Sihanoukville

Sihanoukville is the beach resort town in Cambodia, actually it's about the only town in Cambodia on the ocean (with the exception of the village Kep that has to import its sand) so if you want some beach action you need to head here. Regardless this was the last place in Cambodia that I planned on stopping at before heading back to Thailand.

Sihanoukville was pretty nice and within 5 kilometers there were several different beaches that were accessible, most of them really nice. However the town of Sihanoukville has become very touristy over the past few years and anywhere within walking distance of the beach has been heavily developed for guesthouses, restaurants and bars; but if you head into the centre of the town there still is a large population of locals still living there (just no reason to head to the centre to see it).

Most of the beaches were really nice with the nicest two having to be Otres beach and Occheuteal beach. Otres beach was about 5 or 6 km away from my accomadation so I only ventured here once, while Occheuteal beach was a 5 minute walk down the hill from my guesthouse. The downside with Occheuteal beach was that absolutely everywhere was occupied by beach chairs from the restaurants and bars just off the beach so you were forced to sit at one place. Also the amount of beggars and people that came around trying to sell stuff was insane, you could hardly have a few seconds of time to yourself before someone came up asking if you wanted a massage or to buy a bracelet or fruit.

While in Sihanoukville I spent most of my time relaxing on the beach during the day (well more like the afternoon as I usually slept in most days) and most nights at one of the parties on the beach. The best part of Sihanoukville though was in the evening all the restaurants and bars along Occheuteal beach put out little tables on the sand and had seafood BBQ's for $3 with 50 cent draft beer, a perfect way to end the day and start the night.

Aside from lounging around on the beaches and partying all the time in Sihanoukville I also rented a motorbike for a few days and cruised around the town and the nearby country side. Checking out the surrounding area was pretty nice and the country side was very similar to that near Kampot so nothing much to do but it was still very enjoyable seeing all the locals out, most of them fixing fishing gear or kids running around playing soccer.

From Sihanoukville I boarded a bus to take me back to Thailand and to Ko Chang, a large island near the border with Cambodia. So this is it for the Cambodian section of my travels and I must say that it was quite a nice country (except for some terrible roads) although I was always amazed at how flat it was. Anyways more updates to come from Thailand, the land of smiles.