Cambodian Beaches

We decided to bypass the capital, Phnom Penh, and go straight to the beaches of Cambodia.

File this under: "Unexpected mode of transportation"

 The NIGHT BUS from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville was bunk-bed style. The bottom bunk was literally the floor of the bus and the "bed" was a doubles mat on one side of the aisle, that the girls shared, and singles (for the dads) on the other side.  I actually got more sleep than I would have imagined.

Before we made it to an island, we decided to give the coast a try.  Imagining Sihanoukville as an ugly port town, we went south to Otres Beach which is billed as a quiet alternative.  

Notes on Otres:

• We arrived to find our booking overbooked, so we had to scramble for a more expensive alternative.
• The "mainstreet" was a muddy potholed affair and many businesses were not operating this time of year (low season).  Thus it was difficult to find many food options, no walkable market, few restaurants.
• The water was quite WARM, really warm, but the beach was kind of trashy and the bracelet touts are persistent.
• We have recommended people skip the coast and head directly to one of the islands.
• This region is full of Chinese developers, which are shutting locals out of property and employment opportunities.

We booked a 3 island tour off Otres that included snorkeling and lunch on a long boat.  It turned out to be only 2 stops with a non-English speaking boatman.  He did collect these specimens for us to see... or for his dinner (not sure which, but they sat out in the sun for hours and died).   The visibility was not far beyond your toes, so snorkeling the shallow reef was creepy.

Our next stop was taking the speed ferry from Sihanoukville to Koh Rong Sanloem Island. We booked rooms at the swanky "The One" resort.  This was our most expensive lodging of the trip, but only $80 to compare with Western standards.  The Carrolls had a 2-room suite in a fairly new building. The Boyans' building next door was so new, it did not have hot water yet.

Pick your pleasure: room-adjacent pool or beach-front pool.

There was not a lot to do on the island (low season) so we spent our days lazing around, swimming in the warm, calm Saracen Bay, walking, or hopping from pool to pool.

Maya used YouTube to find portrait tutorials and spent lots of her free time practicing drawing. She really developed some amazing skills!