Sihanoukville Mar 20-21

The best laid plans seem to fail if you don’t lay them in the first place. As we have done for most of the trip, we decide where we are going and what we are doing on a day to day or minute to minute basis. In this case, we decided to take the night bus from Siem Reap all the way to Sihanoukville to hang out on the beaches of Bamboo Island.

The Bus trip worked out well and the bus was one of the best we have been on in South East Asia. We arrived to Sihanoukville around 7:00am and found a room at a guest house that was out of the way (“You will like it here, there are many other old people” our taxi driver said). Out for breakfast on the beach and then left Tim swimming in the ocean – 75+ degree water. Karen and I wandered off to sort out the Bamboo Island accommodations. Unfortunately, there is no room at the Inn. Turns out the islands are better known than we thought.

Oh well, change of plans. We found two of our Argentinean friends (Alex and Flora) we had met in Vang Vieng, Laos. That evening we met for dinner on the beach, drinks and a bit of adult entertainment for Karen and I – an evening at the Disco (there was even a pool at the disco). It was great fun. The restaurant had candles on the tables, the ocean lapping at your feet and great seafood. Tim was happy; turns out the vendors sell Roman Candles as well. He enjoyed shooting off a three foot long Roman Candle into the ocean.

We spent the next day lounging on the beach. Unfortunately, Sihanoukville has gotten very touristy and reminds us of the beaches in Mexico. Beach chairs for hire, little bars everywhere and tons of vendors to pester you to buy anything and everything. Tim found the best way to handle the girls trying to sell him bracelets was to challenge them to a game of pool. He spent a good portion of his day playing pool against a bunch of the local girls who were about 16 years old.

As for Karen and I, this wasn’t really our style. We decided to move on to Phnom Penh and work our way to Saigon to visit our friends Blazej, Beata, Isha, and Bernard (a Polish family we met traveling in Cairns Australia).

This was the first time our seat of the pants method didn’t work out, but spending two days with Alex and Flora was great.

~Jeff~