A trek from hell...into Paradise!

Got up early and had breakie at Coco’s then we decided to check out the deserted Long Beach over the other side of the island, which the Scottish guys we met in Kampot had told us about, it was supposedly paradise. This involved a small trek over the island and through the jungle, so we set off after our pancakes at around 10am, after we’d paid for our room.

It started off as a walk through the ‘village’ which was like, 3 houses, and then a steep rock climb up to the jungle...which is when the trek REALLY began. We didn’t realise you had to follow the shoes pinned everywhere and instead just went the paths we thought looked like were in the right direction...they weren’t! We went way off track and ended up at a dead-end, during which we’d stubbed our toes, tripped over, been whacked by bushes and twigs and Maura had a massive poisonous stripy snake slither in front of her! TIME TO TURN BACK!

Luckily on our way back at the fork in the path we’d gone wrong at, we met another couple doing the same trek so we followed them and low and behold...they told us about the shoe-trail! For heaven’s sake! So we trekked for a further hour, which involved some pretty sheer rock climbing down to the beach. When we arrived (2 and a half hours after setting off and dropping pounds in sweat) we had a celebratory drink at the tiny beach-shack restaurant, then headed straight for the beach, which involved a little more, this time, lighter trekking...and we arrived into an actual paradise!

Crystal turquoise waters, little rocks, dazzling white sand and blazing sun! So we got straight to it and dived into the sea – well, not quite dived as it was shallow for a long way out, then we sunbathed all day pretty much, played in the sea, had lunch, and watched the amazing sunset before heading back by long-tail boat (there was NO WAY we were trekking back again) to the main beach. We were lit by an almost full-moon which was beautiful and then came back to shower before heading to Coco’s for a BBQ. Took advantage of the last orders of Happy Hour by ordering 3 cocktails, but Koh Rong isn’t really a party place, it’s got a very chilled vibe and everything shuts at 1pm when the electricity cuts out. So we went to bed around 12.