Monkey Island - Koh Kong

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Well we went for the remote island thing and Monkey Island (Koh Kong ) was only a two or so hour boat trip away. Called Monkey Island not because there are Monkeys there but years ago before it was ever inhabbited, there was a report from a fisherman who claims to have seen what we might describe as a "Bigfoot".

Lots of pictures so scroll all the way to the bottom to see them all and/or double click a photo to see them all in a gallery.

The Island was indeed remote with no electricity and the cargo on the boat included huge huge blocks of ice that we assumed correctly was to keep the beer cold.

The island had an amzaing fishing village of 75 families on it and it was so third world and very interesting to get so up close as you had to walk through it to get to the section of beach where the resort was which included our bamboo hut right on the waters edge.

The water was warm but so too were the huts at night as we had to also sleep in mosquito nets and the air the first night did not move at all. The second night there was more of a sea breeze and it was cooler.

Most of our days consisited of really just doing a lot of "nothing" which took a bit getting used to but once you get the hang of doing nothing, it really is rather nice. We did enjoy watching water buffalo wandering around and keeping a watch out for King Cobras, Vippers and Scorpions but did not see any. There is illegal logging from the villagers and they use water buffalo to move the lumber from the mountains to the village. On our last day the military came in on speed boat to try and catch them at it. It was funny to see these guys with M-47 machine guns running along the beach in flip-flops. They seemed more interested in the free food and beer our resort offered them.

One highlit of the visit was meeting "Ti" pronounced "T" or "Tea" who took a huge fasination with Annice's travel gutair and brought his own gutiar out and wanted Annice to teach him Tracy Chapman's "Give Me One Reason" a song Annice knows well so for about two hours the two of them jammed.

The fishing village had an old little two room school house and we followed a little trail into the jungle to a clearing where we were told we could find it. As it was Sunday, the kids were off that day so we were able to just go inside and see it close up with the bare walls with the bare essentials and a globle of the world on the teachers desk.

After a few days of doing nothing, we headed back to the Cambodia mainland.

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