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Published: February 16th 2013
HE SAID... We woke at 6.30am, breakfasted on the riverbank at 7am and jumped into our minibus at 9am. We were leaving Kampot and travelling west to
Sihanoukville, which was only a two and a half hour trip. We had a quick stop at Veal Renh at 10am and snaked our way through a fascinating roofed market that fronted the main road. We jumped back into the minibus and continued our westward journey to Sihanoukville. We arrived at 11.30am and drove straight to the Starfish Bakery and Cafe for lunch. I had a grilled chicken sandwich and iced coffee, while Ren had a tuna sandwich and iced tea. It was a fantastic and very filling lunch, as the bread was made from sticky rice. We also had an enormous cookie each (which was part of the lunch deal). The bakery and cafe are part of
The Starfish Project, which provides employment opportunities for Cambodian people with disabilities. A small gift shop was attached to the cafe (with all proceeds going back to the project), so we picked up a number of scarves for family and friends and silver bracelets for ourselves.
Feeling very refreshed, we drove to the Golden Sand
Hotel, which was only a few minutes’ walk from Sihanoukville’s Occheuteal Beach. We checked in, walked to the beach and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing on deck chairs with coconut juice and cold Angkor beers. It was a fantastic travel day. Ren had a massage and pedicure, while I spent most of my time in the water. A few small waves were being picked up by the wind, so I even managed a bit of body surfing. The afternoon breeze whipped up at 5.30pm, so we decided to head back to the hotel pool. I’m not sure what they were using in the pool, but it was impossible to open your eyes under water.
After our lazy afternoon, we showered and headed out to dinner at 7pm. We walked back down to the beach and settled at the Angkor Beach Bar and Restaurant. This was a true beach restaurant, as our table sat directly on the sand. The atmosphere was smoky and cheerful. I had the barbeque seafood (prawns, squid and fish) with toasted baguette and chips, while Ren opted for the barbeque chicken with toasted baguette and baked potatoes. It was fantastic! We’d secretly organised a
birthday cake for Lee, and at the end of the meal the music stopped and a loud version of
Happy Birthday pumped through the sound system as Kim carried the cake to the table. We were also given sparklers, which we waved frantically as Lee blew out his candles – this was not a place for shrinking violets!
The beach was packed with tourists, and fireworks were exploding around us all night. You could buy long, Roman candle-type fireworks from local children, stand on the water’s edge and fire them into the Gulf of Thailand. As much as I love fireworks, this had no appeal – fireworks and inebriated tourists are not an ideal mix. We finished dinner and headed to the bar area to dance (or at least Ren did). I stood between the restaurants and the beach and watched the tourist throng taking in the night. It was a great atmosphere, despite the fireworks. We decided it was a great time for karaoke, so we left the beach, walked to a bar and hired a private karaoke room. This was a slightly odd experience, as we thought we’d accidently arrived at a brothel. We ran the gauntlet
of local girls sitting outside, entered a walkway with dim red lighting, found ourselves in a corridor with images on the wall that clearly implied
Don’t Touch the Girls and then were ushered into a specialty karaoke room. At least two female staff stayed in the room with us all night, loading our requested songs and serving expensive Angkor beer. We stayed for an hour or so, singing terribly (Vincent – Don McLean, Hotel California – Eagles, Power of Love – Celine Dion) and generally enjoying ourselves. We headed back to our hotel at 11pm. We had a full day boat trip the next day (setting of at 8.30am), so we needed some sleep.
We woke at 6.15am and headed down to breakfast at 6.30am. Muesli and tea was all I really felt like, while Ren opted for fried eggs on toast. We met in the hotel lobby at 8.30am, jumped into a
remork (Cambodian tuk tuk, which is a motorbike that tows a covered trailer with seating) and headed down to the boat pier. There was a small swell hitting the pier, so jumping into our long fishing boat was quite a task. Once on board, we headed
off on a day tour of Sihanoukville’s nearby islands. It was fairly windy and choppy on our way out into the Gulf of Thailand, so those of us in the front of the boat were drenched with sea spray. We anchored about 50 metres off Koh Kteah (a very small island off Otres Beach) and dived in to try some snorkelling. However, the water wasn’t all that clear and there wasn’t a lot to see, so I climbed back on board and dropped a hand line over the side with Ren. I caught one fish and Ren caught three. They were pretty small, so we threw them back.
After a while we upped anchor and continued towards Koh Ta Kiev, a larger island off the coast of the Ream National Park. We pulled into the main beach, jumped off the boat, hired a day lounge and settled in for the rest of the afternoon. We basically chilled until 3pm. We swam, snoozed, threw a frisbee and enjoyed coconuts and Angkor beers from the local cafe. Lunch was cooked over a small beach fire by the local boat crew, and it comprised baguettes, fire-grilled chicken, stir fried vegetables, tofu, rice
and salad. It was great! After lunch we swam and napped – it was very relaxing. We jumped back into the boat at 3pm and slowly made our way back to Sihanoukville. With the wind behind us, we avoided a sea spray soaking. We arrived at the bustling boat pier at 4pm, and after circling twice while waiting for other boats to drop their passengers, we moored on the opposite side and disembarked into the pier’s open air cafe. We walked back to the hotel, showered and caught up on our travel notes in the comfort of our room. I’d caught a little too much sun on my legs (falling asleep in the mid afternoon sun isn’t a great idea), but it wasn’t too uncomfortable.
