A review of Sihanoukville (Cambodia)

Well I’m going to fast forward in time from my last post and bypass some experiences best forgotten: Bangkok with it’s theft and expense, Siem Reap almost bedridden with sickness for a week, going to Phnom Phen only to find the government is filling in the lake, it’s already substantially smaller than it was the year before.  But anyways, onward to good things: Sihananoukville

 I arrived Monday afternoon after only a few hrs in a relatively comfortable bus from Phnom Penh.  It’d only been about 4 hrs including the rest & “get made to feel guilty by kids selling fruit” stop of a half hr and I was feeling pretty good.  A moto driver immediately came up to me offering his services and after assuring me that we could transport all my gear (to which I was initially dubious as with all my photo & laptop gear I was carrying 4 bags) we were off.  I knew I wanted to stay near Serendipity beach as the guide book told me that there’s two main beach areas for budget m in Sihanoukville, one is the backpacker central which is the grubby beach just in from the port and the other is the much nicer and less crowded serendipity beach.  I knew which of them I wanted.

I was brought to a guesthouse a block from the beach and after being shown the large, clean room with private bathroom, furniture beyond just a bed and even cable tv for $6 a night I was sold.  Anyways after check in I wandered up the beach and although it was a far cry from the wide surf beaches of back home it was nevertheless also a far cry from Phuket.  It was relatively clean and the water, depending on how the light hit it could even be called clear.  I threw a meal down my neck and went for a wander.  Up by the end in by the headland I found a nest of bungalows all with balconies with their own hammocks looking out to the sea.  After enquiring the price and finding out the double bed ones were 15$ I immediately made a reservation for the following night.  That night I enjoyed a couple 50cent happy hour pints of beer and then after happy hour finished at tad a few more @ $1 a pint.  Stumbling back to my guesthouse a block away from the beach was only a few mins walking but I couldn’t help but think the the next night I’d be swinging on a hammock listening to the ocean.

And I was.  Been here for a few days now.  Food in the restaurants up and down the little cove here is generally brilliant and though more expensive than other places in Cambodia it’s still cheaper than you’d pay for the equivalent western meal in Thailand.  I go to sleep and wake up with the sound of the ocean lapping the shore.  Not a single day has been too hot in fact the weather has been beautiful.  Mild to hottish days, thankfully lacking the humidity of back home, quenched by afternoon/evening rain storms and lightning shows.  My only wish was that the water was a little clearer and cooler, you can’t jump in the ocean in the middle of the day to cool off a tad as it’s just very warm, no coolness or feeling of refreshment to it at all.

There’s only one way into this little beach headland and you have to walk up the beach to get here.  That means that everything I need, including internet and a range of restaurants is available before I hit a road, means no dealing with tuk tuk or moto drivers that ever seem to be hounding you for rides as in most other SE Asian locations.  Also for the most part there’s nobody trying to talk you into their shops or sell you things.  The odd kid comes past with the morning paper or selling bracelets and stuff but they are quick to move on when they see you aren’t interested.  It’s definitely a low stress place to stay.

It means I get to kick back in this little bungalow and really relax, check the net when I want to and eat when I want to without bracing myself for the string of “Atay Akun”s (no thank yous) that I’d have to deliver in the other Cambodian locations I’ve stayed at. And when I’m not doing that or wandering around the headland path for a view of the sun going down I’m in my bungalow doing some editing, or some writting, or reading a book swinging in the hammock with the sound of the ocean in the background.

All in all a very peacefull and serene place and a great one, I think to get lost for a little while…

From my balcony:

Phnom Penh - 11th December 2007

Decided on a bit of a change in scenery and so hopped on a bus yesterday morning to get me to the capital.  It was a reasonably painless 6 hr trip to get here and after fighting through the tuk tuk drivers to get my luggage I was rather surprised to hear my name being called.  Seems either the guesthouse or my driver from Siem Reap (who I ran into the night before) had called one of his mates and told him that a guy called Ben was on his way here.  It’s actually a pretty common thing - lots of the tuk tuk drivers were waving signs with the names of different passengers on.

Anyways I decided to entertain this industriousness and go along with him, if for no other reason than one tuk tuk driver is as good as the next.  I told him I wanted a guesthouse by the lake and he took me to a place known as the “No problem Guesthouse”.  Rooms are shabby compared to the previous place but they are a couple bucks cheaper ($4 a night here) there’s one hell of a view from the common area, they have some pretty cheap food,  and the straw that made this camel stay at the “No problem Guesthouse” - a free full size pool table.

That back deck is one hell of a place to chill.  As sunset was approaching a young boy in a canoe paddled up and offered me a paddle around the lake for $1.  Not much to argue about with that.  Once we got out there the cheeky little bastard tried get a couple more out of me, which I was going to pay anyways - he’s 10years old at the most and earning a living rowing folks around, least he should get is more than $1 for a half hours work…. 

 Here’s a couple shots from the boat and then of the sunset from the deck:

 

 

 

 

More temple shots

As promised here are a couple more temple shots - expect them to keep coming for a bit…

 

 

 

Angkor, What!? - 3rd December 2007

Ok, this is what Cambodia is all about, temple ruins.  They are touted to have the best temple ruins in the world and I’d have to say that I’d be surprised to find out that wasn’t the case.  Got myself a 3 day pass for US$40 which is a bit steep around these parts, but hey, it’d be a bargain at twice the price.  I’m told that there are many times more tourists around now than even only 2 years ago - tourism is exploding here and as such I feel quite lucky that I’ve gotten here when I have.  Sure there were other tourists at all the temples I went to, sure there were lots of them in total.  But there were also lots of temples…so the tourists do get spread out somewhat.  I imagine that in a couple more years they’ll be overrun. At the moment I was able to get MOST of the shots I wanted to get without any people in by just sitting down and waiting…sooner or later the scene that I was shooting would be tourist free and I’d grab the shot and move on.  In the future this simply wont be possible, there’ll be too many folks running around to ever get any empty wide shots.

One thing that really surprised me was the level of access you get to them.  These are thousand (some of them) year old ruins, I’m sure their value is near limitless, yet aside from the odd roped off section or sign warning you out of a dangerous bit you can just wander all through them, wherever you like.  If something like this were in Aus I can imagine there being a set route that you walk through without any chance to deviate and with the greater part of it sectioned off.

Anyways I’ve taken an obscene amount of shots these past three days.  It will take a long time to crunch through them but here are a couple edits from the first part of the first day, expect many more temple shots to come: