Beaching it up in Cambodia

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Day 6
A slightly shorter bus ride today landed us in Sihanouk Ville, which is a great little beach town on the coast. Our accommodations are at beach bungalows, although we're not directly on the beach - but only 500m walk! Everything here is much cheaper than Siam Reap or Phnom Penh and the atmosphere is more laid back. It's much more relaxing for sure. We quickly found our way to the beach and set up at on some of the loungers. We settled in and got to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the ocean. As we watched the sunset, the bars exchanged their loungers for tables and chairs to prepare for the evening dinners and festivities. We moved to a different bar for dinner, called Muslei's Family Restaurant and quickly found our new home (or where we would set up shop for the sun while in town). It was impossible to pass up a delicious tuna steak cooked over a BBQ on the beach. SOOOOO tasy.
Throughout the day as we laid out, we had multiple women and children stopping to offer us multiple products/services to buy..."manicure, pedicure, fruit, bracelets, bags, hair removal, massage." They had their routine down pat, walking by and staring at your nails in disgust before asking you. I had only just cut my nails the day before so they were quite out there to claim my nails were too long. How rude. It was easy for me to say "No" like I meant it. I also had to stop saying "thank-you, or sorry" after my no's as they gave you a hard time when you try to be polite.

Day 7
I got up earlier to go enjoy a solo breakfast at Muslei's again (I scoped out the menu the night before and was hooked when I saw "Chocolate/Banana pancakes"). An 8am start meant no hagglers and only one other diner with me. More of the group arrived shortly thereafter and once we all had eaten it was then time to get some sun! I was going to get a haircut at a local barber on the beach but the queue was too long (and I think I was looking for an excuse to wait yet for something more upscale). More sun, more hagglers, more heat, more swimming, more mango shakes. And then another terrfic BBQ fish dinner on the beach. This time I had barracuda.
Upon returning to the beach bungalow, I discovered two GIANT cockroaches in our bathroom. DISGUSTING. Especially gross when you could actually hear them moving because they were so big. I quickly closed the door and waited for John, my roommate. By the time he arrived, one had scuttled away and while we debated about killing it or not and then properly arming ourselves with weopans of bug destruction we went in again and discovered the second one had also fled for fear of its life.
So after eating our previous 4 meals at the same restaurant, several of the group fell ill - although some were also quite sunburned so it's hard to know if it was the kitchen beside the bathroom seperated by a cardboard wall that caused pain. At least it was tasty. I'm still staying healthy though - my stomach just generally feels tight but I think that's from all the water I'm drinking.

Accomodations: Ochheuteal Beach Bungalows. (aprox $20/room) Only steps from the beach. Had air/con and fan. Bugs in the bathroom (one night). Lots of cheap hostels directly on the beach ($2-5) but I question the quality and the experience. Depends what you're looking for. Other guesthouses are right near the beach too.
Food: Muslei's Family Restaurant = cheap and tasty eats, especially the dinner. (BBQ Fish with potatoes, rice or chips was $3 for a good sized fish). Right on the beach, just south of the main entrance to the beach.
Sights: Sunset was great. Didn't see much else. There are reasonably-priced tours to surrounding area ($15-25) for snorkeling, forest trek, small village and including meals and drinks. Some of our group did the snorkeling and really enjoyed it.

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Comments

[Mike]

given the meats you're trying
I'm surprised you didn't fork that cockroach and have a tasty snack for later! (ugh, vomit... )

[DavidCarey]

hilarious image of you hunting cockroaches! hope you are having an amazing time, Doyle!!