Living dangerously

I almost lost my camera. I had left it at the internet place last night and only realised its absence from my pocket this morning. Most fortunately, a short delay and detour in our travel itinerary paid dividends; I managed to retrieve my camera from the place I had left it at. The proprietor of the place was kind enough to keep it safe for me. A close shave.

Sihanouk Ville

A four hour bus-ride brought us from Phnom Penh’s Soryu bus station in the Central Market area, to the bus station in the town centre of Sihanoukville (or split into two words – “Sihanouk Ville’, on some signboards). there was a short stop midway in the journey and we bought light snacks such as coconut puffs, pineapple puffs and other deep fried items for about 1000 riels (~ $0.25 USD each). generally they were quite ok, though some were rather ‘hollow’ inside. personally, liked the coconut one the best.

Our trip so far in photos

And here’s a snapshot of our trip thus far. In snapshots. Haha.

Day 1 – Our first guesthouse. The room.

Out of Phnom Penh

Today we finally left the big city (relatively speaking, in a Cambodian sense) and headed into the Cambodian countryside towards the coastal town of Sihanoukville. We left by bus, and it was a four-hour journey which was still boring despite the bus being quite comfortable. Certainly, it was better than Bangkok-Sukhothai the previous time, and since Cambodia is smaller and buses travel only in daylight, we got there at a very decent time. We didn’t need an amazing stroke of fortune to find a roof for the night this time.

beach country

You know you are leaving the city when the roads run unendingly and your vehicle travels without much interruption. The bus ride from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville was surprisingly pleasant and cheap to boot; I was expecting a reenactment of the horror bus ride I took in Thailand the other time from Bangkok to Sukhothai. The bus is clean, and the driver is not crazy. Bus timings start from about 7am and the last bus leaves at around lunch time 1pm. This means there are no such things as overnight bus journeys in Cambodia, which makes bus travel safer. However this also means backpackers burn precious daylight time on travel.