Koh Rong
— — a coast lit blue some nights by the water itself.
Not only on a wall.
“An island of white sand and shallow reef off Cambodia's southern coast, about twenty-five kilometres west of Sihanoukville in the Gulf of Thailand. Around seventy-eight square kilometres of low jungle and quiet bays. Through the dry season the water carries bioluminescent plankton, and the surf line glows pale blue under the hand on a moonless night. — from the studio
Koh Rong, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Koh Rong is Cambodia's second-largest island, covering roughly seventy-eight square kilometres of low jungle and twenty-three named beaches in the Gulf of Thailand. It lies about twenty-five kilometres west of Sihanoukville in Preah Sihanouk province, with the smaller island Koh Rong Sanloem to the south. Ferry services run from Sihanoukville's Serendipity Pier and take between forty-five minutes and two hours depending on the craft. The interior is largely uncleared evergreen forest; permanent settlement clusters at Koh Touch on the east coast and Sok San on the northwest.
The reef shelf around Koh Rong drops from clear shallow flats to deeper water within a few hundred metres of shore, supporting hard and soft coral and giving the bays their pale jade colour. Through the dry season, roughly November to May, a bloom of dinoflagellates makes the water bioluminescent at night; brushing the surface releases a soft blue light. The same plankton effect can be seen at a small number of other places in the world, including Vaadhoo in the Maldives and Mosquito Bay in Puerto Rico.
Most visitors arrive on the fast ferry from Sihanoukville's Serendipity Pier, a forty-five-minute crossing run by Buva Sea Cambodia and Speed Ferry Cambodia. Koh Touch on the east coast holds the main cluster of accommodation; Long Set Beach and Sok San hold quieter sand. Dry season runs November to May with calm seas; the southwest monsoon from June to October brings rain and rougher water on the western coast. There are no paved roads; movement around the island is mostly by boat or footpath.