Koh Rong Samloem

January 9^th-11^th, 2025 

The slow boat ferry from Koh Rong to Koh Rong Samloem was supposed to leave at noon.  There was a ticket office and I spoke to the lady there, but I had booked my ticket online with a different company so she wasn’t totally sure when my boat would arrive.  She said 12:15, not 12 like my ticket said, but 12:15 rolled by, then 12:30…12:45.  And the weird thing was that I seemed to be the only Westerner on this pier waiting for a ferry, which was odd.  There were a couple of other piers, but I was quite sure that I had the right one.

Leaving Koh Touch Beach.

Thankfully a boat that resembled the one on my ticket puttered from around the corner of Long Beach and docked at my pier.  I got on the boat along with a local and one other tourist.  It was a nice, but slow and loud boat ride.  The first mate kept lifting up the wooden cover and pouring water into some part of the diesel engine which didn’t instill confidence in it.  Even worse was when the captain came out and descended below deck with a wrench in his hand…but we made it.  We first pulled into the first beach, and just like my arrival to Koh Rong, most tourists disembarked (about 12 out of 15).  Huh.  I was quite sure that I was going to the bigger, more popular beach, so did the English couple who stayed on with me.

The slow ferry boat.

Heading south and following the shoreline, we entered a bay with Saracen Beach, where I would be staying for the next 2 nights.  Just like on Koh Rong, it was a gorgeous, sandy beach and looked like a lovely place to hang out for a bit.  The boat docked at a concrete pier, about 1.4 kilometres away from where I was staying.  I had previously read that there were no cars on the island, but there were some tractors.  I did see one hooked up with a trailer with bench seats on it, but it was parked and I didn’t see a driver.  I wanted to walk anyways.

Hello Koh Rong Samloem!

I was staying at the Onederz Hostel, and it would be the first time on this trip that I was actually staying in a dorm room!  Southeast Asia is relatively cheap for Westerners and perhaps it’s just me getting older as I seem to be preferring to have my own room whenever possible.

Reception at Onederz Hostel.

The hostel turned out to be quite nice.  It had a decent restaurant/bar, a nice beach area to hang out at, and really good bunkbeds.  They were solid steel and didn’t creak or move much when you got in and out of bed.  I requested a lower bunk and thankfully got one, plus they had a privacy curtain.

The restaurant at the hostel.

This "tractors" move goods and people up and down the beach and across the island.

I didn’t do too much on my stay on Koh Rong Samloem apart from relax, catch up on some blogging and some postcard writing.  I didn’t even bother walking inland as they were just dusty roads for the tractors.  I heard of a few guys walking half an hour to see sunset, but I just wasn’t bothered.  I’ve seen hundreds of sunsets where the sun dips straight into the ocean during my time in India.

A beautiful evening.

The hostel at night.

The second day was windy in the morning and early afternoon but then tapered off.  However, in the middle of the night, the wind was howling.  A loose piece of corrugated steel on the roof near my room kept slamming up and down, waking me up occasionally.

Another gorgeous day on the beach.

I went for lunch at a spot down the beach called Sara's Resort.   A little fancier than the hostel...they even had a pool.

My work station during lunch and the early afternoon.

The second evening at the hostel.

The angry sea in the morning of my departure.

In the morning, I was supposed to take a ferry back to the mainland, but it was cancelled.  I was told there would be another one at 10:45.  A bunch of backpackers and I hopped on the wagon with a two-wheel tractor and we headed inland as the waves were coming right up to the buildings on the beach.  It was an interesting ride as all of the luggage was stacked up in the middle of the trailer and we were sitting along the edge with our legs dangling over the side.  It felt like it wouldn’t take much of a bump in the road for a few people to fall off.

Getting off of the tractor to walk up a steep hill.

At the pier, about a hundred tourists milled about in an open-air building near the end of the concrete dock, waiting for a boat to arrive.  One finally did, and everyone put on backpacks, grabbed their luggage and moved closer together towards the doorway, but it wasn’t the right one for almost everyone.  A ferry showed up after 12 and everyone herded together again, in a chaotic line, if you could call it that.  The catamaran boat was probably 100 feet long but it didn’t look big enough to fit everyone, so I tried to make sure I wasn’t near the back of the queue…and luckily I did that.  When I got on the ferry, I just missed getting the last seat but it seems like I was going to be able to stay onboard.  There must have been at least 30 people standing in the aisles, yet they still seemed to be loading more people on the ferry.

Heading out on the pier.

Not sure about this...standing in the aisle in the big seas with no where near enough lifejackets visible.

Finally, the doors were closed, and we started to pull away from the dock.  I could see that there were still tourists standing on the dock.  Whew, I made it.  Looking around the boat, only about 10% of the seats had lifejackets on them.  Hmm…where are the rest?  And surely there wouldn’t be enough anyways since we were overloaded.

It didn’t take long to know that this was going to be a wild ride.  We were heading straight into the wind, plowing right into the oncoming waves that were probably 10-15 feet tall, although that is hard to judge.  Everyone standing up was using both of their hands to hold on to the backs of seats, poles or whatever there was to stable yourself.  The boat started to ride up a crest and slam down in the trough.  There was the odd scream from passengers and it didn’t take long until we had some pukers.  In fact, just around my area, within 20’, I counted 20 people throwing up.

Sorry for the sideways video, but I started it while holding onto the back of a seat and then turned it.  I could barely keep my balance without both of my hands holding on a seat on either side of me.  This video doesn't do it justice, but you do see one pretty good slam down into the trough of a wave.

I was actually glad to be standing up, and near the front of the boat.  I could anticipate the big waves as I could see them coming and then use my legs as shock absorbers.  I started chatting with the woman standing in front of me and she was from Colorado and teaches nursing.  It was a good distraction from what was going on around me and wondering if the boat was going to make it.  I was quite sure that it would, but I have to say it was definitely one of the craziest boat rides I’ve ever been on!

We can see the skyscrapers of Sihanoukville...getting closer.

We made it!

As we approached Sihanoukville, the size of the waves decreased as the wind was coming from the mainland.  Just after we docked, I helped lead an applause and cheer for the captain, who was right near me.  It was well deserved.

The tail end of the applause for the captain.

I was headed to a small town called Kep next, about 2½ hours from the port.  I couldn’t understand why it was going to take that long as it was less than 90 kilometres away…then I found out.  Most of the way was an unpaved, very bumpy road where we crawled along at 15-20 km/h at times.  I finally arrived at my guesthouse at 6 pm, about 5 hours later than I should have…but at least I made it!