Have you ever seen that movie The Beach with Leo Dicaprio? You know… the one that takes place on a remote island with pristine beaches, lush landscapes, and not the slightest touch of western influence? Well, I am not about to tell you that I went to that tourist hotspot in Thailand, but I am going to tell you that we found our own version of The Beach right off of the coast of Cambodia.
It’s called Koh Rong.
The second we got there we were brought into a meeting area where we were given the lay of the land — Be cautious of sand flies, don’t abuse the usage of fresh water, watch out for your personal belongings as theft is a problem, and most importantly don’t play with water buffalo. So, with that in hand we chose to do one of the most adventurous things we have done on this trip. Stay the night.
People have traveled from around the globe just to get a glimpse of this movie-like setting. There are only a few places to get rooms from on the island, just a couple spots to eat and drink at, but no matter where I went I found it hard to overcome how surreal it all felt.
We dropped our bags off at our toasty air-conditioner-less bungalow, in the middle of summer might I add, and went out to mingle with the locals, or the lack thereof… Locals were present on this island, however it seemed that the island only really existed as a tropical oasis for backpackers.
It was incredible to step foot in a world that was so different than my own. In this world all anyone cared about was the ‘here and now’ and nothing beyond that. A lot of the island’s inhabitants are just previous backpackers that stayed a bit longer than expected without a departure date in site.
That night we decided to live like the ‘other side’, we drank with them, ate like them, sang with them, watched dancing fire shows, and just partied with them until morning.
After the evening’s festivities we returned to our bungalow which only offered the safety of a mosquito net, and nothing more. There were zero comforts of home — there wasn’t even a fully enclosed roof. As we laid in bed, there was one of the biggest storms I have ever witnessed, and we were right in the middle of it. The lightning strikes lit up our entire bungalow, and the thunderclaps sounded like a tank next door was waging war with the water buffalos.
Status update: We are in the middle of a barren island that not many people know of, both cell phones completely dead, and no accessible wifi all while in a torrential storm! But, what could have happened to our bungalow? Caught on fire? Flooded? Swarmed with mosquitos? Eh — it was all for the story, so we just pushed through it without a wink of sleep.
When we got up in the morning we went back to the docks to catch our ferry to get off the island to find people taking shots of tequila at 8:30am… Yea… Well, somehow we were able to make it out of the belly of the beast, aka Koh Rong, and continue on our travels, but let’s just say I don’t think we would have been able to survive another night!
#DoItForTheStory