Cambodia

Day 11 : Sihanoukville

We made it to Sihanoukville, the Coast. A town with many small beaches, a lot like Goa (India) only even more chill - at least where we stayed. Otres Beach, our choice out of the 7 beaches to choose from, is the most laid back hangout during the day and dark and quiet at night.  If you don't have a headlamp, you will surely be run over by a TukTuk - also having no headlights. The main beaches, pumping the base until the wee hours of the morning, are more crowded and a little dirtier with trash - it is the third world remember - so Otres is the winner.

This part of the country is heavy with backpackers along with wealthy Europeans and Russians sprinkled in - and of Course Cambodians - it makes for an interesting dynamic. We rolled in on a Sunday, so needless to say many of the smaller bungalows on Otres Beach were full. So we took the first place we found - that had 2 rooms available - The Done Right Geo-pods.

Done Right Geo Pods, Sihanoukville
The Geo-Pods look cool and all....but man oh man, they do lack for comfort. The smallest additions could make these really awesome. And if we didn't have food poisoning, they would have been just fine.

Good Ole G5 was SUPPOSE to be our dwelling for the next 3 nights.... stress on the word SUPPOSED to. "Done Right" done did us wrong! First of all the place is run by a bunch of Euro guys who, although are super nice, run their place like a Fraternity of aging Punk band retirees who just want to hang out with their buddies all day....which I guess "is what it is". And Good old G5 we inherited from OO because ours had a poodle sized spider living on it - and Marisha don't play-that. It had no Ac, no ventilation, was an ant colony, had a not so clean bathroom and was hotter than a concrete pizza oven. So when Brian and I both proceeded to get mild food poisoning, by breaking a cardinal Travel Rule of ours, good old G5 was not-so-good anymore. 

Here is our review from Travelpod: 

The bar at "Blame Canada" we met a couple from Vancouver here, 2 people from Colorado (one looking like Curtis, who we kept calling Cambodian Curtis), a few toothless Canadians and more traveler vagabonds.
OO Taking a nappie at Blame Canada
A panoramic of Blame Canada and the whole scene.
At the "Blame Canada" beach bar. And here is the lady selling foodpoisining on a platter. 10 for $2...is it a good deal, yes. Was it worth it, no. I had to swallow 10 times and whipe by brow looking at this picture just to type this.

FYI Travel Rule #1: Only eat street food that is cooked in front of you. We broke it by eating dodgy seafood off a tray that had been in the blistering sun and heat all day by a woman peddling it on the beach. In not-so-good-old G5, the bathroom smelled, the water smelled and if you have ever had food poisoning...everything smelled. Before the old, hot, sun-soaked, bacteria marinated seafood poisoning kicked in we had hit Done Right's beach bar called "Blame Canada" where we ate the beach sea food, drank way too much and followed it all up with a $4 PigRoast that, also, had been marinating in the sun and heat and humidity all day. Add all those ingredients together and you get Body aches and cold sweats around 2 am.

The next morning we had plans to go diving on Koh Rung but of course that wasn't happening and OO went alone 🙁 Guess what we did first.... find a new pad - complete with big clean bathroom, hot water and Ac...and get this...it was 2 doors down. If we had checked it the night before... They had 2 rooms available - but what kind of story would that make. Here is our review from Travelpod:

Wish You Were Here... Guesthouse & Bar - Sangkat 4, Sihanoukville, Cambodia

I rated this place 4/5 - Otres beach Guesthouse
A welcome treat of AC after roasting on the beach. If you ever splurge a tad more for a room, we suggest anyplace that has AC at Otres beach!

This little piggy went a roasting..... This little piggy went into my belly....this little piggy went into the night shakes and cold sweats.....
Otres beach mid day. This place really is super chill. We felt a little better during the day and took a motorbike into town. This is NOT what the in-town beaches are like. Busy, noisy....
Attempting breakfast at Sunrise Cafe. Banana pancakes and coffee.
For Woody and out future selves. This is what we were talking about for our drive-around-the-world plans. A converted military vehicle made into the ultimate camping assault vehicle.
The mellow mushroom...which in my college days would have been a perfect place for me to stay...hehe. Jen Kay and I could have moved in for good.
Bri and I attempting a walk down the beach the "morning after"
One of the Only things we saw on our deserted beach.

Luckily we had an extra day - so Scuba Diving did actually happen for us. There are some highly rated dive sights in Cambodia - most being a long boat ride out it o the clustered islands off the Cambodian coast. Its a 3 day commitment - so we opted for the closest dive sites to S-ville. We had some severely ghetto dive gear: Here was our rating from Travelpod:

 The Dive Shop Cambodia - Serendipity Beach Road, Sihanoukville, CambodiaI rated this place 2/5 - Dive Shop Cambodia. The dive itself was pretty cool as far as new plantlife and coral to see. The staff is super young and seem more interested in hanging out with each other that offering info on the area or talking to the divers. The best Dive Masters teach you about the area you are about to dive in in more than 5 minutes and are interested in making you a better diver - in other words they care. The gear is beyone ghetto, but i guess if the regulator works, that is all that matters.

Leaving town for our dive. The port at Sihanoukville. A dodgy little port where the dive shop docks its boat. Coming back here at night was a trip in and of itself. None of the boats have lights....
Off the coast of Sihanoukville in the Gulf of Kompong Som on our way to Koh Rung (Koh means Island)
Russian Island. This island is rented by the Russian Moffia it is usde as a private retreat and it is well known as such. they rent it from the Cambodian government, they built out the whole island with their money and they have a 100 year lease.
Koh Rung Island The main town and port of Koh Rung. There is only a few lodging options on this island and they are all very small and rustic. generator run if it has electricity at all.
On the dive boat after our dives. It was a 2 hour boat ride back which was great and warm and relaxing.
The super slow ferry ride over to Koh Rhong island to go diving. 2 hours and a relaxing way to start an even more relaxing day
Seriously????? Brian almost jumped out of the boat and swam to this tanker. He thought for sure it was filled with Nebraska Huskers. He also said------- " the Iowa tanker sank..."
A young monk using our dive ferry boat to get out to the temple at Koh Rung. There are really no tourist boats - everyone shares with the locals on everything which to us is way cooler.
The port at Koh Rung. The dive shop is the little building to the left on top of the dock.

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