Most travellers still picture Cambodia as a country of ancient temples, but its warm southern sea tells a very different story. I take you to Koh Rong, the palm fringed island that has just landed on a list of the world's best beaches, to show what lies beyond Angkor.
When people picture my country, they almost always imagine the same thing, the grey stone faces of Angkor rising out of the jungle at dawn. Those temples are magnificent and they will always be the heart of who we are, yet Cambodia is so much more than its ancient past. Turn south towards the warm gulf and you find a coastline of white sand and turquoise water that many visitors never even realise exists.
An island that earned a global nod
The clearest sign that things are changing came recently when Koh Rong was named among the world's fifty best beaches for the year, a recognition that placed our little island alongside far more famous names in the Pacific and the Caribbean. For a country still better known for its ruins than its shores, seeing Koh Rong on such a list felt like a quiet turning point in how the world sees us.
Koh Rong is the second largest of Cambodia's islands, and its scale surprises people who expect a tiny dot in the sea. Of its roughly sixty one kilometres of coastline, an astonishing forty three kilometres are beach, spread across more than twenty separate stretches of sand. Some are lined with guesthouses and music, while others are so empty that your footprints may be the only ones for the whole afternoon.
Getting there is half the fun
Reaching the island is refreshingly simple, which is part of why it has grown so fast. The gateway is the mainland port of Sihanoukville, where fast ferries leave through the day and cross the open water to the main village of Koh Touch in around forty five minutes. That short ride, with the wind in your face and the coast shrinking behind you, is where the holiday truly begins.
Koh Touch itself is a cheerful tangle of wooden piers, family run guesthouses and little restaurants where the smell of grilled fish drifts along the sand. It is not polished or manicured, and that is exactly its charm. Backpackers, Cambodian families and curious first time visitors all share the same narrow beachfront, and by evening the whole village seems to spill out towards the water.
Where the day slows right down
What I love most about Koh Rong is the way time simply loosens its grip. There is no rush to tick off monuments or catch a tour bus, so the hours stretch out between swims, long lunches and lazy conversations under the palms. You quickly stop checking your phone and start measuring the day by the position of the sun and the temperature of the sea instead.
The island has learned to do relaxation beautifully. Palm shaded beach bars line the softer stretches of sand, offering fresh coconuts, tropical juices and hammocks strung between the trees. It is the kind of place where you order a cold drink at noon, sink into the shade, and only think about moving again when the light turns golden and the horizon begins to blush.
Sand for every kind of traveller
Beyond the busy village, Koh Rong rewards anyone willing to walk a little further. Long Beach, known locally as Sok San, unrolls for several kilometres of powder soft sand with only a handful of low key resorts breaking the tree line. Walking its full length, with the jungle on one side and the shallows on the other, is one of the most peaceful things you can do in the whole of Cambodia.
A sister island and a quieter rhythm
Just across a narrow channel sits Koh Rong Sanloem, the calmer sibling that many travellers end up loving even more. Its crescent shaped Saracen Bay is a long sweep of pale sand and glassy water, backed by modest bungalows rather than tall hotels. If Koh Rong is where you come to celebrate, Sanloem is where you come to breathe out and do very little at all.
The islands also hide a small piece of natural magic that no photograph ever quite captures. On dark, moonless nights the water can glow with bioluminescent plankton, so that every stroke of a swimmer's arm scatters tiny blue green sparks across the surface. Sitting on the sand and watching that living light appear is the sort of memory that stays with you long after the tan has faded.
Growing without losing the magic
This new fame brings real responsibility, and the authorities know it. Koh Rong has been reframed as an eco tourism destination, a place meant to grow as a green island city that balances new hotels and jetties with the health of its forests and reefs. The promise is a version of tourism that lifts local livelihoods without paving over the very beauty that draws people here.
Whether that balance can really hold is the question every islander is quietly asking. More visitors mean more boats, more waste and more pressure on the water and the coral, and the mistakes made at other tropical hotspots are a sobering warning. Getting this right, slowly and carefully, matters far more than simply filling every beach with sun loungers as quickly as possible.
Beyond the temples
None of this means turning our backs on Angkor, and I would never ask a visitor to skip those sacred stones. What Koh Rong offers is a second chapter to the same journey, a chance to trade dusty sandals for bare feet and finish a temple filled week with saltwater and sunsets. Together the ruins and the reefs tell a fuller, truer story of what my country actually is.
So if you are planning a trip and picture only crumbling towers in the jungle, let me gently widen the frame. Give the south a few days, take that ferry across the gulf, and let an island teach you the slower, sweeter side of Cambodia. Beyond the temples, the sea is waiting, and it has never looked more inviting than it does right now.
Balanced view on Cambodia islands.
Learned a lot about Cambodia islands here.
Nice deep look at Cambodia islands.
My thoughts exactly.