Day 5 and 6- Beach TIME!!!!

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Shout out to my Aunt Paulette for it was her birthday on Sunday, Nov 8th when we arrived in Sihanoukville.

We arrived in Sihanoukville on the overnight bus around 5:30am. The cost was $20 per person, not bad for 10 hour ride. We got off the bus and all 20-30 of us were swarmed by Tuk Tuk drivers wanting to take us to a hostel or hotel. We didn't have a reservation as it seemed most of the others on the bus didn't either. After getting our bags we negotiated the ride from $4 down to $2, sometimes Asia is tiring in that you have to negotiate everything or you will be robbed of hard earned money.

Pete had researched the Lonely Planet book to find which of the 5 beach areas we wanted to stay at. The driver took us to a hostel but they weren't open yet and we needed to wait one hour to see a room and find out the price. I was too tired to do that so we found another place called Beach Road Hotel. It has modern rooms with bathroom, swimming pool, bar and restaurant all for $25/night. We decided it was a good deal, slept for a few hours, got some breakfast that was AWESOME at the hotel restaurant, rented a scooter from the hotel to cruise around the city.

We wanted to hit the beach soon cause rain was in the forecast for Monday but Pete wanted to check out the town. It wasn't anything to write home about or on the blog, dirty, rundown, etc. An Australian man told us to go to Otres Beach, it was the best in town and most secluded. He just spent 6 weeks out at this beach and came back to town for the first time in 6 weeks. It was only 6km=3.7 miles from town. After our cruise around the town we headed toward Otres Beach.

We had a map drawn by the Aussie but it wasn't too detialed and neither were the road signs. We found our way out there and stumbled upon Queen's Hill Resort & Bungalows. It was on this hill that separated 2 secluded beaches. We decided to see if they had rooms and what the price was. They had a room available for 2 nights for $25/night overlooking the Gulf of Thailand. We told them to hold it we would be back. We went back into town, checked out of the Beach Road Hotel had to pay half of the room price since we were there about 6 hours and went back to Queen's Hill resort.

After leaving our bags at the resort we headed down the hill to Otres Beach. It was a long bumpy dirt road with shacks all down the beach. Each place had a bar, restaurant and non AC rooms for rent for about $5-10/night. (In Cambodia it is HOT and lots of mosqitos/bugs Malaria can be a problem so AC is a must for us) The Aussie man told us to check out Cory's, American Owned place, we past by there just to check out the whole row and ended up going back to Cory' on the recommendation.

The food was great, pizza and baguette sandwiches plus cold beers. We also met 2 other Americans there from Massachusetts. Cory, Lisa and DJ all taught English in Asia. Cory the owner taught 5 years in South Korea and now owns the beach bar in Cambodia. DJ and Lisa both currently teach English in Cambodia and own a guesthouse in Sihanoukville called Romny Family Bungalows. We stayed there all afternoon until sunset then went back to our resort.

When we got back to our room there were THOUSANDS of flying termites. I told Pete we CANNOT stay in this room even with the mosquito net. We grabbed our things and went to the front office. We showed them the room and they put us in another bungalow with one bed which was fine with us. Pete then took a shower and the drain didn't work we thought. Pete then went to the front office again to request that we pay less per night since the room was smaller than the first one and the drain didn't work well. He got the room down to $15/night, even better.

In Asia, we have been able to travel so much due to time off school but also cause we stay in hostels for $25/night or less. When staying in these places some are nice and some are not so nice and our standards have definitely lowered.

The next morning we had to return the scooter we rented since it was a 24 hr rental for $6. We ate the breakfast buffet for $4.50/person at Beach Road Hotel where we first checked in and rented the scooter from. Then we walked around Serendipity Beach area to check it out. We decided to head back to Cory's for a second day at Otres Beach, the Aussie was right it was the best beach in the town.

We got a tuk tuk for $2 back out to Queen's Hill resort then headed down to Otres Beach. We walked along the beach from our resort to Cory's as it was much faster the day before on a scooter, but the stroll was nice. We ate some more pizza and Cory even ordered some white wine from the liquor store for me to drink. We read books and hung out in the sun all day. I read Kite Runner and Pete read First They Killed My Father. Since we were so far south on the map (equal to Costa Rica) we got lots of sun that day and now have a tan.

We ate dinner at I Don't Know restaurant and headed back to our bungalow for we had to be up at 7am for our bus to Phnom Penh $7/person.

Quick fact about Otres Beach everything is run on generators or batteries-NO ELECTRICITY runs out there.

Great Beach Time and I realized how much I miss the sunsets in San Diego.

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Photos

Getting my eyebrows threaded
I had never had this done before and I needed it. Only $2 couldn't pass it up.

View from Cory's Bar
Cory's Bar/guesthouse was on the beach in Otres Beach, She is from Virginia and been on the beach for 2 years.

Pete chillin on our balcony
Queen's Hill Resort and Bungalows $15/night

Otres Beach
our bungalow was on the hillside in the background

lounging around Cambodian style
LOTS of hammocks in Cambodia

Cory and us
the owner of the bar, picture taken by drunk French man

Dinner at "I Don't Know"
that was the name of the restaurant/bar, food was great