In my last place of visit in the poverty stricken country of cambodia, and it seems as though it's the worst. generally travellers refer to their 'lonely planet' guides as "THE BOOK" and "THE BOOK" said this would be a nice retreat from the insanity and depression of phnom penh, the capital and home to the genocide museum and the killing fields. a retreat from the craziness of fitting in as many temple visits as you can during the alotted time in siem reap. i found no such thing here, really....
i arrived hungover, that much didn't help any. the place we were told to stay at by a few sources turned out to be a bust or at least landon really hated it. the next day we got a bungalo much cloer to the beach for a little more money. i really enjoyed the idea of chilling at sunset most days (happy hour! .50cent beer) but that proved to be not quite... happy... hour... or happy anything for that matter.
like i said... no bleeding hearts welcome here. swarms of children that want to make you bracelets and if you deny them they heat up pennies on a candle flame and try and burn lincolns' face into your knee, or tug at your girlfriend's munroe piercing painfully etc etc... makes you want to slap them upside the head if it weren't for... well...
and sihanoukville is seemingly full of perverts and refreshingly i felt pretty invisible next to anything that didn't have a penis. and poor souls that they are, the amputees that you feel terrible for that you find at every corner. i don't know. "THE BOOK" said it would be relaxed here, but it's been anything but unless you count just relaxing in your own guest house. it seemed this 'paradise' is just a catch. you can relax if you're able to ignore the poverty that completely envelops you.
....right.
and i use the term "paradise" loosely as the beaches and the ocean are completely lettered with everything from plastic bags and plastic water bottles to used diapers and condoms and human feces etc...
now now, it's not all that bad. it's probably the warmest ocean i've ever been in. and the last few days i entered said ocean the waves were fantastic and it was likely the most fun i've had in sihanoukville.
downsides, aside from the paragraphs of aforementioned... include getting my first notable sunburn in asia and having my beloved flip flops stolen from the front porch of my bungalo on the middle of the night.
anyways... that's pretty much sihanoukville in a nutshell. i entered cambodia feeling pretty good about it but i guess i have a sour taste now. all in all really did like cambodia though... now i look forward to cooler climates, relatively, in the north of thailand. chiang mai, here i come!
