Koh Thmei Resort

We spent a week on the island, and it was the perfect place to relax and unwind. Michael and Kavita, our hosts, went out of their way to make us feel welcome. Nothing was too much trouble. They have dogs and a small pony that we grew to love too. We were very grateful for their help with our travel plans, both getting to the island and for our onwards journey. We felt really looked after from beginning to end. Chris and Penny

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? 🙃||We had a very mixed time here, sadly I cannot recommend it. The island is absolutely beautiful, so peaceful and untouched. However we found the hosts (Kavita and Michael) were very hot and cold; at times very friendly and at other times incredibly rude and hostile.||It all went downhill for us when we (both female) both independently saw a member of staff appear to take surreptitious photos of us as we were getting undressed on the beach, and again as we came out the sea. The first time he was holding his phone at a 90 degree angle to himself, pointed at us, and when my girlfriend looked up, he whipped his phone back to a normal position. It could have been coincidence but it certainly didn't look good. When we got out the water the same man was sat at an awkward angle with the phone facing us, and then his phone was followed me as I walked across the beach. ||We were quite shaken but you can never be completely certain. Maybe it was all coincidence and bad luck, but 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. If she had checked and found nothing then surely she would tell us to reassure us?||From that moment on, both Kavita and Michael were noticibly less friendly towards us. It was a real shame, 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 annoyed, 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. ||Now 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. We do understand that food poisoning is a risk wherever you go in a hot country, and partly it's just bad luck that it was here. We really weren't blaming them. ||But they became very cold 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 add to my water to make a rehydration solution. Kavita was so hostile that my partner came back on the verge of tears. Kavita knew we were taking anti-malarials (which were for places we'd been earlier in the trip, you have to continue them for 5 days after exposure) and told my partner that she didn't know why were taking them and it must be those that made us ill! We'd been on them a month with zero GI side effects. She then switched to German to say to her husband "It's ridiculous, we're not in Africa!!" and then walked off.|My partner is a medical doctor who understands German, and if they had spent just the smallest amount of time getting to know us (as they had with the other guests who hadn't reported concerns of sexual misconduct!) they would know that before they mock us in 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 anything we asked them was an annoyance, and we had to psych ourselves up to ask for something because the reaction might be kind and generous or might be open irritatation. 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 negativity 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!

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!

When looking for somewhere to stay on the Koh Rong Islands we couldn’t find anywhere as it was such a busy time. We ended up going to Ko Thmei and staying at the one hotel on the island - Koh Thmei resort. it was a quiet, simple but amazing piece of paradise. No cars, hardly any people as only one hotel on the island, simple bungalows but all done so perfectly! The German couple that run the place do it so we’ll. the food is amazing, the bungalows are spotless, they have thought of everything. ||This really is a slice of paradise, we have traveled to many remote islands around the world but our experience here beats any other. I would totally recommend this place. If you visit the islands this one is an absolute must. |

We spend 4 days at this magnificant resort. We were welcomed by the kind and humble German couple who owns the resort. The one hour boat trip to the island is beautiful. It can be a bit tricky to find the way down to the boat pier in the fishing village but the owners were helpful with guidance and support with transportation.|This is the perfect place for relaxing and taking a break from the busy life. It is also an opportunity to be offline and enjoy a good book in the hammock, a swim in the beutiful ocean, lovely khmer food or a afternoon trip in the kayak. The nature all around is well preserved and we spottet eagles, dolphins and beautiful fish at our snorkling trip. |We higly recommand the resort and hope to be back one day!

Koh Thmei has changed a lot over recent years, deforestation and hunting have decreased the amount of wildlife that you can see on the island. While overfishing and sandwinning in the local sea have caused the island and its beaches to disappear. We stayed during the rainy season and were the only guests in the resort. We expected that we could go snorkeling and lay down on the beaches but the beaches are no longer there and the water is too murky to go snorkeling. This was very disapointing to us, because the owners told us by email that snorkeling was possible. Yet when we arrived we were told that snorkeling was not possible in the rainy season.||Our original plan was to stay on the island for 4 nights, and we had still planned to do as such when we found out that snorkeling wasn't possible. As it is still a nice place to be and relax. Things changed however when we discovered that money had been stolen from our wallets that were laying inside our bungalow. Since we were the only guests, we did not think that something like that could happen, especially because the only other people in the resort were the owners and one kitchen maid. |This made us feel unsafe and we lost our trust in the resort and the owners so we left early. ||We were even more disappointed in our stay when we realized, after leaving, that the change we were given after paying consisted of old dollar bills that no longer hold value in Cambodia and are thus unusable in the country. |We were unaware of that, since it was our first time in Cambodia and we found it out unexpectedly, which put us in a difficult and stressful situation.|We feel like the owner must have known that this money no longer held value in Cambodia since he checked the money we gave him thoroughly. ||All in all, we were very disappointed by our stay on Koh Thmei and we do not relate to the positive comments we had read about the place beforehand. Although we still think that it can be a nice place to visit in the dry season, it may be a place to avoid in the rainy season. |||

Lovely stay, friendly hosts, stunning views, great food. We read the story about money that was stolen. How???? Safe is available in each bungalow and bungalows are in sight as it is a tiny place. The owners deserve your stay and you wont be dissappointed. Wanna chill with friendly people? Go there! |And going to koh tmei and back, they arranged transport for normal prices.

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.