Destination – Cambodia
–
Sihanoukville – Sandy shores and cheap booze…
After 10 days
of walking, drinking, eating, shopping and talking about what we should do next in pleasant tourist-friendly Siem Riep, we take another 6 hour bus back
to Phnom Penh. We didn’t really have to
go back there but the “On the corner” Khmer/French restaurant was kind of
calling us, more like screaming actually. We stay for 2 nights, enjoying our
French/Khmer food and then take another 4 hour bus ride to Sihanoukville, in the
south, near the Thai border. The Orchidee Guesthouse is great, with a huge blue
pool, lovely buffet breakfast and very close to the beach and heaps of restaurants.
The weather is great and, with our books, sunscreen and hats, vamos a la playa!
The food is lovely all around (hello BBQ for $3) and the beach is quite nice if a bit
seedy, yeah, sexpats and sex weirdos also like a place under the sun.
We go for very
long walks and even longer dinners. We work on our suntan, read on the beach
and plan what to do next. After a few days we get a bit of monsoon weather, meaning
a lot of rain. So we take our time to read and watch movies, always keeping up
with our restaurant hopping activities. We walk all the way to Victory Beach,
where I have a spiritual encounter with a divine plate of chili crab. We also
have a lovely beach night BBQ. OK, the food is crap but the vibe is amazing and
the cold beer is just 50 cents, very doable. The sun is back now and so is beach
time! Anyway, we end up spending 10 days in Sihanoukville, just enjoying the
easy Cambodian pace before heading off to often tourist saturated Thailand. First stop - Ko Chang
