Sihanoukville....

The bus ride was same same, kareoke songs playing on a tv with a bad connection full blast. One thing I will say, Linda was laughing so hard at this one song, it brought tears to her eyes. What a stupid song! As I am wrighting, it will not have the same effect, but if you can use your imagination, it goes something like this, not the words but the idea behind the song! It is clearly a sad love song because every new verse was started with the singer pretending to cry, but no ordinary cry, the cry you do when something tragic has happened and you battle to breath. It was so funny to listen to, well we thought so as we were about the only europeans on the bus and the only ones laughing!
Anyway, we get to Sihanoukville bus station and surprise surprise, there are hundreds of tuck tuck drivers wanting to take you to a hotel. Now I don't handel long bus trips very well so am not the happiest person when I get off. I want to do things my way and quick. A attitude I need to change very quickly. So we see this european guy, calm and not pushy advertising accomodation. That's just what I want, no 20 questions, just, we have rooms for $10 a night on the beach including breakfast and on Otres Beach. Bingo, I'm sold. A few questions, do you serve food and does the room have a fan and bathroom? Yes was the answer, so that's all we needed. We got on the back of a motorbike, Linda on one, I on another and set off.
The road there was bumpy and off the beaten track with not much in sight, just perfect to spend a few days unwinding from the hectic city. We arive at this place called Tropical Season. It was a wooden structure with bar and eating open plan downstairs and rooms on top. The driver tells me he can wait incase we didn't like it. So we ran up to have a look. The room was simple, matress sort of on the floor, balcony, shower and toilet. It was all made of wood, bamboo and thatch with holes and gaps in the floor. For $10 we were not expecting the Hilton. All to happy to settle down and relax after the bus trip, I say it's fine and we will stay. The driver gave us a funny look and went on his way, only later did I realise why he gave us the look.
There is a American woman running the show here, Corrie. Linda and I head straight for the sea for a swim then relax on the beach. I was getting a bit thirsty because it was pretty hot and thought a coke would go down well right now. That was not to be, only thing Corrie had was beer and tonnic water with lemon. Ok, not to keen for a beer right now so tonnic water it will have to be. She had two really cute baby dogs who were so playfull then just slept in Lindas lap. So day turned into night and we were getting hungry and asked what was on the menu? Nothing... She was not in the mood to cook and there was no electricity! The generator packed up a few days earlier! Now why didn't the dumb ass tell us when we were at the bus station? So she says we can go down the beach, there are places to eat there. She is a pretty usless person, she just doesn't seem to care about anything other than drink all day and smoke weed. We were not very impressed with her. So then she has a car battery which puts a small light on by the bar and tells us she is going to her mates place for drinks! Lucky for us we had a tourch, there were three other suckers who also got sold down the river but they left before the sun went down and were coming back in the evening, good luck finding your room in the dark!
So, not to happy with the attitude and service on Tropical Season, we head down the beach to look for food. As luck would have it, we found a place a few hundred meters down the beach called Mien Mien also on Otres Beach. It is a Cambodian run family business. The food was great and the owners and their kidds were very friendly and helpful. While eating, we asked if they had rooms? They did, also $10 an night and the rooms were about a week old. We had a look at them and decided we would stay their the following day. After dinner we head back to our dump with the tourch on our head. We had to take turns in the shower while the other held the light. The room was hot and no fan, it was going to be a long night! After a hour or so of swimming in sweat, we hear a noise in the room. Sure enough, it's another rat plus there was something in the roof eating away at the wood because when we woke up there was dust from the wood on the floor and bags!
Waking up very early, I go to the beach for a swim to cool off and watch the locals fishing with nets. Linda has a coffee and then I ask what's for breakfast because it is included in the price? Oh, no, breakfast will be ready at 10am. 10am? I don't want brunch, I want to eat now. So we pack our stuff and go to Mien Mien and check in and eat.
What a difference in places, Mien Mien is such a great place to relax and unwind. They have deck chairs on the beach, room is great and the service is great as well as the food.
We were only going to spend one night here then head for the islands, but decided it is so nice here we will stay a extra night.
The days have been filled with swimming, Linda tanning, playing with the kidds, eating, reading and just doing nothing. Last night I went out looking for clams with the youngest girl, Cew. We never got much but was great fun. Early this morning I was helping with the fishing, a shoal of fish were about 50m from shore but by the time we got the nets out, they had gone further out, better luck tomorrow.
One thing for sure is, this place Mien Mien comes highly recommended, relaxed, friendly, on the beach and good food!
Tomorrow we make our way to Bamboo Island, just off Sihanoukville, I hope there is good diving there and possibly some fishing? We see!

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