Sleepy Sihanoukville

After two weeks of sightseeing in Cambodia we had had enough of the dirty, busy cities, so we decided to head down to the south coast town of Cambodia called Sihanoukville. Although this place sees a steady stream of international tourists, it is also a major holiday destination for Cambodians and therefore has retained a lots of its own charm and character (as opposed to becoming tacky and over-touristy). I wonder what it will be like in 10 years time?



At least for the time being it is a relatively quiet town - that is until the US Navy rocked into town! On our second night in town we went in search of dinner and stumbled across the US Seventh Fleet band putting on a free 80s revival concert not far from the beach. They actually attracted quite a crowd, although I suspect curiosity was a contributing factor. Needless to say, when sweet home Alabama started up, the US backpackers were in fine form - demonstrating the challenging art of beer dancing (this requires one to be very drunk and dancing very badly without spilling a drop of the beer in your hand).

We had a couple of good nights on the beach here. We found this great bar on the beach run by an english bloke named David who made it as far as Cambodia on a world trip and never quite found his way out of the country...18 months later he is still here. Best of all, this place had 2 for 1 happy hours. When a draught beer costs $0.75 US, happy hour is very very happy :) Despite my well known hatred for brendan's beloved liquid called beer, even I couldn't resist such a bargain - yes, I Kathryn Burke had a full night on beer! Can't say I am converted, but it was a hell of a lot cheaper than my usual cocktails. We also attended our first full moon party here. I am sure it was not a patch on the infamous Koh Phangan full moon party, but there was fire twirling, cheap drinks, loud music and loads of free shots....all making for a great night.

Like most of Cambodia, there was still a lot of poverty here. It was hard to be sitting on the beach enjoying a drink while turning down the 15th amputee begging for money - I think this issue is particularly personal and everyone has a different view on giving money to people begging, especially children. However, once the kids worked out that we weren't going to buy their trinkets, they actually just enjoyed hanging out with us and showing off their superior pool skills as we played a couple of team games.

One last noteworthy aspect of this town is the blatant drug industry. We couldn't walk more than a couple of metres along the beach without being asked "would you like something" - which stands for marijuana over here. A couple of places even advertised ganja vodka, pizzas, shakes, and hamburgers. No thanks!

After Sihanoukville we caught a bus back to Phnom Penh where we would stay overnight before taking a bus to Vietnam. This bus trip was pretty horrific. It involved bad Cambodian karoake blaring, a child playing with a mobile phone toy for 4 hours and the first dead body I have ever seen. The roads in Cambodia are notoriously bad and dangerous - we are not sure what happened but our bus passed the scene where a guy was lying in the middle of the road clearly dead. Police had taken the time to draw the white line around the body, but no one had thought to cover the body. Although I have enjoyed a lot in Cambodia, things are done very very differently here and I can't say that I am sad to be moving on.

Signing out from Cambodia, good morning Vietnam!
//Kate