“STOP!”
There used to be a time when there were only two acceptable responses to that order. You either went; “…Hammer time!” or “…collaborate and listen”.
It was only until we set foot on Cambodia’s beaches that we realised the word “stop” was enough.
Throughout our travels over the last few months there wasn’t much time for the beach, there were simply too many sights to see. I also think I am allergic to the beach – no sooner had we landed in Sihanoukville and I started sneezing and my nose started running. Maybe I am only allergic to tacky resort towns so we decided to get out of Sihanoukville as quickly as we could and make our way to the islands. Amongst the islands off the coast of Cambodia are Koh Rong and Koh Rong Samloem and we wanted to visit both. In fairness, we just wanted to stay anywhere but the commercialised mainland. Ahead of us lay five days of sun and beach and no wifi.
We landed and quickly got a taxi to the dock in order to make the 11am ferry. Adrie was in a bit of a panic as we didn’t want to miss it. Although we made it to the dock with a good 15 minutes to spare, the boat was obviously running on Cambodian time, so we had a bit of a wait. We piled our luggage and ourselves onto a very nice looking speed boat to make the 1hr long crossing to Koh Rong. And so did everyone else. And then some more people. And more luggage. Suddenly we were on a very unstable craft travelling at high speed through choppy waters. It felt and looked quite dangerous and a few people in the boat got quite sick.
We got to Coconut Beach in one piece and made our way up the squeaky white sand to our beach bungalows. The accommodation was very basic with no hot water and no air-con, but at least we had a mosquito net. Priorities! The mosquitos have sucked us dry of blood in Siem Reap so we had no more to give anyway.
The beach itself was simply beautiful. The only unfortunate thing was that it was east facing so we did not have a spectacular sunset. Talk about first world problems! The waters were warm and turquoise and the beach was clean with beautiful crisp white sand. The bay was so shallow that at low tide a few sandbank islands formed allowing sun tanning on your own personal island surrounded by tropical waters.
Over dinner the hotel owner, Robbie, gave a few people Chinese Lanterns to launch in the night sky. We watched a few people have a go first and, with the full moon in the sky, the sight of a lantern over the sea was quite cool. Though only three people actually managed to do it properly; the others crashed and burned pretty swiftly into the sea. We finished our dinner and I thought this surely cannot be that hard. How wrong! We didn’t so much crash and burn, but not even burn at all. The lantern we got given was a bit old so we couldn’t even get the wax flame to light. Eventually the hot wax fell and burnt a hole through the fragile paper balloon and our hopes of success ended with a whimper.
Our two days at Coconut Beach were spent doing as little as possible. Because of the heat, humidity and sand flies, I was not in the mood for the beach. In fairness, I am never really in the mood for the beach – it is always too hot and sand gets everywhere. I spent most of my time on a deck chair on our shaded balcony, joined by Mr. Gingy, the cat, and together we drifted in and out of consciousness.
I looked exactly the same, just on the other chair
Adrie, on the other hand, loves it and beach bag in hand she made a beeline for one of the empty sun loungers on the beach. The owners of the hotel warned us against the sand flies and suggested we fully cover ourselves in coconut oil to avoid being bitten. Adrie duly did, but this meant she didn’t put on any sunscreen… Needless to say, if you go out at 12pm and get back at 2pm with only oil on your body, you are going to get burnt!! I was obviously not laughing at her red tan lines no matter what anybody tells you.
After two days at Koh Rong, it was time to head to the neighbouring island where we would spend three days. Despite the fact that Kong Rong Samloem is a mere 4km away, it was surprisingly difficult booking a boat to take us to that island. We had two problems. First, not a lot of people travel from the one island to the other, they generally pick one and go out and back from the mainland. This meant the fare was quite high. Secondly, the hotel we wanted to get to was on the other side of the island from the main pier, so it meant a much longer journey. But this island, and specifically the hotel, came highly recommended by two Germans we met during our Death Road cycle trip in Bolivia (thanks Tanya and Mark!!) so we knew (or rather hoped!) it would be worth it.
