The three of us arrived in the seaside town of Sihanoukville after a short minibus trip from Kampot. We were expecting a bit of a tourist town centred around a few beaches, but we discovered something far more developed. Sihanoukville is like Ibiza, with dozens of bars, most Western run, serving up cheap beer and full English breakfasts all day and night. We stayed at a place called Monkey Republic for less than a London pint in our own bungalow with en-suite. We wandered down to the closest beach that afternoon, and were a little shocked; the bars all dominated the beach, stretching all along, and covering the sand in front of the bars with their own seats and sunloungers leaving pretty much no room to lay down between the end of the bar and start of the sea. If you bought a drink in a bar it was free to use the sunloungers, so we milked a couple of cans of coke and topped up our decreasing tan. Jen however fancied a bit of shade after a while and sat a chair away under a brolly, but this made her look like she was on her own and the ladies coming around offering manicure/pedicure/threading/massage wouldn't leave her alone! Was quite funny to a point, but when they perched on her seat and wouldn't listen to her firm "no thank you", she was forced to get a bit ruder to get them to go away. We sat down at another bar as the sun went down and enjoyed some 50c beers.
After some Western grub at our hostel bar, we decided to give the impersonation cinema (it was a room with a big tv rigged up to a network drive packed with movies) across the road and watched The Help.
The next morning the clouds didn't want to budge, but it was still bright and warm. We wandered around, played bananagrams in the bar, drank ice coffees and beer, and finished the day watching the sun go down on the beach again. A lazy day, and the most productive bit being Jo skyping Lou and her niece and nephews!
The next morning the sun had come back out proper, so we got a tuk-tuk to Otres Beach, about 7km away. This was a great move as it had some of the same style bars on a bigger beach, but nowhere near the number of people or sellers offering sunglasses/bracelets/massage/pedicure, and the surf wasn't so violent so you could chill out in the sea a bit more. We spent a happy few hours in the sun when a huge black rain cloud started to envelope the beach, so we went into the bar for grub. A little later we our tuk-tuk picked us up and took us back. It was Jens last evening with us, so we found a nice Italian place and had a few drinks afterwards watching some Olympics. I eventually managed to skype Vegas late that night too after a month of trying and failing.
We got up early next morning to see Jen off on her bus. She got picked up by a tuk-tuk, and there was very little proper 'goodbye', but we'll see each other in 2 months anyway, so no bother. She set off for the bus to Phnom Penh, and a flight the following day to Bali - a place on our original itinerary, but that was soon scratched off when we realised how far our money would stretch.
The weather was still a bit pants, so we watched some "How I Met Your Mother", played bananagrams, and went back to the bar showing the Olympics, where we drank beer for hours watching cycling, swimming, rowing and gymnastics. We finished off the evening by wandering down to the market for some cheap dinner with the locals.
We waited until morning to make the decision to stay or go as we didn't want to spend another day sat indoors if the weather was pants, and alas, the clouds closed in, so we packed and had brekkie where a dog walked up and peed on my bloody bag! That wasn't even the worst bit, as I then knew that other dogs would smell it and want to mark ME as their territory, even though I tried to clean it with Windowlene - the only thing they had behind the bar - and sure enough, first stop we made on the bus a german sheepdog was sniffing around me! Anyway, we were off and away, back to Phnom Penh.
After some Western grub at our hostel bar, we decided to give the impersonation cinema (it was a room with a big tv rigged up to a network drive packed with movies) across the road and watched The Help.
The next morning the clouds didn't want to budge, but it was still bright and warm. We wandered around, played bananagrams in the bar, drank ice coffees and beer, and finished the day watching the sun go down on the beach again. A lazy day, and the most productive bit being Jo skyping Lou and her niece and nephews!
The next morning the sun had come back out proper, so we got a tuk-tuk to Otres Beach, about 7km away. This was a great move as it had some of the same style bars on a bigger beach, but nowhere near the number of people or sellers offering sunglasses/bracelets/massage/pedicure, and the surf wasn't so violent so you could chill out in the sea a bit more. We spent a happy few hours in the sun when a huge black rain cloud started to envelope the beach, so we went into the bar for grub. A little later we our tuk-tuk picked us up and took us back. It was Jens last evening with us, so we found a nice Italian place and had a few drinks afterwards watching some Olympics. I eventually managed to skype Vegas late that night too after a month of trying and failing.
We got up early next morning to see Jen off on her bus. She got picked up by a tuk-tuk, and there was very little proper 'goodbye', but we'll see each other in 2 months anyway, so no bother. She set off for the bus to Phnom Penh, and a flight the following day to Bali - a place on our original itinerary, but that was soon scratched off when we realised how far our money would stretch.
The weather was still a bit pants, so we watched some "How I Met Your Mother", played bananagrams, and went back to the bar showing the Olympics, where we drank beer for hours watching cycling, swimming, rowing and gymnastics. We finished off the evening by wandering down to the market for some cheap dinner with the locals.
We waited until morning to make the decision to stay or go as we didn't want to spend another day sat indoors if the weather was pants, and alas, the clouds closed in, so we packed and had brekkie where a dog walked up and peed on my bloody bag! That wasn't even the worst bit, as I then knew that other dogs would smell it and want to mark ME as their territory, even though I tried to clean it with Windowlene - the only thing they had behind the bar - and sure enough, first stop we made on the bus a german sheepdog was sniffing around me! Anyway, we were off and away, back to Phnom Penh.
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