Leaving Siem Reap was a bit of a blur due to the guy at my hostel not telling us the correct time the bus was leaving so we ran a little late.... fortunately made it on time and hit the road to Phnom Penh!
More about the Penh later though as we only stayed for one night before heading South to the beach and Sihanoukville... (although I will say that during that one night alex and I had to share the tiniest double bed I have ever seen, it may have been a single, which caused much laughter in the early hours)
I came to Sihanouvkille 5 years ago and I remembered it as an idyllic week where Wilx and I spent sleepy days hanging out on the beach with hardly a soul around.
Things it seems have changed!!
5 years has brought lots of development so there are many many new beach bars, hotels, and ... people! We arrived on the Kings Birthday which is a national holiday and hundreds of Khmer people were out in force swimming, partying and bbqing... I was surprised at the difference (duh!).
The negatives to all this development is that there is a LOT of rubbish lining the beach and also some suspiciously brown water at one end...hmm. It is sad really, I hope in time it gets better because it won't be long before the guidebooks are saying "don't go!" if they aren't already...
Still, saying that it has been really nice coming here for the week. And don't get me wrong, parts of it are still really beautiful.
The first night we got a bit trigger happy on cocktails and the excitement of the bars which caused us to spend a lot of the next day feeling rather undertheweather but since then we have been having a really good and chilled time, as you can imagine...
As everyone knows, you come to the beach and the first couple days feel like they go slowly and then before you know it time speeds up and the days start to roll into one long memory of swimming, sun, sea and... delicious squid bbq!
Note: Alex and I have so far tried and tested from beach hawkers: lobster, fresh spring rolls, doughnuts, pedicures, and squid... so at least we have made up for the 10,000 bracelets we've refused. Adam you will win the competition methinks!
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