Sand Everywhere

  Sihanoukville, Cambodia
April 25, 2009

We were up at 5:30 to shower and pack. I had some shredded wheat, peanut butter and soy milk that we had purchased at Lucky last night. By 7 am we were ready to go and waiting for our pickup. The van collected us and made two more stops. We were taken to the bus station and boarded the Mekong Express and were on the road around 7:45. This is the most efficient transit company to date. They have checked our bags and given us tags, we leave on time, we get water, wet naps and snacks and there is a toilet on the bus. Impressive!

We were able to watch the Titanic. It was dubbed in Khmer, but had English subtitles. We were close enough, so we could read them. It was a good way to kill most of the trip. Sihanoukville is around 200 km from Phnom Pehn and the trip was almost 4 hours. Again, we were told that it would take 4 hours and it did. That is very impressive! After Titanic they showed Khmer karaoke.

We arrived in Sihanoukville around noon and found a tuk tuk for $4 to our Guest House, The Reef. Our room is pretty good. We finally have a bed that is not rock hard, a first for Cambodia, we have a/c and no worries about a shower curtain, the shower is in the middle of the bathroom. There is a pool and it looks pretty clean. The restaurant is Mexican, so I may try the food. I could go for some good Mexican food.

We checked out the tour office, Utopia, and our options for tomorrow are snorkeling or a boat/Ream National Park tour. I would really like to see some animals, so we are going to do the park trip. It will be $20 each and it includes breakfast and a BBQ lunch.

We walked down to SerendipityBeach and selected Dolphin bar/restaurant for lunch. We ordered BBQ prawns and lok lak beef (beef and black pepper sauce) with rice. Bill had anchor draft and I had soda water. The beef dish was OK, but a bit chewy and the prawns were terrible - bland and mushy. Another mediocre meal. Boo!

We went back to the room and "Suited Up" - bathing suit that is! We went back to the beach and started walking to Otres Beach. The beaches are lined with many bar/restaurants that have wooden lounge chairs and cushions along the edge of the beach. Many young tourists are occupying the lounges at Serendipity. The beach is also crowded with women carrying fruit and seafood on their heads to sell to the tourists, children are selling bracelets and hair braiding, other women are selling manicures and hair removal (I think??). It is very crowded here and as we walk further away at Ochheuteal Beach there are vacationing Cambodians sitting on the beach and playing in the water. There are lots of fully dressed people and lots of naked children (from one extreme to the next). I don't know how the women can swim when they are fully dressed?! During our walk we saw lots of garbage, some dead fish, a dead jelly fish, a few jet skis, and a couple of wave runners.

One stretch of the beach is empty. The map says that area is under development. we had to walk across a bridge, up a hill, cross through a resort and back down some stairs to get to the beach that was recommended by the tour operator. This beach is a bit cleaner, still lots of garbage laying around, and definitely quieter. It took us over an hour to walk here, so I am glad it was worth the walk. it is very breezy out and overcast. Figures we come to the beach and it is cloudy, but is still warm, so we went to Bamboo and ordered a beer and some water and used two of their lounge chairs. It is nice that there are very few people selling things here and we are not bothered at all. I started reading my book about Cambodia called "They Killed my Father First".

We hung out for a while and then walked along the beach back to our Guest House. On our way back we some some teen aged and young adult monks swimming in the water. They were really enjoying themselves. There had been some really dark clouds hanging around, but they have blown over and we did not get stuck in the rain today.

We stopped at the mini mart next door. They have some great North American snacks - chocolate bars, chips and a huge variety of pop - baked Lays, multi-grain tortillas, diet Dr Pepper, Snickers,... It is incredible! I was even able to find sugar free, Pokka, oolong iced tea.

It was dark when we arrived back at our place, but we were still in time for Happy Hour. Happy Hour seems to be a big thing here. Some places have Happy Hour around 5-7, then again from 9-11. Some places have free drinks from 9-11. I think this town is going to be very quiet in the morning! The draft beer was $1, so I had one too. We decided to have some nachos to test the menu. They were served with nacho cheese over the chips and they had been baked. One the side we had sour cream, guacamole and salsa. It was pretty good. We are going to have to have a meal here for sure.

I was really looking forward to a good Khmer meal and selected mama Cambodia from the Lonely Planet. We had to spend $8 on a round-trip tuk tuk ride because it is way on the other side of town near a different beach. We could not find the restaurant because it is now closed and is a trashy bar (the kind filled with young Cambodian women looking for "companionship"). We went to a French restaurant instead that was also in the book called, La Paillote. I ordered prawns with feta and rice. Bill ordered the beef with pepper. Bill had a glass of red wine and we had a bottle of water. I had 2 bites of my feta and scraped the rest off. It tasted like it was going bad. The prawns were not as bad as this afternoon, but were no where as good as in Vientiane. Bill's beef was OK, but not great. It was served with Shake 'N Bake style potatoes. The meal was $22 and was really only worth $10. Another disappointing meal, we should have stayed at the Reef for Mexican.

Utopia bar across from our Guest House was jumping when we returned. The music is the best that we have heard in SE Asia so far! Two internet cafes were closed, but the 1 near Utopia is open until 3 am. I am sure that there is a lot of drunk emailing done here!

We found down via email that Ally had been recovering, but then took a turn for the worse. The vet is recommending to put her down and we have agreed. Our poor baby. Bill and I are both pretty upset...