Sihanoukville

It was time to escape the city heat and head towards Cambodia’s south coast. We were so excited to finally be near the water. Lots of people told us not to spend too much time in Sihanoukville but Derek and I have loved our four nights here.

Serendipity Beach is nothing special as it’s heavily polluted and full of tourists but we have had a few nice afternoons watching the sunset with a beer or three. As we enjoyed the sunset and water views, we were constantly approached by locals offering everything from foot massages and pedicures to seafood and bracelets. Derek really enjoyed chatting to these people and not actually buying anything. I have absolutely no time for it. Even though he wasn’t interested in buying anything, it got the local hustlers excited and they all started flocking to us. The ladies who tried to sell Derek foot massages kept offering to thread my leg hairs HAHA! Okay fine, they are a bit long but not as bad as they were making out. At one stage I had a little kid tagging me with a free bracelet while a lady was threading part of my leg “for free”. It was so painful, worse than waxing or laser! All the while, Derek was sitting there giggling and enjoying his beer. Thanks Derek.

Our favourite beach was Otres Beach. It’s about a 10 minute motorbike ride from our hostel, Monkey Republic. The sand was white, the water was clear and we were one of the only ones on the beach.

We decided to take a day trip to Koh Rong which is an island off the coast. Just our luck, it was raining on and off all day. As we approached the island, we were a little underwhelmed. We’re not sure if it was just the weather but the island itself looked like it was under construction and also heavily polluted.

Nevertheless, we decided rain, hail or shine, we were going to trek it to Long Beach which we’d heard was an untouched, white sand, amazing beach. You had to trek through the jungle for 40 minutes to get to it. Shout out to my cousins Jordan, Barton and Talara because if it wasn’t for our bush walks and rock climbing adventures as kids, I’m not sure I would have made it through alive! There were parts where you had to use rope to abseil down the rocks. It was so much fun and the rain just made it a little more challenging.

We were so sweaty that all we could think about was jumping into the beautiful clear water. Then all of a sudden, we were greeted by a huge construction zone. We couldn’t believe our eyes. I thought it must have been a joke and thought that if we walked further down the beach it might get better but instead we saw another crane in the distance. Deflated, we sat in the rain and ate our pork rolls. Although the beach wasn’t what we were expecting, the trek to and from the beach was definitely the highlight for the day.

After some sun, sand and way too many beers, it’s time to say goodbye to Sihanoukville and hello to Kampot!

– Neetz