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In normal style, Francisco had a brilliant, very last minute idea to stop at Koh Themi on the way south. After bedding down for the night at Banana Guest House, we catch a bus south and stop at a tiny town where a mass of tuk-tuk drivers swarm us, grabbing and fighting over our bags. We spend some time bargaining with them before hopping on the motor taxis. Arriving two hours early for the boat at a tiny fishing village which simply consists of shacks on stilts, we meet some local kids and spend a couple of hours singing, playing and taking photos with them. No adults acknowledge us, they are all very preoccupied mending nets and bringing in the catch. The water and town is shockingly filthy -the low tide exposes a mud flat bed which adds to the site but it's clear people here just through everything into the river. As a European it is really shocking to see this and makes me appreciate our environmental awareness; however I also understand that Cambodia has bigger fish to fry. How are normal people expected to respect the environment when the government has such disregard for it (and from the storied we have heard, also for human life)?
Koh Themi is a relatively large island and as part of Ream National Park, minimal development has taken place. Only one eco resort has been granted permission to build a very small development on the island, which consists of around eight bungalows and is originally named Koh Themi Resort. This is the sort of place that forces you to do nothing but chill out. The island population consisted of the lovely German couple who owned the resort, two young German girls helping out, five local Cambodian women who worked in the kitchen, three local guys who spent their time helping out when they were not busy becoming professional foosball players or embarrassingly loosing arm wrestling competitions with the German girls, a boatman, a hand full of couples on holiday, three dogs, who knows how many cats, two pigs, and a characterful pony! We were told around 40 other locals live on the island but we only ever seen around 5 of them. We spent 5 days living the dream in a bungalow looking out across the beach surrounded by dense, semi-tropical forest, only venturing out for food, walks along the beach or to watch the sun setting. No need to do anything but relax, enjoy it and get to know the lovely people here. It's strange how time flies on islands like this!
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