Cambodia!! - Shinoukville

This pic is actually from BKK, just got on the wrong blog post. This guy was passed out at a table the next morning on Koh San, the waiters are trying to figure out what to do with him.
From Nov 23rd-27th

Sihanouk ville is supposed to be Thailand in the 70s, before it was discovered, and it does certainly measure up to that somewhat. You get there from the border crossing at Koh Kong.

Sihanoukville is in the south west corner of the map

Serendipity Beach at night, we spent most of our time at the bar with the dolphin

It is in far southern Cambodia, and it would be really easy to make this either your last stop before jumping off to Vietnam or your first stop in Cambodia before Phnom Penh. There are really only a few major beaches, and we stayed on the most populated / also supposed to be the nicest of these: Serendipity beach - a very nice stretch of white sand completely lined with restaurants and bars, all of which have big circular lounge chairs and tables on the beach so there is a very chilled out atmosphere. Opportunities for happy pizzas abound, and there is even one advertised on the official city map of the area, which struck me as very strange considering Cambodia's harsh drug laws.

sunset at Serendipity beach

Unfortunately, although this is a kind of paradise, it is also overrun with children selling you stuff and trying to steal your stuff as well. Within the first 30 minutes I was on the beach my wallet was stolen out of my bad which was under my chair, WHILE I WAS SITTING THERE. apparently don't close your eyes even for a second.

The second night we were there we did a booze cruise which was mindt. There was a really awesome mixed crowd of all nationalities and ages, about 40 people in all. There was a really awesome 60 year old Aussie guy named Allen who had a joint permanently attached to his hand and was a great character. There was also a French girl Josie and I talked to for at least ten minutes before her boyfriend told us she didn't speak English... no idea how that worked.. we must have been too busy drinking to noticed she wasn't replying.

Cliff jumping.... German dude who was definitely on something a little stronger than Clang beer.

Booze Cruise!!

We started out cliff jumping, at which juncture Verber managed to disobey all instructions and get out of the boat the wrong way resulting in him lodging a few sea urchin spines in his foot, which he is still complaining about. Then we moved on and had a beach bbq and after went on to Bamboo island, which is a really cool secluded island about an hour boat ride from Serendipity. There is only one bungalow hotel on the island so if you really wanted to chill out this is where you should go. I slipped on the boat around this time and peeled pack part of my big toe nail, resulting in excruciating pain and lots of blood. I asked our resident walking pharmacy, verber, for painkillers, which he told me were not very strong, so I took four. I realized immediately afterwards that if someone who regularly takes morphine tells you something isn't strong you shouldn't believe them - I was completely out of it for the next 12 hours at least, and still felt pretty shitty they next day as well.

Beach BBQ

Deserted beach at Bamboo Island

More Bamboo Island, this is the side with the bungalows.

We went back to bamboo island the next day because it had been so cool the day before and just chilled. That is really the only things we did so doesn't really merit anymore writing about it. Some pics from the bus ride to Siem Reap:



Next Post: Phnom Penh and Siem Reap