Koh Kong

With Justin and Ashley in town, I took a day off work to spend a long weekend with them in Koh Kong, one of the few provinces I had not yet visited. Koh Kong is Cambodia's southwestern-most province. To the west lies Thailand, to the north the largely pristine and uninhabited Cardamom Mountains, and to the south the Gulf of Thailand and a number of tropical islands. To get to Koh Kong, it is necessary to cross four large rivers, which, until very recently, were only passable by ferry. With bridges over each of the crossings complete, travel time to Koh Kong was cut in half. Thus, this was the perfect time to go - it is now relatively accessible and Thailand's former Prime Minister Shinawatra has yet to invest the several billion dollars that he hopes to develop the province.

So it was in this context that we departed for Koh Kong, practically to Thailand, on Friday morning. For the first half of the journey, we were on National Route 4, the same road that goes to Sihanoukville. Once we arrived at Sre Ambel, however, we turned west. After passing through the outskirts of Sre Ambel, the scenery changed dramatically. The terrain was no longer flat and we were surrounded by lush, green, pristine forest and jungle. I hadn't been anywhere else in Cambodia so devoid of human presence. With each small but steep hill the bus slowly summitted, green jungle stretched for miles without any sign of villages or farmland.

About four and a half hours after leaving Phnom Penh, we arrived at the fourth river crossing in the village of Tatai, our launching point to Rainbow Lodge. Upon the recommendation of a few friends, we made a booking at the eco-lodge about twenty kilometers from the town of Koh Kong, which, like many border towns, has a rather unseemly reputation. After crossing the bridge on foot, we tracked down a green and blue wooden boat - our transportation to the lodge.

After a nice twenty minute cruise down the crystal clear river, we noticed a number of bungalows with thatch roofs sticking out above the forest. Shortly thereafter, we docked and climbed up a narrow dirt path to the restaurant and sitting area. There, we were given a welcome by the British owner Janet, whom we came to enjoy like a slightly crazy aunt. Justin put it well when he described Janet as someone that unexpectedly received houseguests - she frantically scampered about cooking meals and making other arrangements and was extremely apologetic for any and every shortcoming she could possibly imagine (that the lodge was at capacity for the first time, that our bungalow had a mosquito problem, that they were out of ham, etc.) She told us how we shower in river water, that electricity is provided by solar energy during the day, and that for $0.50 a day we could have as much water as we liked provided we didn't discard our plastic bottle.

Immediately relaxed, we sat around snacking, playing cards and enjoying the sounds of nature that do not exist in Phnom Penh. By late afternoon we worked up enough of a sweat playing cards to jump in the river. The water was incredibly clear; so clear that if the bottom was covered with sand instead of mud and rocks, I think it would have been like swimming in the Caribbean. After wearing ourselves out, we returned to the sitting area for more cards and a healthy dose of red wine.

Though the dinner was slow - an hour between the end of the main course and dessert - it was delicious: onion soup, an Indonesian lemongrass pork dish, and chocolate and banana crepes. Between the food and the wine we crashed hard pretty early.

We woke to a beautiful sunrise and, over breakfast, decided to take a boat trip to a nearby waterfall. More cards sustained us until we left the lodge in late morning. The sun was blaring during the half hour boat ride, which dropped us off at a gorgeous cascading waterfall. Setting our things down, we scampered over extremely slippery rocks, through the bushes, and swam upriver a bit to reach the base of the waterfall, which we then climbed. Though a workout, the setting was entirely laid back and once we reached the top, we were rewarded with cool pools and underwater "armchairs."

Scampering back down the waterfall, we had a lot of fun letting the current take us back to our things and a picnic lunch. In fact, we enjoyed it so much, we scampered over the rocks a few more times just to be taken downriver again. We spent the afternoon swimming, climbing on the rocks in the middle of the river and playing childish "king of the mountain" type games. It was delightful.

We returned to the lodge in late afternoon to read and play cards before the BBQ dinner that was planned. Again, dinner came about a bit slowly (and certainly wasn't helped by the large and unexplained boom we heard from the kitchen during preparations), but the grilled pork, prawns, rice salad, were delicious. Again we crashed hard with bellies full of delicious food and wine.

On Sunday morning we woke and, unfortunately, had to leave. It was a great, relaxing weekend though, and incredibly well-priced. Lodging and food for two days as well as the boat trip came out to just over $40 per person. I will definitely consider returning.