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Koh Kong
Cambodia Beach
Resort.
Koh Kong
at the border to Thailand has a couple of
interesting features; all of them
are in the wilderness to the north
and east.
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To the east it’s a bumpy speed boat
ride to the Koh Poi waterfall or rather rapids, its
worth the one hour banging onto the water since the
speed boat does what the name indicated it’s real
speedy.
Koh Kong
Cambodia is a slowly emerging tourism destination and
mainly known for the visa run Trat Koh
Kong, a one hour minibus ride from Trat town to the
Thailand – Cambodian border and maybe back, but its
worth to take a motorbike taxi from the border for
around Baht 150,- and stay at the Koh Kong City Hotel
just at the waterfront behind the bridge, a night is $
20,- and that’s the best of all Koh Kong hotels. They
also have several pavilions built into the water in
front of the hotel functioning as a restaurant and the
food is excellent. All bus tickets to
Phnom Penh
and Sihanoukville are also available in the hotel, if
you use one of the buses they will pick you up from the
hotel.
Aside of exploring the nature there are not
many things to do in Koh Kong.
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At
the town center is a new disco with Heineken for
$ 4,-, no entrance charge but they do a very
close body search, they have plenty of lasers as
you can see at the Cambodia pictures below.
There is one more disco / bar close by and a
pretty bar called sunset a bit further to the
east. |
Koh Kong to Sihanoukville
goes through
the main road to the east. From Koh Kong towards the west is the Thai
border with a huge casino right at the border for people
who come over from Thailand for a game or more brings
plenty of taxes every day. There is practically no “red
light district”, they have a so called “chicken farm” (got the
message?) a few km to the north, this “farm” is
a flimsy shake with
around 5 not very pretty girls, it's no use to
even driving there. |
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Actually for moving around the
best and cheapest are the motorbike taxis.
In
front of the Koh Kong City Hotel are motorbike
taxis and Tuk-Tuk. Everywhere in town its easy
to find those taxis for a few dollars, on the
other hand its getting nervous to have this guys
constantly running behind offering their service
even when already told ten times ..no! The City
Hotel is probably the best in town, in particular
considering the price and location, its unbeatable
and they have the best
restaurant in town also, its a good
package.
Koh Kong province
is a typical so called eco
tourism destination, the attraction are the mountains,
waterfalls, wild rivers with huge rapids
and a real clean environ, sometimes not
so clean because many locals just throw
anything away after using it, means lots
of trash at roadsides and also at the
beautiful nature spots. |
Koh Kong Cambodia to Sihanoukville. |
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Paklong Beach,
Koh
Kong
Beach. |
is quite far away, the next beach is
about 10km away from the city (Paklong
Beach picture right side) with mainly
pine trees and nothing exciting also the
water is not clear at all since
its very flat. But the area is very
pristine, there are still millions of
shells covering the sand and
almost no people around. Only at the
east end of the beach is a army post and
two huts where fisherman live. The place
is the total contra to Jomtien Beach at
Pattaya Thailand with thousands of
tourist covering the sandThe
untouched |
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bamboo and tree jungle is really
exciting and many places are only
reachable via difficult dirt roads, the
ideal vacation destination with the dirt
bike,
read more.
Dirt bikes can be rented
mostly at Phnom Penh, just have a look
at the pictures of the
dirt bike
Cambodia at Sre Ambel plus
trekking tour to the Peal Rong
Waterfall, about 140km
north east of Kho Kong around 10km off
the road to Phnom Penh.
Koh Kong
Cambodia peninsular.
The creeks penetrating the peninsular
are the waterways where almost all
traffic is moving, roads are only in
town and to the north and north east.
This creeks and rivers give way to a
fragile nature which is only little
explored. That’s also the border area to
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Thailand.This waterways cuts somehow
blue wound into the deep green jungle of
south west Cambodia, there is no much
cultural division between east and west
of the country but geographically its
different since the west has a better
development which has also to do with
the beaches around Kep, Kampot,
Sihanoukville and Koh Kong plus the area
in between.
The rivers cutting this wilderness west
of Sihanoukville empty
into the creeks and they again deliver
this green blue water into the South
China Sea. These rivers slowly move
downwards and sometimes open up
spectacles in forms of waterfalls and
rapids. Because of the proximity to
Thailand the area has a strategic
position
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Koh Kong city west of Sihanoukville |
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because there is a continuous quarreling
between the two countries over border
issues. Actually
Thailand
is always quarrelling with neighboring
country on this issue since they always
try to move the border with some tricks
for their favor. They do it with
Cambodia and with Myanmar (Mae Sot) and
elsewhere.
