Walk less than 2 minutes straight up the road from Pier 23, past Blue Quay Pizza, across the small bridge to the first (only) road on the right. Bora Ran is a name lots of people living on Koh Rong archipelago are familiar with. A PADI scuba instructor since 2009, he has been involved in marine conservation since beginning his training in 2001. He is the very first Cambodian diving instructor of o
nly three to date. He is also one of M'Pai Bay's most experienced local hosts. When he found himself in the lovely fishing community at M’Pai Bay in 2004 he encouraged the village to get a proper school for the kids. He quit his job as a dive instructor in 2012 and started a new life in the village. Starting with one simple wooden bungalow and his own shelter on the land given by the community, he began a second bungalow, with a tight budget, finishing it 6 months later, in early 2013. For all the hard work, he has never been happier. He has a lovely wife, Paanny, and now a cute little girl, Thavin, to share his dreams with. His small home with the herbs, fruit and vegetables he grows around it is a real paradise. However, he has always known he could do better for the whole community and his country if he could enlist the support of good people; officially, physically, mentally and of course financially. A meeting with some good friends who share his passion; Jeerapong Prathomsup, Pong, an underwater photographer, Divemaster and the CEO of Spicyhostels and Pierre Kann, the second Khmer dive instructor and the owner of Reef Group, lead to the decision to extend his small homestay into a chill hostel with a large common area where we can hang out and meet like-minded travelers and locals. With a little help from Pong and Pierre and all the random materials from years of collection, the project started in July 2016 and construction is underway. Hopefully, we can get the hostel ready to run by the end of this month (Dec 2016) or at least this coming high season. Then we will have a 10 bed dorm, with 2 twins or maybe doubles in the attic, as well as a small bar and restaurant serving Khmer food cooked by Paanny and some cool drinks - especially those made with Bora's homegrown passion fruit. We are looking forward to seeing this place up and running and can’t wait to meet our new friends!
