Sihanoukville to Siem Reap
5 September – 11 September
As I said in my last post, we had no real plans to go down to Sihanoukville. It is a small town on the Cambodian coast with a great beach, great bars and many stunning islands off the coast. That being said we have lots of beach time planned in the coming weeks in Thailand so we hadn’t factored in a stay; that is, until, everybody we have met recommended it.
It is easy enough to get to; from Phnom Penh it’s one bus ride away and this took us around five hours. We were optimistic as it was raining in Phnom Penh and we thought that once this passed we’d be in for some quality sunshine and beach time in Sihanoukville. We thought, “Stay here for four days or so and if we like it we may get a week out of it.”
Even though it rained relentlessly for the four nights we we still had a good time. The guesthouse we stayed at was run by a retired couple from Nottingham and they ran the place like their own home. We got a bargain in our room as we managed to bag the Sea View villa that normally goes for $100 a night in peak season for $35 – a bit of a stretch on our budget but we knew we wanted some down time and with little to do on the beach we watched a couple of DVDs and drank a lot of tea in the beach bar.
Whatever the season you’re guaranteed a good night in Sihanoukville and of the four nights we were there, the first two are currently the most drunk we’ve been on the trip so far. We were helped by the fact it was the weekend as many people from Phnom Penh make the trip to Sihanoukville for a blow out. The Cambodians can drink. I really recommend this place but September is NOT the month to come here as it is the worst month for rainfall, in high season they don’t get a drop. Right place, wrong time.
When we woke up on our fifth day there and it was still raining we had had enough and decided it was time to get up to Siem Reap. I looked at flights from Phnom Penh and realised we could make an afternoon flight if we hurried up and spent $50 on a taxi up to Phnom Penh. I wasn’t too bothered about the cost as it would have worked out about the same to stay the night in Sihanoukville, get the early bus and then fly.
Siem Reap was a strange sort of place – we had been recommended a guesthouse that was about 1km out of the town centre and, as it’s low season, was deserted – I felt like Jack Nicholson in The Shining. A short tuk-tuk into town though and it’s a much busier place. Much more ‘backpackerish’ than we have been used to in the previous few places as it is more of a tourist town than metropolises such as Hanoi, Saigon and Phnom Penh. People come here for one reason and that is Angkor Wat. Angkor was the ancient capital and it is littered with temples that the Cambodians take a lot of pride in. Some people stay a week here taking in all of the temples in what must be porn for historians and archaeologists. Angkor Wat is the main attraction and it is a wonderfully preserved temple and you can’t help but be amazed at the achievement to build such a thing in the 12th century. It wasn’t too busy but whether it was the rain or the fact that Pezza & I are just not that cultural, Angkor Wat failed to blow me away in the way I expected – maybe it’s the whole expectation of it but I much preferred surrounding sights such as The Bayon.
Having got our picture and ticked it off the list we made our way back to town and arranged our flights to Vientiane, the Laos capital, for the following day before tucking in to my final Khmer curry of the trip and a few drinks.
It was a bit of a drag leaving Cambodia, the country is torn by its past and even now there are still many landmines scattered around the countryside. That being said, the Cambodians are easily my favourite people I have met on this trip – always up for a giggle and very laid back.
For the latest pictures click here
Show on map (link is for Sihanoukville)
Since writing we’ve whizzed through Laos – I’ll hopefully have everything up to date in the next day or two, the internet’s not quite been up to scratch around here.
Amazing a taxi to Phnom Pehn is only $50! That’s not a short journey!
I loved Bayon and Te Phrom more than Ankor…although the sheer size of it all is impressive enough.
It took us three hours, assuming the guy didn’t get a pick up in Phnom Penh it does seem cheap by our standards; nut then compare it to what a Cambodian would usually earn in a day. We have seen many tuk-tuk drivers go a whole day without a job (probably as it’s low season). Even when you hire one of those for a few hours and give them $10 – $15 they are very happy.
Siem Reap “must be porn for historians and archaeologists” — that’s a great line!