei actually means 23. So on the 23rd of every month, they hold a village celebration where everyone gathers in the village. And all the proceeds go towards supporting the school, keeping up the village, and all that. Which I think is pretty cool. We'll probably check that out tonight. But right now, I think we need a couple of beers. We went for a stroll through town. But between the heat and my lack of sunscreen, we didn't make it far before tapping out. So we headed back to that spot with the pina coladas. Because, you know, priorities. I grabbed one and found some shade. While Tony went for something with watermelon and lime. Well, you shouldn't expect things to run on a tight schedule anywhere in Cambodia. But that's definitely true for these islands. Especially this one we're on now. Everything is just so laid back. Even more so than Koh Rong. There are the typical water activities here. Scuba, snorkeling, kayaking, getting out on the water. But it's definitely more of a beach nap chill vibe. So that's pretty much what we did all morning. We're going to go grab some lunch. We hit up Nomads. Which was a chill little spot. Run by a super sweet couple. We kept it simple. Fried rice and pad thai. Nothing fancy, just good food. They've got a vegan option if that's your thing. But I went with chicken. I couldn't tell you exactly what we paid. But it was under 5 bucks a plate. That's pretty much all we did today. Just chill. Tomorrow though, our hostel is organizing a boat trip with a local captain. To head over to the other side of the island. For some sightseeing. We go around. We head to the side. And then move. And the boat moves too. So we're going to sail together. What would we do with a drunken sailor? What would we do with a drunken sailor early in the morning? Way. Hey. And up she rises. Way. Hey. And up she rises early in the morning. So we hopped on a hostel boat tour and sailed for about 30 minutes. I think along the west side of the island. To a beach. It was beautiful. We swam for like an hour. And now we're hiking up to a lighthouse. It's supposed to be about a 40 minute walk up. And a 30 minute walk down. We're all in wet swimsuits and flip flops. So this should be interesting. The hike led us to an abandoned watchtower. Sitting on a local farmer's land. After a quick chat with our guide. And a small exchange of riel. He graciously let us explore. This watchtower was practically begging us. To climb it. So we had to respect its wishes. It certainly wasn't the sketchiest thing we've done. But climbing this rusted. Out relic had us questioning a few life choices. Every step creeped. And the few railings left wobbled. It was one of those moments where you laugh it off. Keep going. And just hope for the best. But the view at the top was worth it. Nothing like a little sketchiness to get the blood pumping. And by the time we made it back to the boat. We were starving. So we headed to our rustic beach. Front restaurant. Tucked away on a secluded lazy beach. We didn't bring much riel. So we just split some chicken amok curry. And while we rested after the meal. The tide came in and the boat couldn't quite reach the shore without running aground. So the only way back on board was an old-fashioned swim. I'd love to say something dramatic happened next. But nah. We just watched the sunset. Ate at a local fisherman's restaurant on the beach. At this fish fry spot. We had the chicken curry amok. And the chef convinced us to try the fish he was grilling. It looks so good. I just want to stare at it. What to do with the face. I had to cover it up. Alright, here's what you need to know for visiting these islands. Number one, don't expect solid cell service. Your signal will be spotty at best. But that's part of the appeal here. Number two, make sure you don't leave the mainland without plenty of cash. There are no ATMs on Koh Rong. So you'll want to have enough to pay for your accommodations, food, tours, and anything else you might need. And number three, there are very few tuk-tuks on Koh Rong. The best way to get between beaches is by motorbike. Or by the long-tail boats that travel from beach to beach. So that's our Cambodian island detour. We've got a lot more coming soon. More rural villages, more food, and more of that chaos that we somehow always stumble into.