Nothing Like A November Sunburn

On our second day in Sihanoukville, it was time to go back out on the water. In a boat. This time, most of the group was going snorkeling and heading to an island for some swimming, lunch and more fun in the sun.

Once again, we left pretty early in the morning to hop on the boat. We stopped in one spot for snorkeling, but I’m not a snorkeler, so I just sat and watched. After about forty minutes, though, we headed to Bamboo Island. Don’t let the name fool you, though. Just like there were no monkeys on Monkey Island and no unicorns on Unicorn Island, there was no bamboo on Bamboo Island. There were beaches, though. Lots and lots of beaches. This time I did participate and we swam and did regular old beach stuff. The one beach thing I didn’t do was put on sunscreen, but I assume I’ll get to that later.

At around noon, we took a break for lunch. We had rice and fish or chicken skewers with vegetables. The food was barbequed on the beach and was very good. This was followed by some mango dessert and then more swimming and beach stuff. We left Bamboo Island and returned to the harbor for some more snorkeling, followed by a return to Sihanoukville. I was a little tired and decided to head back to my room for a nap.

I got up and texted some folks and found that a lot of people were at the Purple Bar. That was where I had gotten the fifty cent drafts the night before and I decided to return to the scene of the crime. I read a review of the place that said it had some of the best hamburgers in Cambodia, so I tried one. It was the only hamburger I tried in Cambodia (or since China, for that matter), but I couldn’t come up with a reason to argue. After the burger and a few drinks, the second day came to an end.

I began my last day in Sihanoukville walking around the city for a while. Like all of the other cities I had seen in Vietnam and Cambodia, it was truly different from anything I have seen in the west, but I’m getting more accustomed to the typical southeastern Asia city. I stopped by a few cafes and eventually wandered back to my hotel. Lots of other people were heading to a private beach, but after two days of beaches and significant sunburn on my shoulders (I knew I’d get back to that sunscreen topic again), I decided not to go.

Instead, I walked some more around town to see if I could find anything interesting. For the record, I didn’t find anything all that interesting. I did stop at a different restaurant for a little more amok, this time of the chicken variety. The place was pretty deserted and the people who worked there, as well as another tourist, stopped by and chatted for a while. I really like how the people in Vietnam and Cambodia come by and speak with you when you’re eating alone. Anyway, the food was good, but this was closing in on the end of my Sihanoukville adventure.

Later on, I went to dinner with the group in the restaurant where I had eaten the delicious fish amok on my first day in town. In the evenings, the restaurant, as well as most of the restaurants around the beach, have a barbeque and served grilled food. I had barbequed beef steak with potato salad and grilled vegetables. I don’t reckon it was too authentic as far as Cambodian food goes, but it was pretty damn delicious. That and, of course, a couple beers effectively ended my evening because we had to get on a bus by seven a.m. the next morning.

I’ve never been much of a beach person, but I have to say that I did have a really good time in Sihanoukville and would recommend it to anybody looking for a good beach town in Cambodia.

Once More, Back to the Beach

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.