….And Sihanoukville revealed itself in all her splendor laying on the coastline of Cambodia, when we reached the top of the hill after kms of jungle and now ready to descend to town with our bus from Phnom Pehn, on schedule for a change.

What we did not expect, was a tropical rainstorm which took us by surprise this time of the year; the wet season in fact is officially over in October; but rain thoroughly accompanied our first day at the beach.

We pleasantly settled in a motel on the seaside part of town, run by a Turkish guy that fell in love with the village because it reminded him of his hometown. And then slowly realized that the amount of westerns blokes falling in love with Sihanoukville was way more numerous and due to two simple reasons: the attractive girls and the widespread Viagra.

The town, which until the 60's resembled to the French Riviera and luring rich Cambodian as well as French holiday makers, was founded by the king Sihanouk alongside the French as a commercial harbor on the Gulf of Thailand, which Cambodia was lacking of since the Vietnamese patronized the Mekong delta area. As a consequence a red light district was created to please the sailors mooring their ships here and it now feels that such free sexual attitude is still weaved in the town and being embraced by middle aged to old single British tourist that fly here to drown their sorrows in cheap beer and affordable sex. As a matter of fact, Khmer girls are genuinely beautiful and friendly, so no surprise it is full of dudes hanging around or semi permanently living here, and to top it all off the Cambodian government seems to be quite liberal in drugs matters, making easy to find marijuana or even opium compared to Thailand or Vietnam. I guess Viagra is as easy to find as well ;)

However don't be mistaken, Sihanoukville isn't a shabby sex destination such as Pattaya or Phuket in Thailand, and the a mix of- backpackers, couples, seniors, hippies, rich Cambodians - makes it a vibrant blend of energies, attitudes and personalities.

From Sihanoukville we decided to spend 4 days in one of the many gorgeous islands and atolls in the Gulf of Thailand. And we boarded a small fishermen boat with 8 other people to head off Koh Rung Sanloem where our destination called Lazy Beach was situated. Lazy Beach is a small beach with 16 bungalows immerged into the jungle and facing one most amazing place on these islands, Saracen Bay. We woke up every morning with the noise of the sea and the view of the bay where few fishermen hung around with their nets. The water was surprisingly clean for Gulf of Thailand standards although not the Caribbean blue you can find on the Andaman sea, however nothing to complain about and this place is very close to paradise!

It all started with this 35 years old Londoner (a former art Director at the Evening Standard ), that 4 years ago dared to apply for a permission to build bungalows to the Cambodian navy that officially owns the island and that is based at the South part of it. The authorization went through and this guy alongside with his business partner and a Cambodian family that helped them out, created this heavenly place reachable only by boat, surrounded by jungle and nothing else around. The owners are expecting to be kicked out soon or bought off by some other entrepreneurs, but until then they made their dream come true and at such a young age.

Life at Lazy Beach was lazy indeed, so we have no much to write home about in terms of activities. Nevertheless the beach was big and always empty so perfect to sport some Speedos, the bungalows were pretty and with a great porch with two hammocks where we laid most of the time and the food at the restaurant was glorious. Such an amazing experience was just ruined by the return trip by boat which was as rough as hell; the boat we were on was too small to handle the rough sea that day and we ended up holding our stomachs, breathing in and out deeply and praying our Gods not too flip over at sea. Mandy and I successfully made the 2,5 hours bumpy trip without puking and proud of it! Only one girl threw up on the side of the boat but my theory is because she ate a bacon sandwich before boarding. How can you eat a bacon sandwich for breakfast at 8 in the morning? Only the Brits can do that ;)