Tuk-Tuk-ing Around the Island

Early Wednesday morning, I went out for a run. From Long Set Resort, I ran left down the beach sidewalk, which ended in less than 800 meters. Then I doubled back and ran the other direction. There, too, the beach sidewalk ended quickly. I kept going on the sand, found a bridge to cross, ran up a trail, and found my way onto a paved road. I ran past some food and convenience store stalls, a pharmacy, a club (when on island time!), children riding to school on motos, and lots of trash. Sadly, we've seen piles of trash everywhere we've been in Cambodia so far. 

I joined Tim and the kids for breakfast when I landed back at Long Set. And, um, the coffee here...definitely not at Siem Reap's level. Tim and I ordered lattes instead. But breakfast itself was delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed looking out over the water while we ate.

We had hoped to take a boat and go snorkeling on Wednesday, but it was super windy and not a good day for doing so. The resort staff suggested we book an afternoon tuk-tuk tour around the island and we agreed. Since our morning was wide open, we booked Khmer massages for ourselves. Perhaps you're familiar with a Thai massage...it's intense. The Khmer massage is similar but gentler. At $20 an hour, all of us signed up for a massage. Taylor and I went first at 9am and our bodies were stretched -- hard. Then Tim and Wyatt had their turn at 10am. The massages felt wonderful and we all went swimming afterwards. 

Not too much later, Taylor started to feel really poorly. We headed for lunch, as we thought that might perk her up, but to no avail. She returned to our room for a nap and Wyatt and Tim kept on swimming. 

Shortly before 2pm, I woke Taylor. She was groggy but said she could do the tuk-tuk ride. Unfortunately for her, she felt miserable the entire afternoon. We kind of wondered if maybe the massage stirred something up.

We tuk-tuk-ed around half the island, visiting a fishing village, a resort on the other side of the island, a mangrove/ecotourism center, another village, and another resort where we kinda sorta watched the sunset. The two villages we walked through were extremely poor. It's been heartbreaking to see, not just on Koh Rong, but throughout our travels here; it feels like Cambodians have been abandoned. The government is corrupt (according to Transparency International, Cambodia's 2024 Corruption Perceptions Index score was 21 out of 100, where 0=highly corrupt and 100=very clean). It also feels like Cambodians are being exploited...I mean, just look at all the Chinese investment. I don't know; I'm just a visitor...but that's the feeling I have. If my good friend Liz is reading this blog, I defer to her; she lived in Cambodia for three years!


Climbing into our tuk-tuk! Wyatt sat up front with the driver. Tim, Taylor, and I were in the back.

Walking through mangroves at the ecotourism center.


At the end of the mangrove walkway. Was there a little food stall at the end? You bet. Because food and drink stalls are absolutely everywhere here. 


At some point during our tuk-tuk ride, we stopped at a pharmacy to get Taylor some ibuprofen. The pharmacy only had 400mg pills, but I still bought them. A packet of eight pills cost me $2. I'm thinking we should stock up on meds before we head home. ;)

This was the pharmacy. We're a very long way from CVS.

We learned our tuk-tuk driver was from Siem Reap but had moved to Koh Rong just three months ago for work. He has three daughters to support back home; he said the work is better in Koh Rong. He's not sure how long he'll be here. It was another reminder of how many, many, many people around the world do what they can to survive.

Our tuk-tuk ride ended a little after 6pm. Back at Long Set Resort, Taylor changed into pajamas and crawled into bed. Tim, Wyatt, and I played some cards on the beach and had dinner. We were in bed by 8pm. And it probably would have been a good night's sleep...except I woke up a few times during the night with an excruciating pain in the muscle above my right hip. It. Was. So. Bad. In the morning, we wondered...was it the Khmer massage?!

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