Staying Long Term on Koh Trong

We have come to the end of our time on Koh Trong. During our stay we have been living in a rented house from a local family, Oum Ka and Oum Mol.

If you are thinking of staying on the island for an extended period they are keen to welcome more visitors and the house is available to rent. The house is located on the western side of the island, around 1 km south of the Chedi - there is a For Rent sign out front. There is no English spoken but should you need help some one should be able to find a translator to help.

Out the front of the house

Koh Trong has a very strong community and during our stay we have experienced fantastic hospitality and generosity - and you'll never be short of wedding invites. Fresh fruit and vegetable are abound and although the amenities are fairly basic if you're after a quiet place to escape to then Koh Trong is perfect.

Living area with two bedrooms to the left and right

Kitchen, cooking on wood and coal

The main living area, there are two small bedroom to the left and right

Famously sweet Pomello

You'll find fantastic sunsets on the beach, a 30 second walk away

Nando the cat

Biffa the dog

Koh Trong Map

The Koh Trong island map is finally finished and hanging at the visitor information hut once you've arrived off the boat from Kratie.

A map was one thing that we thought would be of great benefit to tourists visiting Koh Trong. The map shows the trails their distances, plus the location of the various sights, home stays, and community growing projects.

Measuring out the lettering with chalk

We began by salvaging a couple of old wooden shutters from Wat Tay Param Kbal Koh, in the north of the island. These were then cut to size, planed on the edges and joined together.

Mey Haing helping out

All of the details of the map are hand painted in fantastically thick and bright enamel paint and it took around 4 days from start to finish to complete.

Hopefully no spelling mistakes

Koh Trong map

The signs now hung to by the entrance to the information centre which is where you're able to hire a bike and other transport around Koh Trong.

Koh Trong visitor information centre

Bamboo Cafe

A new cafe has opened on the western side of the Island serving fresh coffee, coconuts, soft drinks and beers.

Bamboo Cafe is run and owned by Vanna and his family who also run a shop selling snacks and cooking ingredients.

It is a great place to stop if you are staying on the Island or just exploring for the day. The cafe is right next to a good spot for accessing the beach and they have put together a bamboo shelter to store your bikes while you rest. 

Koh Trong Ferry

The easiest and cheapest way to get from Kratie to Koh Trong island, other than to swim, is to catch the ferry. From the main river front road in Kratie look for the Jasmine Boat Restaurant which is located right next to the boat dock, then take the steep steps down to the jetty. The boat starts running around 6 am and the last boat is any time between 5 pm and 5.30 pm.

A one way trip costs 1000 Riel per person, a bicycle is an additional 500 Riel, and should you wish to haul down a motorbike it will cost 1000 Riel. Although it is possible to take a bike we wouldn't recommend it as certainly much better and easier to hire one from the information centre once you've arrived on Koh Trong island.

The journey takes about 10 minutes and the boat will run once it is full. This means at certain times of day the regularity can be a little unpredictable. Notably the journeys are frequent in the morning and late afternoon and less frequent during the very hot hours in middle of the day.

You can purchase cold drinks on the boat too, just look for the large orange cooler box - water is 500 Riel and soft drinks 2000 Riel.

The family who operate the ferry have several different boats; most frequently the small boat is used and a larger front loading boat is operated during very busy times such as Khmer New Year in April. That being said at present the large boat is in operation.

If you're unfortunate enough to miss the last boat in the afternoon you can always hire it for a private trip back to town for $10, or even better book into a homestay and enjoy the sunset and a quiet night on the island.

Breaking Ground

On thursday morning we set about getting the navigation and sight signs put in place. In the morning Vana, Sophal, ad myself toured the island and dug the holes at the locations that had been approved by Mr Bun Ban. Then after a three hour siesta a tough little horse bore the burden of transporting the signs to their locations where they were set in place.

Small pony on a small island

Refuelling

The process was relatively straight forward and despite the rather hard earth all the signs were put in place that day. At the end of the day the team enjoyed a well deserved coffee at Koh Trong Cafe.

Vana packing the earth back in

Finally Koh Trong has signs

Signs For Koh Trong - Update

Following our meeting with Mr Bun Ban we have been busy finishing off the first round of signs for visitors from Kratie to Koh Trong.

We now have signs for directions on each of the four corners, KM markers, and signs for the two Wats, the Chedi, Beach, View Point, the Vietnamese Temple, and the Floating Village. Oum Ka kindly started his generator, hooked up his electric drill and helped us prepare the signs so they'll be easy to put up.

We had arranged for some posts to be delivered to start the process of erecting them around the island. Howvever it seemed that something was lost in translation and an ox-cart unexpectedly turned up a day ago carrying 8 large 2.5m tree trunks! So in order for these to be useable they will need to be  sawn in half down the trunk and stripped of bark.

Home delivery service on Koh Trong

These will next need to be painted 'eco' green and then we're ready to tour the island with a work crew who (after site approval from the government) will set them in place and secure the signs.

It's our hope to move onto another round of more specific signs and information boards next so it'll be a great motivation once these ones are finally in place. So stay tuned for more updates on the project.

Biffa keeping guard

Fishing on Koh Trong

Fishing happens every day on Koh Trong, nets and lines are cast out into the Mekong along the waters edge. A less common occurrence is the opportunity to fish in the ponds dotted around the centre of the Island. This is not your regular pond fishing and there is no sitting for hours waiting for a fish to take the bait. Here you dive right in, mud knee high and poised ready to pounce on the first fish to make a dash for freedom. 

The water is first emptied using a pump attached to a generator into an adjacent pond. Once the levels are low the pump is switched off and the water is emptied one bucket at a time to reveal the thick mud at the bottom. The fish are Snakehead fish which like to bury themselves into the mud. The team dig away into the bottom of the pond using their hands hoping to grab onto a fish.

Spotters are dotted along the edges of the water ready to shout as soon as they see one escaping, the fish are quick but no match for the team who work together to flush them out. There is a lot of shouting, a lot of laughing and a lot of mud.

Once water has been emptied, it is returned from the neighbouring pond and the process is repeated in reverse in order to catch as many fish as possible. Soon bags and tubs are filling up with fish of all sizes. At the moment they look like muddy eels but after a day spent in clean water they are ready for selling and cooking.

The fish are sold on Koh Trong and go for around 15,000 Riel per kilo for the larger ones so it's a good way of earning some extra money for the farmers.  

Koh Trong Cafe

On the west side of Koh Trong there is a cafe selling cold drinks, coffees, coconuts, and fried noodles. Koh Trong Cafe opened in 2013 and it continues to sell small household items and petrol among other things.

Welcome to Koh Trong Cafe

Well stocked shop

The cafe is a really nice spot to rest whilst on your journey around the island with a large shaded area and plenty of seats. There are even hammocks, a WC, and an English menu. There are three dogs who live at the cafe, all named KiKi as well as many roaming chickens and chicks chirping away.

The cafe is run by the very friendly Mrs. Wan Thou who makes a very good strong coffee!