We have taken a fast craft (1 hour) to the very north of Koh Rong Samloem (the smaller island to the very popular Koh Rong) and are staying at the rustic Sunset Bungalows (very aptly named).
In this part of the island (M’Pai Bay) there is little wifi (I am enjoying this but Pete not so much), little rain water (apart from now when there seems to be a torrential thunder storm every night or early morning) and much encouragement to take refills of bottled water for 50 cents rather than buying more plastic. The beer is also canned as I guess the cans are easier to export for recycling than glass bottles.
The beaches are white, white sand and the sea is a beautiful turquoise. The vibe is also really nice with some local families and foreign tenants pulling together to offer what they can to the tourists. I am loving the coconut and sesame seed waffles a little old lady makes and sells for 25 cents each day!
We went snorkelling and saw some lovely fish, small bits of coral and many, many sea urchins.
The urchins seem to be taking over – like the natural balance has been disrupted. What we were most dissapointed to see was that much of the coral had been damaged by fishing, fishing ropes and abandoned anchors. Even though we saw one map that marked the area as non-fishing, we see many boats moor up every afternoon ready to head out to sea as soon as the sun sets. We also see people go out on a home made polystyrene “sun lounger” propelled along using their flip flops on their hands to catch squid. We are not sure that either of these activities are really allowed but no one seems to stop them.
One afternoon we rented a kayak and paddled around the small island of Koh Kuon which is a national park, meaning you are not allowed to land there. It was a lovely jungle covered island with sea eagles and also some colourful hornbill type of birds. It was just a shame that on the West side of the island every beach was just covered in washed up rubbish – such a shame, it makes us so sad!
We did some snorkelling off the kayak, hopeful to see the black sea horses we had been told of. Unfortunately we weren’t successful but did see some beautiful fish, sea cucumbers, some sort of long sea snake with sucker ends? and many more sea urchins.
Today we walked south down the East coast to visit Clearwater Bay. It was a hot, sweaty walk through the jungle over a headland (plenty of millipedes, a monkey and a strange cricket type animal later). In amongst the piles of plastic bottles, flip flops and fishing items the white sand beach was stunning. Again just such a shame about the rubbish.
On the way home we passed through an EcoRetreat. What a great place! They had an outdoor gym using recycled and sand filled washing bottles as weights.
They also had a great scheme where if you filled a bag if rubbish you could claim a free cold beer – the best tasting cold beer ever!
Talking to our French guesthouse owner, Thomas, who has been there 4 years, he feels that things are improving. Locals are starting to understand the need to recycle and dispose of rubbish responsibly. Some of the owners pay people to clean the beach daily – I guess the rubbish just keeps coming. Fingers crossed their efforts continue and we are tell help in reducing how much rubbish they have to deal with.
#sunsetbungalows #toomuchplastic #Ecoretreat #letsmakeadifference #saynotoplastic
