Trip to Sihanouk and Koh Rong Samloem!
Editor’s note: Below is the traveller’s journal of Ludi and Hugo on their adventure at Koh Rong Samloem in Sihanoukville, Cambodia. All content and images are from the contributors.
My friend and I are living in Phnom Penh and during water festival we decided to leave the capital to discover southern Cambodia and the famous island of Koh Rong Samloem!
We booked a bus through BookMeBus from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville leaving early on Saturday: sun was shining and the traffic in Phnom Penh was increasing, announcing such a busy weekend in the capital! From there we were sure that we took the best decision to leave this crazy city for the weekend! Bus left on time and the journey was great!
We arrived in Sihanouk 4 hours later, a strange city that I wouldn’t especially recommend. However, this might be the best place from which you can start to discover the region! As we met backpackers complaining about how Koh Rong has been altered by mass tourism, we changed our initial plan and headed toward Koh Rong Samloem.
After one and a half hour on the ferry we arrived at this small island of 10 Km². We strolled over Sacarem beach to find a place to stay. We visited many bungalow places and we finally settled in a tiny hostel at the end of the beach. There are places for all budgets, going from 7.5$ to 150$
Lost in this preserved island, we walked through the forest to reach sunset beach, a haven of peace! No one on the beach, transparent water and everything you would need for a lovely stay. I lost the count of the hours we spent there enjoying this amazing place, playing cards and relishing this wonderful water!!
We only spent two days on that island, and believe me we would have stayed much longer if we didn’t have to go back working in Phnom Penh. In order to visit Sihanouk countryside we rent a motorbike and got lost on those amazing roads and trust me, it worth’s it. I would highly recommend to go to Otres Beach to find an hostel, as it’s quite cheap and the mood is lovely! They are great places to visit around reachable by bike: waterfall, sea side, lake, natural reserve and many more surprises!
We had a pretty busy weekend in which we had time to visit and experience many things! In total, we spent 4 days there and I believe that this is a minimum if you want to enjoy this place at his best.
During all the weekend, we bought all our bus tickets through BookMeBus App, everything worked smoothly: in total we spent less than 12$ each for all the buses, which might be the best money I’ve spent in ages: we highly recommend this website and app!)
We hope that this experience helped you!
Enjoy your trip in Sihanouk through BookMeBus and who knows, perhaps see you in our next adventure : ) )!
Ludi and Hugo
Going to Koh Rong Samloem?
[…] festivities that are expected to happen. Many others may still want to head over to the islands of Koh Rong for a more relaxing experience. However, there are still many things to enjoy in the main island […]