Koh Kong: Part 2

Arriving in Koh Kong

We arrived around 1:30pm in Koh Kong City. "City" is certainly an overstatement, but the spattering of storefronts, small guesthouses, and traffic let us know that we had reached our destination.

The information about our hotel said that the bus stop is just 20 meters away. So, I thought that the bus would stop right by our hotel and we would walk on over. It turns out that there is a main bus depot for Koh Kong City where all of the buses stop (there are several bus companies that go to and from Koh Kong). We arrived at the station with no idea where we were. I tried to talk to the moto drivers to find out how far away we were from the hotel. Several drivers hounded me as Kerstin waited to get her bag from under the bus. They, like always, followed me around asking where I was going and if they could drive me there. Eventually one of them came up to me and said he knew the hotel. (1 out of 10—not a good sign.) I still had no idea how far it was and, therefore, what was a fair price to get there.

I decided to call the owner of our hotel, a nice Australian guy who I had spoken with the day before to make the reservation. I figured he could tell me what to tell the moto driver. I told him we were "in the middle of nowhere" at the bus station. He said the hotel was just about 5 minutes away and, to my pleasant surprise, he offered to come pick us up! It was a nice break to be in a small town and already have friends! Grant, the Aussie, was there shortly and filled us in on Koh Kong on our way to the hotel.

The Hotel

My definition (and expectations) of hotels and other travel accommodations has been altered by my four-plus months in Southeast Asia. There doesn't seem to be a set standard. Some website and travel books use star ratings, but I'm pretty sure the stars are given at random and probably after someone has paid for a good rating. I didn't see many "star" ratings for hotels in Koh Kong. In fact, in all of my internet searching, I didn't find many hotels to rate. I typed "hotels Koh Kong Cambodia" (and variations of my search criteria hoping to produce more and new results) and found the same web pages over and over again. So, I visited them all, trying to find out as much information as I could about visiting mysterious Koh Kong.

One of my friends had been to Koh Kong before and recommended the Dugout Hotel (run by Grant, mentioned before). The Dugout does not have its own website, so I relied on the one photo and blurb online, as well as the information from my friend, to make my assessment. There were a several things that influenced my decision to choose the Dugout Hotel: 1) It was cheap. (Kerstin and I shared a room: $15 per night.) 2) It was on the main road. (This ended up being essentially insignificant upon our discovery of the actual size of Koh Kong.) 3) It had a restaurant. (Nice to know there is some Western food nearby.) 4) It had a pool. (We love to swim.) 5) My friend said it was good. (This was probably the greatest influence.)

We were greeted kindly by the Cambodian staff at the small hotel (12 rooms) and checked in. Grant led us through the hotel to our room at the back. The rooms opened onto the "courtyard" and the small swimming pool. We had the biggest room in the place, which included: a king-ish sized bed, a large TV (with sporadic cable access), a wardrobe, a small couch, and a coffee table. There was air conditioning (yay!). The bathroom was off of the back of the room, with screened openings to the outside; this means no A/C (not so uncommon in Cambodian hotels). Everything about the room and the bath was clean and in decent shape. The bathroom, however, left much to be desired—the water pressure was pretty low, poor tiling on the floor meant that it was always wet, and it got a little musty and hot. The bathroom aside, we had everything we needed and we slept very well every night—mostly because we were exhausted!

Friday in Koh Kong

After we settled in to our rooms, we headed back out to the reception desk/restaurant to get some lunch and figure out what do with our afternoon. Lunch at the Dugout was okay. I think I was a little optimistic and ordered the Fish & Chips (I mean you can wrong with a meal that is completely fried). Unfortunately, the fish just tasted weird. So, I ate my fries and perused the brochure and booklet about Koh Kong found at the hotel desk. We got excited about a couple of things we found until we realized that half of the booklet was about Sihanoukville, not Koh Kong. Apparently everything that I had read online really was the "Complete Guide to Koh Kong."

When we had check in earlier, Grant mentioned that he had a friend who rented out motorbikes by the day. I think that, originally, Kerstin and I planned to take our helmets for when we would ride as passengers around Koh Kong. When we found out that we could rent our own motos for $4 per day, we changed our minds. With Cambodian driver's license in hand (or wallet) and a meager amount of experience, we asked Grant to call his friend—moto drivers we would be! A few minutes later, two Cambodian men drove up in a pickup truck to take us to a guesthouse/hotel run by one of the men and his wife. Mr. Neat was a former police officer and now owns a hotel and organizes tourist trips around Koh Kong. He spoke English well, was very hospitable, and gave a deal on our half-day rental. We signed a rental agreement, agreeing to pay $1000 if the moto was stolen while under our care (apparently Mr. Neat had had some problems with shady tourists), and away we went!

Part of my reason for visiting Koh Kong was to check out some hotels for the upcoming staff retreat. Kerstin also wanted take a look at a possible place for her family to stay if they went to KK during their visit here in December. So, we used the most detailed map in the booklet and just drove around! The light traffic and wide streets gave us the extra confidence we needed for lots of driving practice and our most extended solo moto rides yet. We went to the riverside, found a couple of the hotel and went inside for a look, stopped and bought gasoline out of a barrel from an old man, and quickly realized how small Koh Kong really was.

My favorite part of the long, afternoon ride was when we drove out to find The Oasis: a cluster of bungalows, surrounding a serene swimming pool, and bordered by palm trees. I remember running across this place during my pre-trip research and thinking how lovely it looked and sounded. It only had about 10 bungalows, so it wouldn't work for the retreat. It turns out that Kerstin's dad had come upon it online, as well, and told her about it. The route to the Oasis took us away from the paved streets of KK. The first sign we found for the Oasis had a foam board (broken in half) over it that read: "CLOSED for Rainy Season". Since we just wanted to see it and not stay there, we headed on down the road. We passed some road construction (they were paving the road!) and came to another sign with arrow pointing right and some indication of how many kilometers away we would find the Oasis. I've never been good at knowing distance and really don't know how far "5 km" is, but after dodging some chickens in road and getting some stares and smiles from the locals, we headed right.

The hot midday sun had settled down and the sky was turning a beautiful deep blue-gray color as evening storm clouds made their way in from the sea. We found ourselves driving past fields and small houses and more chickens. We didn't see another sign for the resort, so we turned a few different ways, went down new streets, and saw more lovely scenery. Once I remembered that we had no agenda, I began to make stops along the way to get out my camera and try to capture the beauty and the moment. After a little more driving, excited "hello's" from children, and more chickens, we asked a woman where to find the Oasis. It was just down the street! This street made me really feel like I was off-roading, but did in fact lead us to the Oasis! We peeked in the closed gates, agreed that it did look like the picture, wondered what it would be like to stay so far away from everything, and considered our mission accomplished!

Our ride back to the Dugout was simple (and we definitely knew our way by then). We stopped at a convenience store for some snacks, ate dinner at our hotel (much better than lunch!), took a dip in the pool, and hit the sack! Our trip to Koh Kong was already, most definitely, an adventure.