Koh Rong, where did you go wrong?

Koh Rong, where did you go wrong? Sihanoukville is one of the jumping off points for exploring the islands of Cambodia. We had read that these islands are like those of Thailand but many years ago and were looking forward to exploring them. After doing some research we realized that the logistics to visiting many of the islands was quite complicated, with limited ferry service and few places to stay that were mostly expensive. Some islands have lodges dedicated to nature activities, which would have probably been perfect for our interests, but unfortunately not within our budget. We opted to visit Koh Wrong because it was easy to get to and had several options for accommodation. It is also known to be a beautiful island with some walking trails and nice beaches. Even though we had read that it is a bit of a backpacker island we did not worry too much, after all we are also traveling on a budget.

The ferry ride over to Koh Rong should have been warning enough of where we were going; the boat was packed full with young travelers with not a seat left empty. I did not realize the islands received so many visitors. The first site on arrival in Koh Rong was what seemed a colorful village along a beautiful beach, but as we disembarked from the ferry and began walking along the beach to our guesthouse, we already began to notice the garbage, the open sewage streaming into the ocean, and the large amounts of bars playing loud music in middle of the day. When we were searching for a place to stay in Koh Rong it was hard to find a place that had any amount of decent reviews, so settled for one that seemed to be the better out of the lot for a reasonable price.

Our guesthouse was not the peaceful enclave on the beach we had expected, but a rather a very rustic dark wooden house barely slapped together with one side open to the ocean, and inside a crummy looking bar, already filled with what seemed like several local expats putting down their first drinks of the day. On the second floor of the house were the rooms. Our “private room with ensuite” was actually fairly clean, but I would not call it private as the rooms were separated by some wooden boards and you could easily whisper sweet nothings to the person sleeping next door.  The bathroom was a very poor attempt at a bathroom, if you could even call it that. I suppose I could give them credit for being environmentally friendly by collecting random used bathroom parts and putting them back together to create an up-cycled bathroom. Maybe that is a thing these days? But the nonexistent sink and the toilet seat that looked like it had been dug out of garbage dump only lessened any shabby-chic appeal it may have had.

Not long after we got settled in, we met our resident rat. As far as rats go, he was not that bad a looking one, probably due to a healthy diet consisting of tourist bag snacks and kitchen leftovers from the downstairs bar. He did not lack confidence, nor was he aggressive, and always made sure to make eye contact with us when he stopped in – how polite! On our first outing I remembered my cherished jar of peanut butter that I left on the shelf, but I soon learned that what truly caught his interest was my liquid almond soap, which he stole from me. The next day he came back for Dustin’s soap.

I could handle the resident rat and the dingy bathroom. But what worried me most was the party atmosphere of the town, which was a rather strange and depressing vibe. All the guesthouses that are packed one after another along the beachfront were much like ours: a bar downstairs and guest rooms upstairs. In unison, as if planned, they all began blaring music out their bar from about 8 or 9am, and did not stop untill late in the night. How do these people live like this? So much for sleeping with the sound of the ocean, or for that matter, ever even hearing the ocean. Many of these guesthouses are owned and run by expats, who have escaped the real world  for this daily beach party life, and it certainly does look a bit weathered from the endless days of drinking.

I soon learned that many other travelers were suffering with their own guesthouse and island issues. Many of them virtually eaten alive by bed bugs (seriously, their entire body covered in large red swollen bites), others suffering from lack of sleep because their guesthouses played music until 9am, others that didn’t have any water days, etc. I then began to realize that many of the travelers, even though they were young, had probably felt the same disappointments we felt arriving at this island. They must of expected a cute little beach town with some fun island bars. What a relief to know it was not just me, the thirty-something year old, that was whining about noise.

In order to sleep we resorted to drugs, in the form of sleeping pills. From our bedroom we could hear the music from the bar downstairs combined with the music from the bar to the left of us, and the music from the bar to the right. It was like a three-in-one party; no need to go bar hopping, you can have it all in one place. The final night, we felt our bed vibrating because the music was so loud.  It took several hazy days to recover from our three day sleeping pill binge.

We tried our best to make the best of our days here by exploring the island and trying to find the more pristine and untouched parts of the island. And we did manage to find some great little spots where we were able to escape the noise and garbage. Although we did get quite lost deep in the jungle for well over an hour – but that’s another story.

Now on to the serious matter at hand. Koh Rong was once a pristine place and is still home to many local Cambodians. It is in desperate need of some ecological and sustainable tourism infrastructure to counteract and fix the mess that has already been made. The island is developing more rapidly that it is prepared for. As mentioned before the the town and beach are littered with garbage (empty bottles, cigarette butts, plastic wrappers, and general waste), open sewage and grey water streams into the ocean from various points in the town, and very loud music pollutes the atmosphere anywhere near the town all day and all night. These environmental hazards also have an effect on the community. This beach is the backyard where the local children play amongst garbage, bad smells, drunk tourists, and loud music.

I feel that the foreigners working and running a lot of the locals bars/guesthouses are equally contributing to this mess. I am sure the locals are happy with the income that comes from tourism, and are probably in need of it. But the reality is that many of the foreigners living on the island come from countries where there is already a lot of awareness about the environment and they could set an example of how to run a sustainable and eco friendly business that supports the local community and protects the environment. There are many places in the world that have done this well.

Koh Rong is an island that can still be mended and returned to its original beauty, but only with the aid of travellers that visit together with the locals/expats that live there. From my view, there are many small things that can be done to get the ball rolling such as implementing a better recycling system, organizing an daily beach clean up co-op between all business owners, setting up water bottle refilling stations, defining noise bylaws, and implementing a grey water and sewage waste system to avoid polluting the beach.