The Love Resort, Koh Rong, Cambodia

At the end of a long, rusty red, dirt road, we found paradise. But, as a good Catholic once told me, you have to work to get to paradise.

On the north side of Koh Rong island, a hot one-hour trek away from our resort, is where they filmed Survivor Cambodia's Tribal Councils and where we found a lovely deserted beach, our own piece of paradise. To get there, however, we had to shuffle along a soft dirt road and chew red dust for an hour. And we never were really certain we were on the right path because our photocopied "Survivor" map was so sketchy. "It takes faith to get to paradise," she said.

We met Vickie on our first day at Sok San Beach Resort. She was a young British tourist who was doing volunteer work with a woman's group in Siem Reap in the north of Cambodia. She told us she had hiked to the north side of the island and there was northing there but a stinking cesspool swamp. So we had put the idea of a hike out of our heads, at least I thought we had. I was actually quite relieved because it was so hot on the island and the beach at the resort was so nice. 

But then we bumped into Mike and Denise, two like-minded adventurous Brits who travel the way we do, slow and in depth. They had rented a motorbike and described an idyllic, deserted beach on the north side where they had been spending their days in peaceful isolation far from the madding crowd of our resort. The beach was deep and isolated, the water was calm and shallow. "You can walk out for a kilometre and only be up to your knees," they said. But even better, there is a "resort" that has cheap beer and a real wood pizza oven where they make a fabulous vegetarian pizza that Denise raved about.

Dead tree swing on the north shore of Koh Rong

"It's easy to find," explained Denise in her soft British accent, "take a right turn at our resort gate, then left at the intersection and just follow the road." Obviously we had to check out this little piece of heaven. So on our last full day at Sok San, we put on our hiking shoes and headed off, blindly following the "Survivor" map and Denise's "simple" instructions. In very short order, we found ourselves on Vickie's road headed for the dreaded swamp. So much for "simple"

Thankfully, Mike and Denise bumped by on their motorbike and waved us back onto the main road after we'd gone a mere 200 sun-baked yards.

For the next half hour, truck drivers and kind souls on motorbikes stopped us to ask where we were going and offered a lift. Unfortunately, they were headed the wrong way into the town of Touch, but they assured us in Khmer that we were on the right path. At least that's what we thought they said, our Khmer being limited to hello, thank you and good bye.

At a crossroads, one rusty red dirt road going left, one identical dirt road going right, we stopped at a small hut selling Khmer food. Of course nobody spoke English, they couldn't read our map and they didn't understand our pronunciation of the location we were aiming for, Tivak. Khmer isn't like Chines with its five tones, you see, but is guttural and I haven't yet mastered the nasal quality.

Luckily, Carolann had more faith in Denise's instructions than I did and we headed off towards the military base. Hmmm, have faith my friend!

Ten minutes later, Mike came bouncing back on his bike having dropped Denise off at the beach and offered to take Carolann the rest of the way. There is a god! I, however, was left sucking their red dust beside a marsh and wondering why they had so many crocodile statues on the temples in Cambodia. Have faith, have faith!

A very long, dusty 20 minutes later, Mike reappear with an empty rear seat and off we roared to join the two women on the beach in paradise.

And what a beach! A kilometre long and deep, with tiny crushed shells on hard-packed sand (not at all like the white power on the other side of the island). Shallow, with only small waves and warm as a bathtub. On either side of the beach, mangrove trees still grow and clean the water.

About a kilometre offshore, the owner has built a large platform on raised poles for sun bathing. You can wade almost all the way out, needing to swim only the last 50 metres or so.

Dead trees in the ocean

Strange looking dead trees stand in the shallows just off the beach. I never could ask anyone why trees would have been growing in the salt water. But the creative owner of the resort has turned one of the large trees into a water swing. What fun! Other trees onshore support more artistically carved bench swings and a large coconut palm tree supports a swaying hammock in its shade.

A few teak lounge chairs dot the beach, but when we were there we say only three young Germans frolicking in the shallow water. The resort is actually just a campground with a large restaurant. So essentially we had the beach entirely to ourselves to lounge, swim and read on the teak chairs.

A large heart-shaped bench is made out of wooden ribs from a ship. The wood is covered in barnacle shells that look like they've been glued on, but that's just the way they grow in the ocean. 

Under a gigantic, thatched-roof, outdoor eating area and bar are more wooden swings and 40 large, live-edge dining tables that are not only comfortable but beautiful as well. The roof and supporting beams are made from giant coconut palms, some over 100 feet long. They were put up by the owner himself. Passion fruit vines are being trained to grow up over netting that runs the length of the hall.

A family of good looking black dogs, that have been named by the owner, roam around the tables looking for handouts and petting. Our puppy was appropriately named Mike, like our British biker.

Surprisingly, given the size of the eating area, tours don't come here and the only accommodation is large family tents on raised platforms (like clamping) that are covered with large sail-like sun screens. A string of 20 clean, comfortable washrooms with showers provide the necessary facilities to the campers.

After a tasty pizza lunch and some cold beer, we had one more swim, read for a while and dozed until it was time to hit the dusty road again. This time we decided to let Mike enjoy the rest of the afternoon at the beach and we headed out on foot for the hot hike home.

The Love Bench

It was a long, dusty, one-hour trek back to our resort, but by this time in the afternoon the sun was casting long shadows through the palm trees and, while still hot, it was a bit cooler. I'll admit, however, that I was extremely happy to see our beach again and get back into our air-conditioned room. But, as my friend said, you have to work to get to paradise and you'll feel great after the suffering.