Situated at the far west end of the slowly developing Cambodian coast, Koh Kong remains a fishing village inhabited by Thai and Khmer both. It's tagged for development (already underway) and is likely to become a Thai style beach resort and lose it's Khmer character. The Casino's are in place and multiplying, land is being purchased by foreign/Khmer corporations and by other wealthy Khmer. The road from Koh Kong east to Sihanoukville (Snookie for short), is new, little traveled and should have the bridges across two rivers finished now (In April this year we had to take the motorbike on a wooden raft to cross these waters). This is a pristine tropical paradise with a limited life expectancy. Already Chinese backed projects are constructing dams that endanger rare wildlife, including the Cambodian crocodile's habitat. It is likely that the coast will become privately owned beaches belonging to huge resorts, making access by the locals difficult to say the least. The Cardamom mountains have no roads crossing them yet and the trails taken by us few intrepid bikers are often hard to find and present wonderful adrenaline charged challenges. Especially when the bike breaks down meaning a1-2 day trek (wet season makes this especially thrilling, insects, snakes, leeches of course) to find a village (few and far between). Get there and see this area before it's too late! Photo album of "Crossing the Cardamom's" can be found on my Facebook site. This is an open border crossing into Thailand and buses can take you in either direction. There are places to stay and I'm sure these are more numerous in the last four months. The preferred currency is the Thai Baht or US dollar. A cross country style motorbike is my recommended vehicle of choice in Cambodia, minimum 250cc but more powerful if you intend to scale small mountain sides, make the climb to Preah Vihear easily, cross the Cardamom's...you get the picture.
