Sihanoukville and Bangkok

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We decided to head to Sihanoukville on the fifth to spend 3 or 4 days for some nice beach relaxation. We had originally planned to stay on Sokha beach but we left our accomodation booking till the last minute so quickly booked a hotel from Phnom Penh before we hopped on the bus. We decided on The Cove Beach Bungalows, for $35 a night. Anyone wanting to stay on Serendipity Beach we would definitely recommend The Cove despite still being able to hear the booming music from the beach parties, you can still sleep well after a bit of getting used to the sound and have a great view of the bay from the northern end of the beach only 20 metres from your front door. The bar, run by a great Cambodian guy called Punya, is only 5 metres from the sand so having a meal or a drink were amazing to have lazing back in comfy chairs! The major highlights of our Sihanoukville trip were playing Blackjack @ The Kompong Som City Hotel and Casino with minimum bets being $3 US as opposed to $10 at home, floating on a giant slide and trampoline in the middle of the very warm ocean and having by far the best Chicken Parmagiana of my life so far. This was from the restaurant 'Coasters' right near our accommodation and rivalled that of any parmies at home. Unfortunately for Annie being sick meant she only got a taste of the most amazing Parmy ever, leaving me to finish the rest. Damn. Sihanoukville was definitely worth the agonising bus ride down from Phnom Penh because of the accommodation and laid back lifestyle you could easily get accustomed to. Our return trip however on the 'Mekong Express' was much better than the 'Paramount Express', cutting the trip time by at least 2 hours, and at the same price.

Once back to Phnom Penh we had a few hours to kill before our flight so we had some lunch at a pristine riverside restaurant just down from the Mekong Express Station 2 which looked like having usual clientele of formally dressed businessmen or men in tuxedo's - for only $22US for a great lunch with a range of dishes. We didn't have time to make it to the Russian Markets, so we jumped in a tuk tuk and found some local markets close by. These markets seemed very clean and organised in comparison to the Bangkok markets we'd been through, with leather wallets, handbags, t-shirts and shoes being the norm. We managed to get some great bargains with lots of effective bartering! For example Annie got a leather satchel Converse bag for $12 US, and the young girl even set it alight to prove the genuine leather. Sadly, we did not have enough time to fully explore as we had to leave for our flight. Next stop Bangkok!

We had organised accomodation at Diamond House (near Khao San Road in Bangkok) about a month before our arrival. Although the accommodation was okay, it was definitely not worth the 1600 Baht we paid. We had booked the hotel largely because we thought that after a full day of travel from Sihanoukville sitting on the rooftop Jacuzzi would be a great place to chill. Unfortunately, the Jacuzzi closed after 8pm, giving us only half an hour access time, which we didnt get to use because we had not eaten. Furthermore, we were checking out the next day, and even though the sign on the entrance said that it could be accessed between 8am to 2pm, we were told that we could not use it then either. We also found a cockroach in the room upon arrival and some of the staff were, although not outrightly rude, seemed to really give off a bad vibe. The average hotel was, however, soon put out of our minds after finding a really nice pub just around the corner. 999 West served us up one of the best meals you could get on Khao San road, with friendly staff and a great pool table to play at while listening to some really talented live music.

The next day after a late start we booked some plane tickets for that night to Phuket. Our flight left at 9.15pm so we had the better part of the day to head out and explore Bangkok. We decided on hitting the Central World Plaza and ended up seeing Avatar as Scott was yet to see it. The cinema's over here are great, we spent around $15 all up including snacks and ended up being the only ones in the massive cinema! We are back in Phuket now after a restful night at our beloved Baan Suwantawe, definitely the best value hotel in South East Asia Annie has experienced, and have booked a day of Game Fishing tomorrow. This is followed by a daytrip to Raya (Racha) Island on the 12th and our voyage to Ko Lanta on the 13th, stopping in Ko Phi Phi for a few hours enroute. Hope all is well at home! Love Annie and Scott.

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Photos

The Cove Beach Bungalows
Our Bungalow :)

Restaurants on the beach
Top end of Serendipity beach

Cat
The cat that kept bugging Scott by sneaking into our bungalow

Sihanoukville sunrise
We can get up early Mums!

Riverside Restaurant
Phnom Penh