Sihanouk ville, Cambodia's paradise

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It is our last day in Sihanouk Ville. And there is not much else to be said about this place than it is a paradise. It's perfect. White beaches, clear water which officially has 27 degrees Celsius but it feels like 40 or 50, mainly in the afternoons and close to the shore. Almost too hot for swimming sometimes. And with a view of lots of tiny islands all around. It's spectacular. And I never looked this brown before. Davy says I look brazilian 😊 We originally wanted to skip the south of Cambodia as I was worried it'd be packed with tourists here but we chose to stay on Otres beach, the most quiet and nicest beach of Sikanouh ville and there are almost no people at all. Also the prices are reasonable and I think we can survive with 20 dollars each per day mainly as our money are running low we are choosing accommodation according to price and not quality. At first we stayed in an en suite hut for 8 dollars per night but it turned out we weren't the only inhabitants. There was a rat living there. Yes a rat, not a mouse, as Davy was saying "this big". No actually "THIIIIS BIG". But he was exaggerating a little. anyway it turned out it was actually more of them and they were ruling the place and they wouldn't let us sleep as they were really noisy and running into our things and after 3rd night when they decided to chew up both our toothpastes we gave up and moved out. So we are staying in a bamboo hut on stilts, it doesn't have a bathroom and no it doesn't feel safe at all as the stilts are at least 3 metres tall and the floor is bouncing everytime we walk but it is only 7 dollars per night and we have the real Cambodian experience of a house on stilts. Also it's directly on the beach so we couldn't ask for more. This place kind of feels like the movie Beach, it's perfect and quite surprisingly the first item on a menu in our guesthouse is "a joint 1,50$" followed by happy herb pizza and a mushroom shake. Or special mushroom shake that comes with a free joint. Well Davy tried one but honestly you must be able to eat mushrooms, it doesn't have any effect if you only drink the milk and leave the mushrooms. Talking about food, it's a little bit strange that although Cambodian are Buddhists they really don't have any vegeterian meals and all they typical like Luk lak (yummy gravy), amok (coconuty curry) or ginger fry don't exist as a veg option and always come with a selection of either pork, beef, chicken, fish or shrimp. Also I should thanks to the French for colonizing Cambodia as having fresh baguette in the middle of Asia is a delight. "God loves Cambodia" was written on one of the t-shirts I saw around, I am not sure how much truth is in that but Cambodians love hammocks, that's for sure. It's amazing seeing all of them from wee babies to old people swinging in them all day long. We went for a day trip to 3 of the islands and did some snorkelling which was unbeliavable, the amount of corals and fish so close to us was really surprising and so colourful. Davy found starfish that had at least 50 cm in a diameter, it was huge and I got a souvenir in a form of lots of tiny spikes in my big toe as I managed to step on a sea urchin. It's sore like a hell. We got a scooter yesterday and it was amazing to be driving around freely outside the touristy beach and we found absolutely lovely beach and Davy is actually quite a good driver. And then in the evening we experienced this mad storm, the power went off and it was one lightening after another with proper monsoon-like rain and if you wonder if the bamboo huts are waterproof, they are not so there was water pouring through the roof and it was crazy but really nice in a way. So yes to be absolutely honest we got stuck here and it is really hard to leave the paradise on Earth. Davy is thinking about getting a job here or opening his own business (both of which actually seem to be easy to do as we talked to lots of foreigners working here) and we are definitely gonna buy bus tickets today so we can continue our journey tomorrow. We will go to Kratie for a day and hopefully to Banlung and then we will try and cross the border to Laos. Will upload some pics soon and keep you posted what we are up to.

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Comments

[sylva]

I'm applying to be your first employee, ok? It sounds soo great! I look forward to see the pictures (to check whether the paradise was not only your mushroom fantasy...;)). Take care and enjoy...