Qualla: Koh Kong

Koh Kong: Introduction

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1907 France and Siam traded provinces the way you might trade cards. Siam got Trat back; France kept Koh Kong. One clause in one treaty is the reason the town at the mouth of the Kah Bpow river is Cambodian rather than Thai, the reason some 48,000 people in this province were still counted as ethnic Thais a century later, and the reason a shopkeeper here will take your baht, your dollars or your riel and hand back change in whatever mixture happens to be in the drawer. Officially the town is Krong Khemarak Phoumin. Almost nobody calls it that.

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Koh Kong: The Treaty That Drew the Line

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

This coast was Siamese from 1795, and under King Mongkut the settlement was given the name Patchan Khiri Khet, deliberately mirroring Prachuap Khiri Khan on the far side of the Gulf. Then came the machinery of French Indochina. In 1904 France took Koh Kong and Trat in exchange fo...

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Koh Kong: Built for a Bigger Future

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Koh Kong has around 28,800 residents, and it is laid out as though it expects several times that number. The streets are improbably wide, the blocks are long, and the density is so low that walking between two errands can take a surprising while - most people hire a motorbike, an...

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Koh Kong: Nineteen Hundred Metres of Concrete

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

For most of its history the town's connection to the rest of Cambodia was a ferry and a promise. That changed in 2002, when a 1,900-metre bridge went up across the estuary for about US$7.2 million - still the second-longest bridge in the country, behind only the Neak Loeung cross...

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Koh Kong: Where the Mangroves Begin

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Step off the highway and the reason to be here becomes obvious. Peam Krasop Wildlife Sanctuary, protected by royal decree in 1993, covers 245.91 square kilometres, of which roughly 23,750 hectares is mangrove - a labyrinth of islets and channels recognised under the Ramsar Conven...

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