Escape the Bleak Midwinter Part 2: Koh Rong

Who hasn't ever wanted to run away and live in a tree house at some point in their life? The second part of our grand Spring Festival adventure was just that - staying three days on Koh Rong, an island off the coast of Cambodia. In a tree house. For real.

 Getting to Koh Rong was quite the challenge, though. Turns out buying bus tickets in Vietnam during New Year is just as impossible as it would be in China. The only option that would get us to the island in time for our booking was to fly to Phnom Penh, and from there we hired a driver to the port town of Sihanoukville. If you stay flexible, you won't break, right?

While my coworker and I were disappointed not to get to see the Mekong Delta, we ended up having a really interesting time talking to our Cambodian driver. As we drove out of Phnom Penh we passed factory after factory after factory, some with US or Japanese owners, but most run by people from the big country up north. Our driver's wife works in one of these factories, and he said that local Cambodians would much rather work in a factory run by Americans than the others. The pay is higher, the sick leave is more forgiving, and the working conditions are overall much better. By the time we approached Sihanoukville, the 6pm bell was ringing to change shifts, and we watched hundreds of young women and men shuffling through the gate to produce the world's shoes and shirts. How many of my own clothes are made in Cambodia? But it was also a small point of pride to know that honest managers and fair labor practices are making a good name for the US in this part of the world.

The next morning, we got up early, piled onto a bus with a bunch of other backpackers, and made our way to the port. 

 

It was a two-hour ferry ride to Koh Rong, a tropical island in the Gulf of Thailand. 

 

 

Koh Rong is much less developed than most Thai beaches or Vietnam's Phu Quoc island - it's just two villages and a handful of bungalows and bars. Perfect for escaping the rest of the world and just chilling out for a few days.

 

Most of the bars and bungalows were clustered around the docks, but our chosen retreat, Treehouse Bungalows, was further down and had its own secluded beach. And when the waves wake you up early in the morning, you can enjoy coffee and baguette and the ocean all to yourself:

 

 

I had hoped that this place would be good for some prolonged reflection on the last year and the year to come. There wasn't quite enough time as I'd wished, but it was still a good start. What a wonderful place to read, write, pray, and sing. 

 

 

If you look closely at the photo above, you see a dark mass under the water - it's a coral reef. During my days on Koh Rong I had the lovely surprise of going snorkeling and diving! Scuba diving was not something I ever planned to do, but the company made a convincing pitch - it seemed like an adventure worth trying. But as I stood on the edge of the boat laden with weights and a metal tank and awkward fins, with the instructor urging me to step off, it suddenly didn't seem so sure.

 

Oh, it was. So much life and color under the sea. A myriad of different fish. Sea anemones with scary spikes. Giant clamshells opening their wavy mouths.  When a school of fish passed by, I'd reach out my hands and try to stay with them - where were they going, and could I come too?

So thankful for God's glorious creation.