Koh Rong Samloem

After a brief detour to Kampot for some ribs (conclusion: the ones from the market in Phnom Penh were better), our taxi took us to Sihanoukville to catch a boat to Koh Rong Samloem, one of a few Cambodian islands in the Gulf of Thailand, where we were to spend two nights.  I'll preface this post by acknowledging that the purpose of this stop was to relax on the beach, not to participate in any specific activities, and that we'd deliberately picked the relatively undeveloped Samloem over backpacker-favorite Koh Rong, its somewhat more developed neighbor.

Still, to my mind there's a difference between "not much to do" and "NOTHING to do."  We arrived in the afternoon and spent some quality time wading and swimming in the incredibly warm, shallow water.  There aren't really any restaurants, just resorts that serve food, so we walked over to the next resort for dinner.  After dinner, we did some reading in the seaside hammocks outside our bungalow and turned in for an early night.

The next day, we walked pretty much the full length of the beach looking for something to do.  Aside from one sad-looking kayak, our search was unsuccessful.  The absence of activity generally puts me in a dark mood and this time was no exception: I was pretty much grumpypants (to put it mildly).  Monju kept in admirably good spirits despite her crabby companion, but I think we were both relieved when I opted to take a walk through the jungle to the other side of the island for sunset, returning in the dusk with a much sunnier disposition.

There are several signs on the island welcoming visitors to "Paradise."  To which I say: maybe for some people, but not for me.  Give me one activity to undertake or one mission to complete and, after it's over, I'll gladly sit on the beach for the rest of the day.  In the absence of that activity, however, I get pretty restless.  Being in the warm, shallow water is like being in a really big bathtub, and who doesn't like a bath every once in a while?  But even if it's the most beautiful bathtub in the whole world, who wants to spend the whole day hanging out in the bathroom?

Plus our resort hadn't quite finished construction.  Our bungalow itself was *very* nice, but there was no restaurant or lobby -- to order food or drinks, we had to hunt down the manager at the construction site or in the trees behind it.

Takeaways: (1) Koh Rong Samloem will probably be a great place to visit in a couple years when there's a bit more to do.  (2) For your own sake, don't go with Erin E on a beach getaway unless you've verified there are activities beyond sitting, swimming, and reading.

The most exciting portions of our visit came after we left the island.  First, we saw Koh Rong (left), and after seeing it we both agreed we should've gone there instead of Samloem.  Ah, well, you live you learn.  Second, we ran into people from each of our three Phnom Penh tours during transit: a woman from the cooking class was on the boat to Koh Rong, a woman from our street food tour boarded the boat at Koh Rong, and a couple from our trip to the animal sanctuary was  on our flight from Sihanoukville to Siem Reap.  Finally, a torrential downpour began right around the time we were supposed to board our plane.  We didn't have to walk through it, though: they bused us from the terminal to the plane and used several umbrellas to protect us during the short walks to and from the bus.  It was pretty cute (see below).