![]() They hired the former villagers as well as locals from Prek Svay on Koh Rong, a local fishing village just a five-minute boat ride away.įast-forward through six years of planning, building and personal setbacks – during this time, Melita was diagnosed with (and overcame) cancer – and the twin-island resort, now called Song Saa, which is Khmer for “the sweethearts,” finally opened in 2012. The Hunters moved to the bigger of the two islands to camp out and begin cleaning up decades worth of fishing nets – with the dream of one day opening a resort. ![]() That same day, a man named Vut, who was the head of the 65-person fishing village, came over to talk and asked, “Would you like to buy my islands?” The couple was a bit taken aback by the offer, “but we said yes immediately,” says Melita, and they made a deal to buy the islets from the villagers. But the moment they stepped onto the h footprint-free powdery-white-sand beach, “it was a feeling of euphoria,” she says. “It wasn’t beautiful by any means,” says Melita. On their first day out, the Hunters landed at a set of small islets that were being used as a fishing outpost. While they were renovating and renting out French Colonial houses, they heard a rumour about an area off the coast of Sihanoukville, the country’s main port town, that supposedly had incredible white beaches – and not many foreigners or tourists.ĭetermined to see it for themselves, they hired a fishing boat and set out on a two-week excursion to check out Koh Rong, Cambodia’s second-largest island – with few inhabitants and just four modest villages – as well as some surrounding islets. At the time, the Australian-expat couple had been living in Cambodia for several years. ![]() Yet nine years ago, even the idea wasn’t in the Hunters’ – Melita, the stylist, and Rory, a former advertising executive – wildest dreams. Leave it to a former “organic stylist” – who once created exotic natural backdrops for fashion photo shoots – to transform a rundown and overgrown fishermen’s outpost into a rustic-luxe private resort with its own charitable foundation and Cambodia’s first marine reserve. Song Saa Private Island (top) works with the nearby fishing village of Prek Svay (below) through its non-profit Song Saa Foundation.
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