Ko Rong Samloen

Koh Rong Samloem is a little island about 15km south of Sihanoukville in southern Cambodia and is said to be comparable to Thailand islands 30 years ago when many islands were still undeveloped. It was the most beautiful amazing island I've ever been to, we could relax, enjoy the beauty of clear water and white sand with amazing beaches with NO traffic, NO cars, NO roads…there wasn't any longboat traffic or noise either, just a ferry that arrived and departed 2 time a day. 

Koh Rong Samloem is just 9 km long and 5 km at it's widest point!  From our hotel on Saracen bay on the sunrise side, the distance to the beach on the sunset side of the island is little more than a kilometer walk through the jungle.  Koh Rong Samloem is 90% non-developed so there are lots of places for trekking. There are 2 paths through to the sunset side, one we did the first day...it took about 15 minutes and it was an impromptu visit that we did barefoot through a nice sandy jungle path. The beach over there was ok but it wasn't the white sand beauty of Saracen bay, it was course brown sand and the water was wavy.
A few days later we took another path through the jungle, closer to a 45min walk with flip flops but we probably should have worn shoes...it was a tough hike and not worth the ugly beach we encountered over there. We actually left early and didn't wait until the sun set as we were worried about navigating the hike once it got dark. Most of the hotels were on the beautiful Saracen bay side and we felt sorry for anyone who booked on on the sunset side as it was profoundly worse!

Koh Rong Sanloem has more recorded history than most of Cambodia’s islands. In 1857 the British Royal Navy’s HMS Saracen conducted a survey of the Cambodian coast and islands, leading to production of the first map of the area three years later. Heart-shaped Saracen Bay got its name from that British brig. Between 1863 and 1953 the French took only a middling interest in the island, building rudimentary roads to connect its various parts.These days, however, the roads are a distant and long-overgrown memory, and travel around the island is done by boat. One of the last vestiges of the French on Koh Rong Sanloem is a lighthouse atop a mountain on the southern tip of the island. We didn't hike to it but is supposed to have great views.

One of the cooler things this island has to offer is at night the phosphorescence can be seen in the water on the shores of the quieter parts caused by bioluminescent plankton. The conditions in the Gulf of Thailand around Koh Rong are perfect to witness this phenomenon. The plankton respond to disturbance by lighting up even brighter as you splash away. A combination of low light pollution on the island and the warm temperature makes these tiny glowing lights visible in the ocean after dark.  We were so excited to see this and we so disappointed to learn that since it was a full moon on the days we were there it was too bright to see it. Perhaps an excuse to come back again some day.