About This Guide

This guide wasn’t written from a desk on another continent. It comes from three months of actually staying and living in M’Pai Bay — the small fishing village on Koh Rong Sanloem that locals still call Village 23.

What was meant to be a short stop became a season. Three months is long enough to learn the village properly: which paths lead where, when the ferries actually run versus when the timetable says they run, where to eat when the power cuts out, which beaches are empty at sunrise, and — most importantly — the people. The guesthouse owners, the boat captains, the families who have lived here since long before the first backpacker arrived. This site is built from that firsthand knowledge, not from other websites.

M’Pai Bay doesn’t have a marketing budget. The guesthouses, restaurants, and dive shops here are small, mostly family-run businesses — and reliable information about the village is scattered, outdated, or buried under content written by people who have never set foot on the island.

This site exists to fix that: to help boost local tourism and put M’Pai Bay on the map. Every page has one goal — make it easier for travellers to find the village, get here without confusion, and spend their money with the local people who make this place what it is.

Firsthand information. Everything here is based on time spent on the island — walking the paths, riding the ferries, talking with the people who live and work in the village.

Honesty about change. Island life moves fast — schedules shift, places open and close. When something here is out of date, we want to know: tell us through the contact page and we’ll fix it.

Ferries, budgets, and everything you need to reach Village 23 — it’s all in the planning guide.