Koh Mak to Koh Kong

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Trip Start Dec 25, 2008 Previous
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  Koh Kong, Cambodia
Saturday, January 10, 2009

After another lazy day on the beach, our time at Koh Mak had come to an end. We had a fantastic time on the island - the folks at TK Hut were extremely friendly and they all turned out to say goodbye to us. Quite sad really, but we'll no doubt be back sooner or later. We can definitely recommend TK Hut, and even their restaurant - super good food, cheap and huge portions (we often just shared a meal instead of taking one each like we normally would), plus they run the local bakery, so the breakfast bread was great :)

We were still hoping for a direct boat to Cambodia on Sunday, but the guy running it was still on holiday, so no go this week.

Full details we found out later - the contact person in Cambodia is Thomas at Neptune Guesthouse (011984 512), runs every Sunday from Koh Mak to Had Lek via Koh Kood, and then comes back every Monday. The return trip leaves Hat Lek 10am and is at Koh Mak by 11:30am - presumably the trip from the islands is about the same time. On Koh Mak, TK Hut has more information. Boat only runs between October and April and every Sunday/Monday means except for those weeks that he is on holiday :)

Anyway, so we gave up on the direct boat and booked speed boat tickets back to Laem Ngop/Trat (Leelawadee Speedboats via Makathane Resort, 450B 1hr). It blew a gale last night, so the trip up was a bit rough to say the least and took almost two hours instead of the usual 1. At the pier we grabbed a Song Thaew to the bus station (50B, 1/2 hr) and then a mini-bus to the border (120B, 1 1/2 hr). The mini buses go when full (10 people), we were the first, but we left after 10 minutes. Then came the border crossing. Nightmare.

We knew that this was one of the more dodgey crossings; a Cambodia Visa should cost $20, but here it costs 1200B ($35-40), so we sorted out an e-visa on the 'net before hand ($25). Apart from saving us $10 each, it didn't help - there was no quick queue or anything. Everyone needs to fill in an arrival/departure card on arrival (as in most countries), it's just that here the forms are kept by the border police in their windows, so you have to stand in the 'queue' to get one (or get a helpful taxi driver to get one for you), then there is the queue. Corruption is rife, so most people pay 100B per passport (a bribe) for some tout to give your passport to the border police guy who then processes it before everyone else in the queue. The 100B seemed to go directly to the police guy. The tout is normally a taxi driver and what he gets out of it is a grateful passenger. Pretty shocking to see it so open. I took down the name and number of a couple of the police taking bribes and will be writing to someone here about it. Sure, 100B (US$3) doesn't sound like much, but think of how many tourists come through each day and it soon adds up, and it's the principle - I don't pay bribes. In the hour it took us to get cleared, we saw 8 westerners not pay it and something like 20 pay it. Locals didn't have to pay and got priorty treatment anyway (they just get a couple of stamps in the passport, we get stamps + all details copying into a computer system). It works fine in most countries without the bribery, and if people would accept waiting in a queue instead of paying to avoid it then the queue system would work here too.

Anyway, after that we took a taxi into Koh Kong (300B). The driver took us to the Koh Kong Riverside Guesthouse (300B/$9, fan, hot shower), which seems to be run by the same family that runs the VET Bus company, so we've got tickets for the only bus to Sianoukville tomorrow (8am, 600B/$15). They'll give us a lift to the bus from here at 7am. The 4 bridges on the road from here to Sianoukville have only recently been completed, and it seems like they still haven't really got any idea of how much demand there is for buses etc... Only 1 bus per day (possibly 2, one with another company BET at 8:30), and it takes 4-6 hours depending on who you ask. Based on the amount of people staying here and that we've seen around town, they could easily fill another bus later in the day. But that would no doubt put all the taxis and mini buses out of business.

Previously there was a boat from here to Sianoukville for $25 that took 4-5 hours, and that was really popular in spite of dodgey safety. Unfortunately, since the bridges have been finished, the bus has put him out of business indefinitely.

So here we are, spending the night in the glorious metropolis that is Koh Kong, 180km and 6 hours after leaving Koh Mak (which is 60km from here straight line). The town isn't much, but it would make a good base for exploring this part of Cambodia. Apparently the nature around here is fantastic, and pretty much untouched so far - since the road is so new. I'm guessing that more and more local tourism firms will spring up in the near future as they try to make Koh Kong into a destination instead of just a stop on the way. There is already a dive company here. We don't really want to stay this time round, but if we pass this way again, we may just make Koh Kong one of our stops.

One weird thing with Koh Kong is that all the prices everywhere are in Thai Baht, and they seem to want Baht. You can of course ask for the price in dollars (or riel, the real Cambodian currency), but it seems that here Baht is the curreny du jour. Everywhere else in Cambodia you pay in riel for small things or dollars for big ($1=4000KHR). Strange.

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062. BBQ night, TK Hut	063. Final sunrise, Koh Mak	064. Koh Kong	065. Main street, Koh Kong

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