After the homestay, it was time for three days of rest and relaxation, because if there was anything I needed after not working for sixteen months, it’s rest and relaxation, at the beach. To this end, we took an early-morning bus to Sihanoukville, which is on the southern coast of Cambodia.
We arrived early in the afternoon in Sihanoukville and checked into our hotel a little after one. After taking a little bit of time to clean up, we headed to a little restaurant across the street for lunch. I had heard a lot about the Fish Amok in Cambodia and saw that it was on the menu, so I decided to give it a try. I was not disappointed. It was steamed fish cooked in a coconut-curry sauce that was tremendous. It came served in a coconut shell and I vowed halfway during the meal that I was going to get much more amok while I was in Cambodia.
After lunch, it was time to hit the beaches. We went to Serendipity Beach, which was very close to the hotel. It was pretty crowded, but not overly crowded, as this is the beginning of the busy season for the tourist town. If you read a few entries back, you would have noticed how disappointed in the beaches of Nha Trang, Vietnam. None of this disappointment followed me to Sihanoukville, where the sun was bright, the beach was sandy and the water was clean, warm and beautiful. We spent a lot of time in the water and, in between swims, shot down vendor after vendor as people kept coming over to try and sell us watches, books, lobsters and, I think on one occasion, children. Don’t quote me on that, though, because my Khmer isn’t very good and I might have misunderstood.
At 4:00, happy hour started at almost every bar on the beach. Happy hour on Cambodian beaches means fifty cent drafts of Angkor beer as far as the eye can see. I indulged in a few, but didn’t want to get wasted before dinner, so I stopped a little early and went back to the room.
At seven, we met for dinner and went to yet another bar/restaurant on the beach. This place seemed a little sketchy, so I decided to stick with western food. I ordered pizza. It was my first pizza in like two months, so the standard to which I was holding it was pretty low. It failed to clear even that low bar. It was the worst meal I’ve had in Asia. It was the worst pizza that I’ve ever eaten. I mean it was bad.
The restaurant did have one redeeming characteristic, however. It had the aforementioned fifty cent draft beers. After several of those, a bucket of Red Bull and vodka and a few shots, it started to seem like a good idea to go for a moonlight swim. I wasn’t dressed for it, but the hotel was only a few blocks away, so I went back and changed. Five or six of us ended up drinking and swimming (kids, don’t try this at home) until around 10:30 or so. It was a lot of fun and ended up turning my worst meal of the trip into a rather fun night.
That was pretty much our first day in Sihanoukville, but we still had two more left. I wasn’t sure if there was anything to do but drink cheap beer and play on the beach, but I was game to find out.
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