Party town
Trip Start
Aug 15, 2006
1
125
155
Trip End
May 27, 2008
Sihanoukville,
Cambodia
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
On arrival in Sihanoukville we were greeted by the usual chaos of tuk tuk and motorbike taxis trying to rip us off. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no bus and we were miles from town so after a lot of hard bartering from Ollie, we got someone to take us into town. Typically when we arrived they wanted more money but we stuck to our guns this time.
We decided to head for the area of town called Victory Hill since it was supposed to be 'the' place to go for backpackers and a vibrant area
Local man caught unaware by tourists
. What we found were middle aged men hanging about in sleezy bars looking for hookers. We found a room at the Chez Marie-Anne which was OK and played some pool in the lounge area then went and had dinner in a nearby restaurant. I had 'pannini' which turned out to be a crappy bit of baguette but the salad I had with it was at least decent. Had the usual game of scrabble before bedtime. Quite disappointed so far with this place.
Yesterday morning I went for a run to the Serendipity area of town which was much further than I thought and I had concernes I wouldn't make it back quite a few times! We packed up and took a moto taxi to that part of town and checked into the Lotus guest house. We walked towards the main part of town and had a pizza at the happy herb pizza ploace - Ollie wasn't too happy with it though so we headed to the beach and I bought us a 2-4-1 cocktails that weresupposed to be caprihnas but looked like urine since I'd asked for no ice and wanted to take them away from the bar which meant I ended up having to have them in plastic sandwich bags.
After some people watching and beinbg hassled by people wanting us to buy overpriced fruit from trays on their heads, young girls trying to persuade me that I needed a pedicure or some string bracelet and kids begging for money we decided to leave the beach and ended up at a guesthouse nearby where we found more happy hour drinks and played pool with some locals
Our comfy seats with the veg and motorbike
. After a quick shower back at the room we decided to head back out again and checked out a bar called Utopia which was a big backpackers hostel. We'd just missed out on the free pizza but managed to scrounge some dregs and ordered some food. We spied a pool table but you had to play as a team against the winners already on so Ollie suggested we have a go and somehow I played absolutely amazingly and I think we not only beat them but stayed on for a couple of games!
Down at the beach we wandered into a place called The Dolphin bar where we were offerred free shots of some dubious looking local whiskey called Meekong by a backpacker from Surrey (Siobhan) and her Aussie mate Hugh and found more happy hour cocktails. They'd been working there for a while to earn a free room, food and drink and use of a motorbike, and asked if we wanted to give them a hand. Who would pass up the chance to say they've worked in a bar in Cambodia-not us!
The bar was owned by a local family who seemed very nice and we soon learnt the ropes which were very basic - offer lots of free cheap whisky to encourage people to buy nice drinks, and give dirty glasses to a girl in the back who rinses them in a bowl full of soapy water
Careful!
. We helped Siobhan and Hugh drink some of the profits, ate some food and played pool - I ended up playing against the local lads and for some strange reason I was yet again a demon on the table and made lots of cracking shots. After about 12am, the bar filled up with what Siobhan referred to as 'Steve and Janes' - western guys with local prostitutes. The ladies seemed nice enough and were very chatty with us. We helped out until about 5am then went back to Siobhan's room for a bit before finally making it to our beds at 6am very tired.Today we vegged out watching TV and had a foot massage in our hotel (yet again, not all that great as they don't seem to make much of an effort plus both girls chatted to each other the whole time!). This evening we headed back to the Dolphin bar as we'd said we'd work for them again. As we were too early for the bar we helped out in the restaurant which I quite enjoyed and we had some free BBQ food and pizza. Just when we though Siobhan wasn't coming, she turned up about 10:30 with lots of silly string to celebrate her last night. We had a bit of an issue with a group of male Europeans demanding to speak to the manager and no-one else - turned out they'd been here last night with some female 'friends' who they took home with them and woke to find they'd been robbed. The girls had said they were from Vietnam but the guys wanted to know if the manager recognised them or not - no chance!
Tomorrow we are thinking of heading to Phnom Penh, despite telling the bar that we'd stay for a bit and work. It's been fun but not somewhere I could spent a long time at.
