Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Cambodia – Sihonoukville
Friday 20th November
The bus arrived in Sihonoukville about 7am. Tired from just waking up we stumbled of the bus to find a mob of Tuk Tuk drivers hounding everyone. As usual the bus had dropped us off outside of the town so you had no choice in getting a Tuk Tuk!!! We finally picked one of the drivers and asked him to take us to a place we were recommended called “cloud 9” off we went….10 minutes later we stopped outside this massive place called “GST” funny enough we found that pretty much everyone from the bus also got dropped of here, obviously some commission for the drivers!!! We asked to view one of their rooms however it was too early and they were still full, we sat down in there restaurant area and had some breakfast until we could see a room. The place wasn’t very nice, it was a huge layout with rows of rubbish made tin bungalows. We viewed a room as they were only $6 per night, but it was horrible. It had a broken mirror in it and generally wasn’t very clean. We decided to skip this place and continue looking elsewhere. Off we trotted down the road, 50 meters down the road and pretty much opposite the beach was “Motel 7” a brand new building which had only been open a month. It looked really nice from the outside, it resembled the style of an American Motel. The rooms were lovely too, 2 double beds, ensuite and a TV with cable. They were a bit pricier at $12 so we said that we would keep looking and maybe come back, the minute we said that the guy offered it to us for $10. We had set this at our maximum to spend to we happily said yes to the room.
Once we settled in it was still pretty early in the morning, too early for the beach!! We decided to have a look around the town. It was an easy place to navigate as it wasn’t very big, what we liked the best was the fact that the place was still undeveloped. Unlike most beach resorts it didn’t have all the rows of touristy shops, bars and restaurants. There were some but they were all more local run places, it had a lovely feel to the place. Around 11am we decided to head down the beach. The beach was literally a walk across the road and we were there, it was lovely. Just like a mini paradise location. The beach itself wasn’t very big and it was very narrow, the sea was at the end of your sun loungers. We walked along until we found a quieter area, found our spot just outside a beach bar called “Banana Rest Bar” the sun loungers were free on the provider that you brought drinks or food at their bar. It was lovely to have the sea so close especially when you were roasting from the sun, all you had to do was sit on the edge and dunk your feet in to cool down!! The only downside to the beach was all the hassle you got from the locals selling stuff, it was either children selling bracelets or women selling fruit or offering to give you a massage or pedicure/manicure!!! At first we got hounded all the time but the more we said no to them the more they would leave you alone. Around 5pm we left our loungers and had a walk further up the beach, about 3 bars along we found “Muesli’s” bar. We go drawn into this place as the beers were only 50 cents, it also had a pool table and was a great place to chill out in its comfy lounge chairs. Here we got talking to a few guys, one English guy who was living in Amsterdam. The other guy was from Finland, we named him Music man as he produced music in his country. He was actually having one of his songs released that week, he exclusively let us listen to the song. Obviously it we couldn’t understand the lyrics but the song was really good!! It was here where we met “Sokha” he was one of the local kids offering to make & sell you bracelets. He was really sweet though, we didn’t buy anything off him but he still stayed and chatted to us. We asked him why there were so many children selling stuff on the beach when really they should be at school. We soon learned that their parents send them out to sell stuff to help cover the cost of living and to send them to school. Sokha told us that many of the children go to school between 7am – 11am then they would be sent down the beach for the rest of the day, some of the children were not lucky enough to go to school so would work on the beach from 8am – midnight most days. It is really sad however you’re not encouraged to buy off the children as the local government want to get them off the streets and into schools. Sokha can only go to school when his mum can afford it, he told us that it cost $15 for a school term. It was sad to hear how desperate he was to go to school, especially when we know how bad the children treat school back home!!! He said his main wish would to go to school every day and be there from 7am – 5pm, talking to him really taught us a lot about their culture and how different it is for them. After talking to Sokha we headed back to our room to have a shower before heading out for dinner. We enjoyed a BBQ feast for $5…it was delicious.
Saturday 21st November
Headed straight for the same spot as yesterday outside the “Banana Rest Bar” . Laid our towels out on the sun beds before sitting inside to have some breakfast. As soon as we laid on the sun beds the hassling began, a lot of the women recognized us from the day before so they weren’t too bad. The children were obviously still at school so there wasn’t too many of them around yet. It didn’t take us long to cave into one of the women, she seemed different to the others so we asked her how much to give Ryan a pedicure, we agreed on $3 and she did a fantastic job. She then started offering to do mine, but I had my nails painted so wasn’t interested. She then noticed that my legs were hairy (I hadn’t shaved for a few days…oopps) she then offered to thread the hairs!!!! I was intrigued so I let her do a small patch on my leg, it was brilliant so I agreed for her to do both legs but only the bottom half!!! All it consisted off was a bit of cotton thread that she used to thread the hairs out, it took her a good hour and a bit to remove all the hair. I must admit it was pretty painful at times…reminded me why I never have my legs waxed!!! It was well worth it though, my legs were smooth as a baby’s bottom!!
