What To Do in Koh Kong, Cambodia

Ok I need to fess up before we even get onto what to do in Koh Kong, Cambodia. That photo above is not of Koh Kong. It’s not of Koh Kong because I have no photos of Koh Kong.

Literally zero.

Why you may ask?

Well, because it rained.

Which might sound like the lamest excuse ever when I have things like say, a waterproof camera to combat for this exact fucking situation. But sometimes the rain in Asia just really isn’t like normal rain.

In the more tropical parts of Asia when it rain, it’s like the apocalypse.

I’m from England, I’m VERY used to the rain.

But with English rain you can still leave the house and go about your life, although you may not want to since rain sucks. A lot of the time in Asia that’s just not even an option.

When it rains, it’s day over.

That’s what happened to us for the two days we were in Koh Kong #WINNING

This is also the most off the beaten track place I’ve been in Cambodia.

Literally we saw only one other tourist the entire time we were there (admittedly the rain might not have helped that situation). I quite like that but it wouldn’t be so great if you were traveling on our own unless that is one of the points at which you’d decided you wanted some alone time.

What To Do in Koh Kong, Cambodia

How am I going to write about things to do in Koh Kong you may ask when my entire time was wiped out by cray cray rain? Well you see we hadn’t planned to spend all our time lying in bed watching movies.

There are apparently beautiful waterfalls and mangroves you can go see and the Koh Kong Island is supposed to be one of the best in Asia.

That’s what we went there for.

We had actually even booked a tour to go to the waterfalls (we were told the weather was definitely too bad to make it to Koh Kong Island) and we got as far as going out in the paddle boat when the heavens opened up and we found ourselves in the middle of a lake with hail stones coming down on us.

We decided it was best to abandon the trip and went back the safety of our hotel where we spent a lot of time getting ourselves warm again then settled down in bed to watch movies all day.

When you travel round a lot you don’t really get the time or the chance to watch TV so for me it was actually kind of a nice treat having a duvet day and watching some of the worst movies I’ve EVER seen on Cambodian TV. It does mean I can’t comment on the beautiful things there are to see in Koh Kong though.

But apparently there are lots of them. When it isn’t raining.

I can help with accommodation though as we did still have to sleep somewhere!

Where to stay in Koh Kong

I’d read good things about Paddy’s Bamboo Guest House before going so we decided to check that our when we arrived. I think it would be a nice place to stay but the accommodation is very basic and after the sweaty heat of the fan room on Koh Rong it was decided we’d be better going else where (which actually with the rain confining us to our room turned out to be a really wise decision).

We ended up at Apex Koh Kong Hotel which was a lot closer to the town, had good facilities, a pool (although there was no water in it when we stayed!) and most importantly given the timing of when we were there, a TV with channels that played movies in English!

How Long to Stay in Koh Kong

When Koh Kong isn’t flooded with rain you’d probably want a couple of days there to allow enough time to explore the surrounding area.

Maybe I’ll come with you as I still need to see it!

Getting from Koh Kong to Siem Reap or Phnom Penh

My friends and I split up here for them to go to Siem Reap and me back to Phnom Penh so I could then get a bus to Battambang since I’d already been to Siem Reap two years earlier. Both are easy journeys from Koh Kong and we just booked through one of the tour shops in town.

Since there are so few tourists in Koh Kong my bus ride to Phnom Penh was actually really different from a lot of the others in Cambodia as usually they’re filled with tourists but for once, the entire journey back, even when we stopped for food, I saw not one single other foreign person.

I’d booked my ticket as an all the way through on to Battambang, just with a change over in Phnom Penh, but as is frequently the case this was not all with the same bus company.

As a result it involved a lot of sitting around, waiting for the next bus in Phnom Penh in an area where the only option to buy food was to go to the local petrol station and get the Cambodian equivalent of a Pot Noddle. If you’re going to do the same trip, be warned it is a LONG day’s travel you’ll be embarking on.

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