It was the steamed bun not the Malarone!

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When Dave told me that Sihanoukville was the 'Party Coast of Cambodia', I was expecting another Patong Beach?! Eek! Thankfully it's a few years off that, but is set to end up as a very commercialised resort. They've already cottoned onto booze cruises, full moon parties and buckets (aka - litre bottles of soft drinks with the top cut off and straws whacked in!).

Sihanoukville is surrounded by several beaches of varying beauty. I wouldn't say they're as nice as Thailand but some aren't too far behind. We were based near Serendipity beach which was one of the more popular. The place is packed with sunbeds, hawkers and beach bars. We didn't go down here in the day, instead opting for days at the pool or nearby Otres Beach which was slightly quieter.

The vibe in Sihanoukville is pretty chilled and predominantly full of backpackers. In the Serendipity area the average price for a draft Angkor beer was 50 cents, but you could get it for as low as 25 cents in happy hour. Dave was most impressed with the pricing structure! 

There are also many great bars in the area, our favourite being Monkey Republic which is run by a group of British lads. The food was tasty and reasonably priced and the music was Indie which made a change! To be honest we haven't had a bad meal yet in Cambodia. We've stuck to restaurants rather than street vendors, and have had all sorts of cuisines and everything has been lovely! The only dodgy thing has been a suspicious meat steamed bun that Dave bought from a service station during our bus ride to Sihanoukville. If you've seen The Exorcist you'll understand what he was like later on that night! Lesson learned I think!

We've mainly just been relaxing, eating and drinking here. Pretty much everything shuts at midnight apart from one weird nightclub opposite our hotel. Most people spend the evenings drinking cocktails and beer on the beach, paying cards, pool or even watching films in the bars so it's not a hardcore partying resort.

The most adventurous thing we did was a day trip to Ream National park. We visited some deserted beaches, jungle trekked, and rode a boat down the river where we saw dolphins hunting schools of fish. When I say we saw dolphins, it was similar to the 'sea turtle' incident where someone says, 'there's a dolphin!', and what you see is two inches of dorsal fin and a bit of water movement! Technically we saw one though and that's the story I'm sticking too!!

Next stop is the town of Kep which is about two hours away :-)

Love Emma & Dave xx

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