We headed out to a local restaurant (Sorin Restaurant) for dinner at 7pm, which was right next door to our hotel. I had whole grilled fish and Ren had
fish amok. It was great, although not quite as good as the barbeque seafood the night before. After dinner we headed back to a cocktail bar overlooking the hotel’s pool and ended the night sipping cocktails with Kim and Lee. This had been another great
day in Cambodia. Unfortunately, we had a five hour bus trip back to Phnom Penh the next day, so we decided to retire early.
SHE SAID... On our last morning in Kampot we woke early and breakfasted on the river for the last time. We’d pre-ordered it for 7am, but as usual the service was glacially slow. We had an omelette and scrambled eggs with baguettes. My watermelon juice was so very refreshing, and Andrew loved his coffee shake.
We caught a minibus for the two hour trip to
Sihanoukville. We were split across two minibuses for this trip; and with Kim, Lee, Ella and Pru for company, it was a very pleasant trip. We stopped for a quick look around a very local market in Veal Renh, where a mass of interesting stalls were sprawled across a mass of covered laneways. It was divided into sections, and in our 30 minute walkthrough we probably only saw a very small fraction of the whole market.
The road to Sihanoukville was much better maintained than most roads we’d been on so far. There were still many trucks crammed with people and produce, and motorbikes with as
many as five people on them. I started counting the things on motorbikes – they are seriously capable of carrying a stunning quantity of goods on the tiny passenger seat! I saw two large live pigs strapped across the back of one bike (it was hard to witness that), about ten ducks in cages on another, and six foam mattresses piled high with no one holding on to them on another.
Prior to our arrival, there had been much giggling amongst ourselves because we had struggled with the pronunciation of Sihanoukville. Of all the variations we came up with, Andrew settled on fondly calling it Schnookyville. The only way the correct pronunciation registered in my head was when I realised it was named after the Cambodian royal family… ‘See-Ha-Nook-ville’.
When we reached Sihanoukville, we stopped at the Starfish Bakery and Cafe for lunch. This is a charity (and Intrepid Foundation project) where all the staff and outreach workers have some kind of physical disability. It also supports their families and focuses on sending their children to school. It is a beautiful set up in a gorgeous old colonial building, and there’s an attached gift shop which sells all
manner of fabric and silverware. We had a grilled chicken sandwich and a tuna sandwich, which were both delicious. The special ingredient was the gluten-free sticky rice bread, which was slightly sweet but one of the tastiest breads I’ve had in a long time. Their tapioca cookies were also extremely tasty, and my chocolate chip one was huge! We were tempted to come back here for breakfast the next day, but unfortunately it wasn’t that close to our hotel.
The Golden Sand Hotel (our hotel) was set back from the slightly seedy beachfront, but was only a two block walk to the sea. This was another hotel that was heavy on marble and heavy lacquered wood furniture. It had massive shiny wooden elephants that welcomed us at the entrance. Our room was lovely and overlooked the pool and poolside cafe, with glimpses of the sea.
Sihanoukville is known as Cambodia’s most popular beachside town, and it has miles and miles of beaches. We wanted to walk to Otres beach, but our hotel was closest to Occheuteal beach, so it was there that we hung out. Occheuteal beach is really lovely at night when the deck chairs are whipped
off the beach and the BBQ stations with candlelight tables and chairs are set up. However, it’s pretty feral during the day. It’s the sort of place very old western men hang out with very young Cambodian women.
We walked to the beach and then along the endless line of deck chairs that were set three deep, until we found a few chairs together. While Andrew went for a swim in the warm water, I settled in with a coconut juice and got a leg, back and shoulder massage, followed by a pedicure and a head massage. I was loving it so much that I almost blocked out the persistent children selling bracelets, and the massage women on-selling more massages! It was a good afternoon, and Andrew raised his beer and Kim and I raised our Long Island Teas to toast Lee a Happy Birthday.
We walked to Angkor Beach Bar and Restaurant for a BBQ dinner on the beach. Andrew ordered the mixed seafood BBQ which was cooked perfectly, and so was my BBQ chicken. However, the seafood was the clear winner here. The atmosphere was very mellow, with upbeat music and that feeling of general contentment
that only comes from total relaxation. The cocktails were not bad here either, the Mai Tais in particular was very nice. We had organised a birthday cake for Lee through Thyda, who had snuck the cake in behind the counter of the restaurant where we were dining. At the appointed time, Kim carried the blazing cake out to the beach with the DJ suddenly playing a very loud
Happy Birthday which reverberated along the whole beach. The cake was iced within an inch of its life, but it actually tasted quite nice. We presented Lee with an Angkor Beer bottle opener and Angkor Beer t-shirt as mementos of his Cambodian birthday.
