Sihanoukville
Trip Start
Dec 02, 2007
1
40
55
Trip End
Sep 01, 2008
Sihanoukville,
Cambodia
Friday, June 20, 2008
After exploring several local and not so local options, we settled on Sihanoukville in Cambodia. This was a slightly ambitious plan, that involved catching an early bus to Phnomh Penh, and hoping for the best when it came to organising onward travel.
As is becoming increasingly normal, the journey between two countries was a little more complicated than might be expected. The border formalities were nice and easy, but as the road quality decreased inside Cambodia, we heard a loud bang and the bus pulled over. Despite no problems with bus travel at all for several months, this was the second blown tire in weeks; we were hoping it could be changed rather more rapidly than in Nanning, China, where we waited a couple of hours.
We pulled off the road into a small village that gave us our first insight into Cambodia. The most obvious difference is in looks; the Cambodians are significantly darker than their Vietnamese or Thai counterparts. They are also more friendly, and this would be something we would come to really enjoy about the country.
Once the bus driver and others from the bus company had sweated and struggled through changing the tire (it is much hotter here) we pushed onwards to Phnomh Penh, where we discovered that the last bus to Sihanoukville had already departed.
Charlotte in the taxi
Fighting our way through the hordes of tuk-tuk and moto drivers, the four of us made the decision to hire a minibus to take us the four hours remaining to the beach.For a surprisingly economical fare, we finally made it to Siahnoukville. After a long, hot day, we were rewarded with dinner on the beach and a great view of the stars, retiring to bed tired but happy.
The following day was Chelsea's birthday, so we made some plans to make it a memorable one. We bought her a Thai massage to start the day (Charlotte felt duty bound to have one too), while planning her birthday dinner. After a day spent relaxing on the beach, swimming, reading and playing shuttlecock (a game we picked up in China), we met in our hostel bar. The hostel offers a service to cook a fresh seafood dinner, bought fresh from the market that morning, which was perfect for a celebration. We sat at our table on the beach, enjoying fresh crab, fish, king prawns and calamari, plus a drink or two, before the hostel let off the fireworks and brought out the birthday cake. Not a bad way to spend a birthday! We followed this up with rather too much overindulgence, which we were feeling on our way back to Phnomh Penh.
Overall though, despite a twelve hour journey to get there, and only one full day on the beach, we all agreed it was a worthwhile diversion before visiting Cambodia's must-see attractions.