The waterways around Koh Kong are the
means to bring any development into the
area via mining and sometimes logging,
but it |
Koh Kong Sre Ambel,
Koh
Kong
day
trip. |
seems that they have the logging problem
somehow under control. It is a great
river cruise to move upstream to see the
waterfalls and rapids until now there
are no hydroelectric facility under
planning and that is probably good so,
otherwise around Koh Kong and especially
to the north and east is one of the last untouched
wilderness in South East Asia would be
lost. Major changes have taken place
south of Phnom Penh and tourism is
quickly gaining pace
Leaving the main road the tour
goes over a wide red hard road without
hard surface for about 6 km, after the
dirt trail leads over sand and grass,
through dry. Through riverbeds, over bridges made
from
tree trunks and when the bike cant be
used anymore trekking is on the agenda
about one hour trek over a continuous
ascending trek. The present to be
received at the end is a great waterfall
in the jungle, the Peal Rong
Waterfall at Sre Ambel right in a
setting which would please
Indiana Jones,
read more.
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Actually
it’s a set of falls with five large
drops, off the rainy season not very
much water is splashing down but it's
still is very impressive. The waterfall
is easy accessible from the main road at
Sre Ambel. This is the tiny village
where the bus to Phnom Penh stops. There are always
several motorbike taxis available, prices ranges
up to $ 20,- since this tour is quite a
hard one and the bike driver should go
with you all the way it’s worth it.
Sre Ambel trekking
on’t try it on your own you will never
find this place alone or only after lots
of searching around. Cambodia
and Koh Kong is slowly
becoming one of the best
outdoor destinations
with a high level of
security and a good
background if something
happen, its not the best but
compared to former top places such as
Kashmir it’s a big relief when there is
no need to think |
Sre Ambel Trekking |
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about some fanatics. The country has
plenty of scenic parts almost everywhere
and also a great cultural heritage. It
is possible to go |
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on a culture trip to Angkor
and the next day on an
outdoor adventure
tour in
the Cardamon Mountains in
Koh Kong or elsewhere,
Cambodia’s east also has a
pristine and exciting
countryside.
A good start is the Koh Kong
City Hotel
right on the water edge with
good rooms and excellent food. |
Koh Kong City Hotel Pictures |
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Koh Kong pictures
tell much more to understand what's
going and appreciate this pure nature,
that is a great 360 scenery. The province is bordering the sea which
means fishing is the main industry beside of
agriculture. Since Cambodia tourism is in its
infancy in the province there are no much
sources of income for the Cambodia people here,
but something is growing, the signs are visible. |
Tatai Waterfall Rapids,
Koh Kong Cambodia. |
actually a cluster of rapids but the water is falling.
Tatai waterfall or rather Tatai rapids are the
the closest to Koh Kong City, its just about 40
minutes with the motorbike. The falls should be
on the agenda of every visit in this part to
Cambodia, its simple great nature. Just take a
motorbike taxi for around $ 10,- and you will
have a beautiful morning. Leaving the hotel at
9am it's easy to be back at lunchtime,
read more.
At Koh Kong is a
casino at the border
which bring in quite some revenues. The
government should develop the roads around here
they are real lousy. To every top sightseeing
spot such as beaches, about 10km to 15 km away,
and Tatai waterfall plus |
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off Sri Ambel are only dirt
roads when leaving the main
road. They have a hard surface but only earth
which give a real problem once some rain is
coming.
The
limestone cliffs are very attractive, although
not as spectacular as the Pai waterfall cum
rapids at
Pai Waterfall at Phitsanulok in
Thailand which is quite similar its a pleasure
for the eyes. |
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is
a cluster of rapids in a gigantic setting
is a river ride on the speedboat upstream a
wide river into the jungle. Its a setting as
written
in Joseph Conrad's "Hearth of Darkness".
Hopefully they will block the loggers who try
their luck with quite some money supplied by
shady figures from Thailand,
read more.The
Cambodians in that area don't have the money to
handle this because it needs quite a logistic
effort. Koh Kong
nightlife is no match for
Phuket
nightlife or
Thailand nightlife in
general but who knows what's in the future, the
Cambodians are very dynamic and have on average a better education than their neighbors to
the west. |
Koh Poi Waterfall Rapids |
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