After dinner we had a bit of a boogie at the restaurant and then Thyda led the way to a karaoke place. The walk down towards Otres beach was very lonely and I can see why the guide books warn against walking alone at night. I couldn’t tell you where it was exactly, but when we reached Cobra KTV, we all thought we were being led into a brothel. There were a bunch of girls gathered on one side of the courtyard in tiny white nurse-like uniforms, and
a few lady-boys sitting along a wall on the other side. Thyda seemed confident that it was all above board, so we followed her into the building. The long red light lit corridor rang further alarm bells, as did the ‘no photos’ and ‘do not touch the girls’ signs! We were led into a private room and given a few large catalogues of songs circa 1980. The two girls allocated to our room seemed either angry or bored – we couldn’t tell which. Maybe they realised they weren’t going to get the usual tips they got from the all-men groups. After a few hours of 70s and 80s hits – some good, some bad, some tragic, but all very funny (I picked our karaoke favourites – Hotel California for me, and Vincent/Starry Starry Night for Andrew), we wandered back to the hotel via more dark and lonely streets.
The next morning was our much anticipated boat trip to the small islands hugging the coastline. We woke up at 6:30am and wandered down to the hotel’s breakfast room. I had fried eggs on toast, but stayed away from my usual fried rice dish given our day on a boat. We
caught
remorks to the pier, and our boat wasn’t what we expected at all. It was the smallest boat we’d had yet, and I’d have to say it wasn’t very seaworthy looking. We had to literally jump into the boat as it caught a swell and then slammed against the dock every few seconds. I have to admit I wasn’t too brave about the whole jumping thing, and it wasn’t helped by the fact that the dock was packed with lots of other similar boats and some giant ‘party boats’ all jostling for position. I sat down and engaged a death grip on the wooden plank seating until we took off. The boat ride was lots of fun, even though we were sometimes near vertical on the big waves, and the wind whipped a ferocious sea spray over all of us on the front left hand side of the boat.
We had a quick swimming and snorkelling stop at a small island, and a few of us tried our hand at fishing. I caught two baby fish and a beautiful spiky fish that was too sharp to handle with bare hands. We then made the long trip to Koh
Ta Kiev where we camped for the rest of the day. Not surprisingly, the beaches out of the central town area are much better. The islands are untouched and simply heavenly. I would imagine that certain parts of southern Thailand looked like this 20 years ago.
Even though the beach on Koh Ta Kiev was small, the quality of the sand and water was brilliant, and the chilled coastal atmosphere couldn’t be beaten. We all found shady spots around the beachside open kitchen our boat guys had set up to cook our lunch.
The sea was exactly the perfect temperature to cool off in, and we spent many hours sitting in the water chatting and laughing. There was a half hearted game of frisbee, but before long we settled back into our sun lounges with beers for Lee and Andrew and large never ending coconuts for Kim and myself. The provided lunch was lovely – BBQ chicken, baguettes, stir fried tofu and vegetables, salad and fried rice. We finished with watermelon and pineapple. Not long after, we all ended up in various post-lunch comatose positions...in hammocks, in deck chairs, on sun lounges and on sarongs on the sand.
Kim and I eventually went for a walk along the beach to check out the tree house that we had been told would be worth a look. The tree house was nothing much, but the walk on the beach was really lovely.
After a few hilarious girly star jumps on the beach, we left the island at 3pm for our 1.5 hour boat ride back to Sihanoukville. We were sun kissed and tired from a day of doing absolutely nothing! And even though it wasn’t the most comfortable boat, most of us still managed to fall asleep on the way back. However, docking at the pier was another rough and rocky effort which woke us all up very quickly.
We walked back to the hotel in the searing afternoon sun along dusty roads and amongst blaring traffic. It was a rude shock after the gentleness of Koh Ta Kiev. We decided to relax in our hotel room until dinner and spent a couple of hours lounging about and trying to catch up on the blog – we still hadn’t posted part ii of Phnom Penh!
Dinner that night was a bit of a disappointing affair. We ate at Sorin Restaurant right next to our hotel, and the BBQ whole fish that Andrew ordered wasn’t nearly as good as Angkor Beach Restaurant the night before. However, my
fish amok (fish seasoned with lemongrass paste, coconut and chilli, and steamed in banana leaf) was brilliant.
The holiday was drawing to a close, and we were leaving for Phnom Penh the next day, which was our last stop on this trip. Kim, Lee, Andrew and I went back to our hotel’s poolside cafe and had a last cocktail together in Sihanoukville.
See you in Phnom Penh people!
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Brendan Vermillion
Waiting for the Karaoke Video
I have followed your trip, but haven't commented, so wanted to say that I am enjoying following this trip. Even though there have been some obstacles and difficulties, you two have still had some great times. Thanks for writing such descriptive blogs- I feel as though I am there with you.