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.
We arrive at Sihanoukville at lunch time. I think there is something about the country that makes people in the rural areas more pleasant than those in the city. It could be the laidback approach to life, or the steady sea breeze. People here haggle less, smile more and are generally more helpful. The moto-drivers which fetched us into town expressed much interest in where we come from and offered to bring us around all the guesthouses searching for the best rooms before leaving us there. Everyone here seems to know everyone else.
Being a beach town, Sihanoukville sleeps early. After dinner time stalls close and transport is harder to find, especially in the non-town centre areas.
I found the atmosphere and vibe here more convival than in the city. Countless beach chairs lined the beach and anyone can lie on them. The sea breeze keeps one cool even though the sun blazes in the sky. The sand along Serependipity and Occheuteaul Beach is white and fine (that said, don’t go to Victory beach. That beach is dirty).
The food is fabulous. USD 9 per person got us a whole large fried fish in sweet and sour sauce, crabs in black pepper, grilled squid, steamed prawns, noodles with egg, unlimited flow of rice, one coconut each. seats facing the sea and plenty of sea breeze. Most importantly the seafood is fresh. We plan to eat more and try out the other types of seafood on offer here tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be spent sun-tanning on the beach, gulping cool beer and stuffing our faces with seafood. The rest day tomorrow will prepare us for Angkor, which is our next destination.
I have already bought my beach shorts for tomorrow. I can’t wait to hit the beach after breakfast tomorrow and laze the day away.