We finished the afternoon off at “Muesli’s” enjoying a few chilled beers. Sokha came into the bar again, this time we agreed to let him make us some bracelets. We both got him to make us the bracelet with the Cambodian flag embodied into it. It took him a good hour to make them so we treated him to a banana shake…you should have seen his little face. He was so chuffed by it and you could see how much he enjoyed it. This didn’t stop him trying to get more money for the bracelets than they were actually worth though, the cheeky thing!!! We agreed on $2 for 3 bracelets in the end. Soon after Sokha leaving we had another kid approach us wanting to sell us something, we said no and offered him to play Ryan at a game of pool instead. The boy agreed to play on the grounds that if he won then we would buy something and if Ryan won then we didn’t have to buy anything!!! We both thought this would be easy as the boy was only about 5 years old and Ryan is pretty good at pool, we though our dollars were safe….we were so wrong!!!! The boy kicked Ryan’s butt, within 10 minutes he had potted all his balls and Ryan still had about 4 balls still on the table. The game of pool in total cost $1 to buy a bracelet and $1 for a sprite!!!! We quickly left the bar before any more kids robbed us for more money, they didn’t quite understand that we were backpackers and unlike holiday makers didn’t have a lot of money to spend. For dinner we found a bar called “The Dolphin” right on the beach front, we enjoyed a BBQ dinner and a beer all for $3….Bargain!!! Tonight we let our hair down a bit and enjoyed a mini beach bar crawl….well for 50 cents a beer it would be rude not too!!!!
Sunday 22nd November
Had a good lay in today due to our late night, weather wasn’t great so we decided to have a rest from the beach. There was still some of the town in which we hadn’t explored yet so we spent most of the afternoon doing this. Walking around seeing the different places around, we stumbled across a children’s centre which was a charity set up to help the children and keep them off the streets. Each morning the staff of the centre would go to the beach at 8am and invite the children to the centre where they could spend time painting, drawing and learning. It wasn’t a school but it helped and encouraged them off the beach selling stuff and gave them the opportunity to learn. The paintings are then on show daily for visitors to buy, for each painting sold the money then goes to the children and their families. After looking around here we enjoyed a few fruit smoothies in “Monkey Republic” a very popular Western run bar!! We have discovered fruit smoothies and fruit shakes…there refreshing and delicious!!! Once showered we went looking for somewhere to eat, we were both feeling in the mood for pizza and luckily enough we walked passed a pizza place “happy hour” 3 pizzas for 2!!!!! We tucked straight in and enjoyed a Hawaiian, Bolognaise and pepperoni Pizza…yes we ate the whole entire lot!!!! The most we had eaten since leaving England…Asia’s food portions are small!!!! Discovering the bolognaise pizza was amazing, you should all try one it was delicious. We were then so full we had to go for an hour stroll to walk some off. We then sad to say headed back to our room to watch “Twilight” star movies were showing a preview of the film…for all of you twilight fans I’m sure you will back me up on this decision!!! Ryan wasn’t too impressed however he did enjoy it hehe!!!! It was then time to turn the channel over to ESPN sport channel for the Spurs Vs Wigan….what a fantastic game!!!! Final score 9-1….come on you spurs!!! We both wished we were at the Lane that night.
Monday 23d November
We loved Sihonoukville so much we decided to stay an extra day. So we spent the day down the beach at our favourite spot outside Banana Rest Bar. By now most people recognised our faces so the hassling wasn’t too bad today. We enjoyed topping the tan up, lunch on the beach and swimming in the bright blue clear water. After a good 4 hours in the sun we decided to give it a rest and head to “Mueslis’” where we enjoyed some cool beers and some fresh pineapple from one of the fruit ladies. It’s fascinating to watch then cut the whole pineapple up right in front of you…it was scrummy! During the day the lady who gave us our pampering time the other day kept approaching us asking us if we wanted anything else. I finally gave in and let her do a pedicure on me, providing she changed my nail varnish!!! She even buffed my hard skin away hehe…all for $4 my feet looked the prettiest they have ever looked. We said goodbye to the guys who ran the bar, all brothers. In total there were 6 of them plus their little brother “Jimmy” who must have only been 10 but worked very hard entertaining the guests!! In the evening we headed to the beach bar “Dolphin” for our $3 BBQ feast. Early night due to our early pick up tomorrow….of to the capital Phomn Phen.
- comments