{"id":3224,"date":"2026-03-20T04:00:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T04:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aerowalsh.com\/cr\/?p=3224"},"modified":"2026-03-21T17:54:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T17:54:34","slug":"wed-18-mar-kampot-to-koh-rong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/?p=3224","title":{"rendered":"Wed 18 Mar – Kampot to Koh Rong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The end of our tour is the island of Koh Rong, known affectionately to Cambodians as ‘paradise’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Modern paradise has cracks in the idyll. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the island, the water is crystal clear but rubbish strewn. An orgy of stray dogs hunt a bitch in heat, up and down, up and down the beach. A smoky haze sits in the air – burning season, even on the small fields of the island. A Chinese-owned construction site whirs and clangs, introducing a new array of concrete boxes from which to watch the sunrise over the ocean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the ocean is warm and the sand is a crisp white blanket, soft underfoot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’ll look nice in a photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The ferry terminal is a few hours away from the town of Kampot. There are 20 minutes of Laos-like roads and this is not well received by the group. I want to shake them and say cooly, “the worst of here is the best of there”. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The fast ferry is awash with tourists who’ll return painted lobster-red around their shoulders.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The seaside town on the mainland is a ruin of Chinese investment. A money laundering community of confusing empty high rise hotels and ghostly abandoned resorts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Declan would have spent the hour-long ferry crossing over choppy waters with a gaze sternly fixed on the horizon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Fishing boats bump around the island marina, waiting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Two seasons of Survivor were shot on this little island. I reckon the palm frond huts the contestants built would have been more pleasurable than our mildew scented ‘bungalows’, absent of any airconditioning or comfort.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Pork rib and basil stir-fry for lunch was surprisingly tasty. In the evening I saw a stray cat licking chicken bits defrosting outside and am thankful I didn’t order the satay skewers.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Behind the scenes of Paradise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
These three Lizzies waged gang warfare against the horde of random mutts on the hour, only taking a break in the hottest part of the day to pant in the water or mount a Corgi.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
This group of Cambodians came prepared for their holiday. Unsatisfied with the soft crash of waves filling the cloudless afternoon, they bring down their own sound system and blast Cambodian rap for hours, intermittently having to get up and kick the boom box when it, presumably out of shame, shuts itself off.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
The only nemesis of mine more powerful than Homestay: Card Games. I’ll spare you the details but there are two nonsensical rules to this game that are boarding on counterintuitive. I make very reasonable, logical suggestions to improve the quality of the game and am told by the owner, a streak of sadness pulling down her voice into a sigh, “it’s okay, we just play it for fun”. I retire to my airless bungalow to avoid getting sucked into the next pointless round.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paradise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3235,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-thailand-laos-cambodia-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3224"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3242,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions\/3242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cr.aerowalsh.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}