In search of the perfect Beach in Cambodia

Ha Tien, the last Vietnamese village before the border was only about 8 km to Cambodia. No need to face the motorbike mafia again since our hotel kindly booked a taxi for us. The border was pretty harmless compared to others in the region: friendly and uncorrupted officials charging the normal price, no queues, no harassing money changers or taxi drivers.

No man's land between Vietnam and Cambodia with a massive casino just behind:
Gambling is prohibited in Vietnam so it was opened just for rich Vietnamese...

The change of atmosphere after the border is radical! The road is no more asphalted and it looks like we are back in time. We are surprised not to be assaulted by any motorbike mafia...

The first road into Cambodia...

Here's the equivalent of about 10 USD in local currency "Riel". We found out in fact
that dollars are accepted everywhere, sometimes even as main currency. Actually

you get even only dollars from ATM's.

We managed to hire a private minivan (that's one of the advantages of traveling 6 people together!) directly to our destination of today: the beach town of Sihanoukville. Ok, the town itself is rather boring and ugly, and the beach is quite crowded, but it's great for BBQ and sunset views!

First evening in Cambodia and on the beach!

Sunset cocktail on the pier...

Beach restaurant with fresh fish BBQ!

We wented to head to a pristine island the next day, only to find out that the few resorts on the island are fully booked for the next 2 days :-(... We were not sure what to do at first until one of the travel agencies offered us a private boat (again, it was quite affordable since we're 6!) to a nearby deserted beach 1 hour boat ride: that sounded like the right plan for us...

On our private boat!

Picnic, alone on the beach! Just what we needed
after the crowded beach of Sihanoukville.

The next (waiting) day, we booked a tour through a mangrove to yet another empty beach followed by a jungle trek. The approach 1h boat ride through the mangrove was really good, and it just kept going better until we reached a beach much better than yesterday's.

Another lonely beach, air 30°C, water 28°C, no one but us...

After a short walk through the jungle (we had booked a 3-hour trek, but it turned out to be just 30 min, which was actually sufficient by 30°C and on empty stomachs), we reached a small fishing village where our guide had prepared a great BBQ fish.

After lunch before returning to sihanoukville.

So these 2 "waiting" days were really amazing, and actually we were a bit puzzled because each beach kept getting better and better each day, so we were starting to wonder: is the beach on our next destination Ko Rong Island going to be even better? Sounded impossible, yet the next day we arrived at ....

Our beach at Ko Rong

The hamlet with nice restaurants, directly on the beach

Our bungalows, 20m from the beach

Local shop in the evening

This family-run restaurant became our favorite place for
fresh BBQ fish and fresh coconut



Fetching a fresh coconut (there's someone up that tree)

But this was not sufficient, and there was a myth that an even nicer beach, with even less people existed on the island. But the price to pay for it was a hard 1 hour walk through the jungle. So in search for the perfect beach, we went on that walk to the other side of the island.

Going down with ropes to the best beach ever

And we found the perfect beach!!!! Calmer sea than on the other side, and 7 km even whiter sand with shallow clear waters!




So we went to 5 beaches and each one kept going better and better, until we did find the perfect one... In fact that last one was so nice we didn't know where to start once we reached it!

David