Koh Thmei Resort

Truly an unforgettable time and a perfect spot to step back from the world. The resort is as quiet and private as you can hope for, and with phone reception (from Vietnam!) only available in a corner of the restaurant, you get to enjoy being present and not glued to technology. The owners answered every question we had, and catered to food requests for different dietary requirements. A trip snorkelling was well worth it as the coral on the neighbouring island is beautiful and, again, extremely private to view. The rooms are wooden bungalows on stilts like you’d imagine as a child and were comfortable enough to stay in, but of course aren’t ever going to be Hilton hotels with air conditioning. Authentic and jungle-like is what you have, which was perfect for what was expected. Hornbills perch outside the room and you hear the sounds from the trees when sleeping or relaxing in your hammock. If you’ve ever dreamed of going to an island paradise, this is it. Would definitely return if I am in Cambodia again.

I loved the bungalow. The place is very isolated, only 7 bungalows in total, plus the staff. The owners are very kind and their Resort is very eco-friendly. They work hard to keep the beach clean. Unfortunately, though, the waters keep bringing litter every hour. The food was amazing, a bit more expensive than usual, as you would expect on an island. Just be aware of this extra cost when booking, as there are no alternatives on the island. Not many activities, this is a place to rest: there are many tabletop games, a guitar, possibility to rent a kayak. One can do a snorkeling tour on the neighbouring island by paying a small fee. There is also some hiking, but very short, nothing special really.

In summary: A member of staff took pictures of us changing, we got food poisoning, the hosts clearly hated us, but the views were lovely? 🙃 It all went downhill for us when we (both female) both independently saw a member of staff take surreptitious photos of us. While we were changing he was holding his phone at a weird angle pointed at us and when my girlfriend looked up, he whipped it back to a normal position. When we got out the sea the same man was sat at an awkward angle with the phone facing us, and then his phone was followed us as we walked across the beach. We were quite shaken but you can never be completely certain, maybe it was all coincidence? We felt we ought to tell the hosts so they could decide how to handle the situation, or at least be aware in case of any future reports. We asked for a quiet word and explained what we'd seen, but we were met with very defensive behaviour. They basically said 'no way, it's not possible, you must be mistaken' but they didn't give us a chance to finish explaining what we saw; Michael actually walked away while we were speaking! Kavita said she would look at the man's phone but then never mentioned it again, so I'm guessing she didn't. From then on both Kavita and Michael were noticibly less friendly towards us. It was so disappointing; we had of course been nervous to say anything about the photos but felt sure they would handle it well. Unfortunately their reaction was more like what you'd expect 20 years ago, and we were made to feel like we were the ones who had done something wrong. We understand it must be awkward for them, to have an allegation against a longstanding staff member, and we did everything we could to show Michael and Kavita that we weren't a threat, and to try and get back to the friendly place we were before. They just seemed to be softening, and the awkwardness lessening when I came down with food poisoning. We know I caught it at their restaurant because we'd been on the island for 4 days, and it's the only place to eat, but we were worried about breaching the fragile peace, so we were very careful to just say "I've got an upset tummy" and even "maybe I swallowed some sea-water"(!) to be clear we aren't pointing any fingers, but they still became very hostile again. After I'd spent a horrible night passing out on the bathroom floor vomiting, my partner went to the restaurant to ask for a little bit of sugar and salt to make a rehydration solution. Kavita was so rude that my partner came back on the verge of tears. They had been moderately unhelpful to her face but then switched to German to vent their annoyance and mock her! If they had made any effort to get to know us they would know my partner understands German! We honestly did everything we could to be model guests; we felt we were treading on eggshells, trying not to make them hate us more after our faux pas of mentioning the photos. We felt very trapped because they were our only source of food and our only way off the island, but I was too ill to leave any earlier. It began to feel like we were such an annoyance to them, and we had to psych ourselves up to ask for anything. There's no mobile signal and to use the wifi you have to ask one of them to hot-spot off their phone, which they will do only briefly. Towards the end we stopped asking because we couldn't face the irritation that came from the request. On the last day Kavita was very friendly again (as they had been at the start). It was very confusing, we never knew where we stood. The positives: -The island is genuinely gorgeous. It really is untouched, and so so peaceful. -It was really nice having that time with nothing to do but read in a hammock, collect shells, swim in the sea, go for a walk, watch the sunset... -The snorkelling was beautiful, we saw so many gorgeous fish. -The food was mostly really good, up until the point I got food poisoning! -If they like you, Kavita and Michael seem to be very friendly hosts. Just beware if they get the tiniest hint you might be unhappy about something!