We jumped into the water taxi with two French travellers who were heading to the main pier on Koh Rong island, and slowly made our way across the water. Apart from the sun beaming down on us and cooking us alive in the boat, it was a beautiful ride. I noticed a Heineken crate floating in the water as we travelled and then quite a few bottles of unopened beer. I was hoping to go beer fishing but sadly we couldn’t stop.
Because the hotel was on the other side of the island, we had to walk 25 minutes through the jungle forest to get there. Even though the jungle was quite pretty, the walk with our bags on our backs felt infinitely longer and much harder than it should have.
And then ahead of us we saw the blue sea waters. I felt a little bit like I was in The Beach (good book or bad DiCaprio film – you choose) after trekking through the jungle and “discovering” this hidden community on a gorgeous bay.
Although equally basic, Lazy Beach hotel was significantly better than Coconutbeach Bungalows, with a large and very welcoming porch overlooking a spectacular beach. The service, the people, the beach, the food – everything was fantastic! Best of all, we were west facing which meant amazing sunsets. The water was warm (30C according to my dive watch) and I couldn’t think of a better place to spend the next three days.
The diving in Cambodia is limited but gets rave reviews because the reefs here are not dived very often. Most of the best dive sites are off this island so we were perfectly placed to take advantage of this. We woke up to perfect conditions with blue skies and little swell. The dive shop was at a bay around the corner and on our way there the visibility in the water looked superb.
But that unfortunately is the only good things I can say about diving in Cambodia. We did two dives that unfortunately took almost all day (everything runs on Cambodian time) but the visibility was extremely bad. There was a massive plankton bloom that limited the vis at a depth of 8 metres to less than 3m. Ironically, not only were we diving a site just off the beach from our hotel but the best vis – you could see 20m+ at a depth of 3m – was ideal for snorkelling.
The only highlight was a remora fish that mistook Adrie for a big pelagic. Normally remoras, by means of a small sucker adapted on their heads, “stick” to larger predators like sharks for protection and to eat the scraps that fall from their mouths. But this confused sucker rather wanted to stick to Adrie’s leg and there was no dissuading it. No amount of kicking, fanning or gesturing could chase it away. I thought this was utterly hilarious to have a fish ride on her backside as we drifted by. Hilarious, until it came for me. I have never had a fish chase me with such persistence despite me trying to kick it away, it was a bit unsettling. It did make me wonder what it was wanting protection from – something from the hidden depths or was I simply the biggest baddest thing in the sea.
Despite a disappointing day, the sunsets on this island made up for everything. We sat on the beach for hours watching the sun go down, playing on the swing under the trees or just watching the crabs dig holes.
Maybe three days on the beach is not enough. Maybe I am not allergic to the beach after all.
Lazy Beach is a fitting name for such a wonderful place. While we spent most of our time relaxing, we did venture into the waters on our last afternoon for a swim. The swim then turned into an attempted training opportunity by swimming to the pier. Needless to say, after the 100m swim we were both too knackered to carry on so training was over. Instead we used our goggles to snorkel amogst the rocks and the nearby reef.
On our last evening we stayed on the beach well after sunset to experience something I have only ever really seen on night dives – bioluminescent plankton. It is not often the sea is warm enough, or indeed safe enough, to venture out in the pitch dark at 8pm. We only had a small window before the full moon came up and ruined the effect. While it was not the most spectacular (given the moon phase) sight, it is always quite magical to play around and disturb the water and be rewarded by thousands of sparling lights like glitter. We unsuccessfully tried to video some of it but just loved swimming through the water with our arms lighting up like Christmas trees with each stroke.
We spent our last moments on the beach taking photos of the night sky and doing some cool sky-writing in the dark. We ended up covered in sand, which normally wouldn’t be a problem until we discovered we had no water! I don’t mind not having hot water but no water whatsoever is a small problem. We ended up having to shower outdoors near the beach and the table tennis table. We don’t mention the table tennis table because Adrie won the “International” game we played by a whisker touch on the end of the table… Gmpf!
While we were both looking forward to a hot shower and a room that wasn’t covered in sand, we could definitely have stayed on for a few more days enjoying the slow life at Lazy Beach.
