It took around 3 hours to reach Sihanoukville from Kampot, It was a cramped affair and Kirsty wasn't feeling too good throughout the journey, luckily enough she was at the front otherwise I reckon things would've gotten messy!
We'd organised a host for around a week, we couldn't meet them until the afternoon so with our big bags we headed to the beach. The town itself seemed pretty dead, a lot of casinos, large Chinese restaurants and resorts, with a small strip leading to the beach and pier. There was a lot of choice around for food and plenty of bars as well! The beach named Serendipity was full of bars with there ugly and unnatural parasols, the sand was warm and golden plus the ocean was one of the bluest we'd seen, after being hassled by all of the bar staff from every bar to take a seat, and with there being no real place on the sand because of the sun loungers, we took them up on their offer, with the gentle sound of the calm waves crashing, we sat soaking in the sun with a couple of beers. After some food it was time to meet our hosts!
Host
To keep things simple we jumped in a tuk tuk to reach them, he took us down a typical, dodgy looking Khmer dirt road, after passing some shacks and other run down looking properties we reached a modern, fancy looking hotel and waited for our hosts to meet us. Our hosts were a well travelled French couple from Paris, in their early thirty's who decided to leave their 9 to 5 jobs and set up a French themed bar/restaurant out of their large lake side back garden. The house was only a few years old and our room was one of luxury. Matty and Nini were really welcoming and friendly, we could tell from the get go that we were going to get on well with them! In exchange for around 3 hours a day, we'd get breakfast and lunch, then for dinner we sort ourselves out, which worked well because there were a lot of places along the strip we wanted to try! We did a number of different jobs with/for them, starting with a big clear out of the garden, weeding, clearing and levelling out areas and transporting rocks to the dirt road to try and level it out. One of our main jobs here was working with pallets and turning them into furniture; this was fun and I feel like we gained useful knowledge to do something similar when we get our own place!
After sanding down and painting the pallets we helped put them together, making a reception desk and three 3 seater benches! Just as we were settling in nicely, it was almost time for us to leave, however we said we didn't mind staying for longer and extending our visa (an extra month cost us a whopping $55 each!) and asked if they wanted us to stay.
After saying yes it was time to head to the paradise island of Koh Rong Samloem for Kirsty's Birthday (Please read our future post for more details!). Upon our return the project for them really started snowballing, builders had started making plans, documents were signed and they began working almost immediately! Work for us also continued with some more work on the pallets, deep cleaning and painting inside the house, and some grammar and translating assistance for the menu. We also helped set up an AirBnB listing as well as some more road repairs with brute force smashing of rocks, digging and levelling off large areas of the garden and treating dozens of wooden beams! It was a relaxed work atmosphere and we were giving a number of days off to explore the area well! The food they cooked for us was always delicious and plentiful, they catered for Kirsty's Vegan needs with no dramas also! The builders were making steady progress when we left, the garden was transforming rapidly. After around 3 weeks, were sad to leave, it was a great project to be a part of, we left a little gutted we weren't going to be there to see the end result! It was great to be hosted by a younger couple, we had a lot in common and feel we parted with two friends!
Spare Time
Eating and basking on beaches! On a couple of occasions we ventured to the hippy side of town and the beach of Otres, we pretty much just explored the area (there wasn't too much to do in the surrounding areas other than a small viewpoint and a couple of different beaches), most of the time we went to a quieter beach named Sukha, with no beach bars and brightly coloured umbrellas, it was the perfect place to relax and observe the amazingly orange sunsets before grabbing some cheap food (usually a burger or a traditional curry), maybe a smoothie then relaxing in the evening!
The beaches were always relatively busy, however it was easy to find a quiet spot beyond the litter and the abundance of animated Chinese tourists! The golden sand beaches redeem the tired looking town of Sihanoukville, there were a lot of construction projects and developments going on when we were there, mainly huge casino hotels and nature spoiling, sky scraping resorts, however it's still a popular place to visit and a gateway to some picture perfect islands! We sometimes went out for a few drinks, one bar in particular had live music and a good atmosphere, this poster littered sports bar 'The Big Easy' was always full of fellow travellers! On a couple of occasions we had a few drinks indoors with Matty and Nini, we managed to source some home brewed Khmer Whisky which was bitter, but dirt cheap! On our last evening we all went out for a meal and a few drinks, it was a good way to cap off a great stay with extremely accommodating hosts! We said our goodbyes and made the short journey to the laid back, hippy side of town in preparation for my birthday celebrations!
Otres for Ricky's Birthday
After parting Matty and Nini's we took a short tuk tuk ride to the hippy, and underdeveloped side of town, before going to a luxury bungalow (it's not often we treat ourselves to such luxuries) we had to find a room for a couple of nights. This is usually a simple task however it was a Cambodian national holiday so it was a nightmare trying to find a cheap room! After over an hour of constant rejection we found a ramshackle little bungalow
(not the cleanest either, with a musty smell and a mosquito net that looked it lost a fight with a blender!), it was $10 a night which was expensive in comparison to other better quality places. After a bit of spit shine cleaning from the middle aged, eccentric, bearded but friendly member of staff, we settled in. The shabby but quirky huts sat next to a live music bar named 'Stray Cats' which was really cool of an evening, the open mic was occupied by some decent blues musicians (apart from the backing vocals which sounded like well, a stray cat!) Our days here were spent just relaxing and catching up with a few things, as the beaches were heaving with Cambodian holiday makers!After 2 nights at Stray Cats we took the short walk to the luxury bungalow. We were taken down a lushus green pathway and shown our place. To say we felt spoilt would be an understatement, a king sized bed, a fridge, a kettle, and a little private terrace with a seating area, we knew we'd made a good choice! The town of Otres is small and authentic, either side of the dirt roads there're dozen of places to eat, there is a large expat community here, so there is western food and Vegan options everywhere. The area is ultra laid back with shirtless motorbike riders and faint smell of marijuana in the air! One afternoon we rented a motorbike and explored the nearby national park, it offered some great views and a pretty deserted beach, it was a good afternoon however we were stopped by the police, and had to bribe our way out of the situation, it only cost us $3 (after bartering with them) but it put a dampener on the afternoon! We spent a lot of our days here relaxing on the narrow but long beaches and swimming in the Gulf of Thailand, on my birthday we took advantage of the Happy Hour in one of the many laid back, budget backpacker friendly beach side bars (£0.50 a beer), then after talking with family, we enjoyed our first pizza in over 6 months in a swanky Italian (I even got a little cake)!
After a great birthday and feeling tender from over indulging (the cheap whiskey mixed with beer takes it's toll), we arranged a night bus to Siem Reap, home of the majestic and famous Angkor Wat and the Angkor Archaeological Park.
Other than my phone dying (A lot of pictures were taken on it from our time here), we had a great time in the South of Cambodia!
