Sianoukville

Friday 31st

We thought we better book ahead since we had trouble in Kampot with finding accommodation and the fact that we would be getting in on NYE, we called about 20 places on the 29th and the only one that actually had a room was charging $40 and it was only a fan room. We took this as we had no other option.

We got into Sianoukville around 2pm, put our stuff in our rooms and immediately went out to look for our next hotel. Straight away we were hassled by tuk tuk drivers, one said that everyone was booked and that he could take us to the other side of town to a place that might not be full, oh yeah...for $5. No thanks. The entire beach area was covered in hotels so we figured we'd try there first. We asked at a few and they had rooms but wanted way too much, the third try had a room and we got it down to $20 (on arrival she gave us air con as well). So we booked there for the next three nights, so much for everything being full. I should note that they wanted $40 for NYE as well, so it would appear everyone hiked they're prices up. It was basically across the road which was very convenient.The area we stayed in was called Occhuteal Beach. The hotels were less than 100m away.


Before dinner we went to the mini mart where we got a bottle of vodka and coke for $7.50. The mart also had fireworks so i indulged myself. We had dinner at the place next door to our next hotel as well as NYE drinks. $2 buckets, $2 cocktails and $1 mixers. We went to the beach after dinner, it's not a very big beach in terms of depth, it is however 4km long. The sand was full of revellers letting off fireworks, although they all seemed to have the same shitty ones. We went back to the restaurant to sit and drink some more as they were cheaper than the beach side establishments. In hindsight this was not a god move, considering we had a bottle of vodka to drink.

Before heading to the beach i got some more fireworks. There was no countdown (even in Khmer) and no official fireworks. Since people were constantly letting them of it was hard to tell when new year's was without looking at the time. By 1:30am we weren't in the best of shape, Kay felt sick so we headed back, along the way i was talking shit to anyone who would listen, or not listen. Like clockwork after going inside our room, Kay was throwing up in the toilet and i followed in the sink. Overall a good night, bar that.


Saturday 1st

We had to get up to move hotels, which wasn't very pleasant to do. We went straight to bed, i wasn't feeling good and threw up again after midday. We didn't go out for lunch, i tend not to be hungry when hungover. We did a combination of sleeping and watching t.v all afternoon. Went out for dinner, did nothing more.

Sunday 2nd

We got up very late, went out for lunch and went along the beach. Surprisingly the beach was full of locals, not tourists. The street we were on was full of restaurants and at night they all had a bbq out the front. We went to a place that was full of people for dinner, it was pretty good as well.

Monday 3rd

We went to the same restaurant that we had dinner at for lunch. Today was the day that we would finally go to the beach!! The nicest beach (Otres Beach) was 7km away so we decided to go there instead of the packed Occhuteal or Serendipity beaches. We rented bicycles for the trip, the bikes were pretty crap, hard seats, bad brakes and both were to tall for Kay. Weird considering she's the same height as the average Cambodian girl.

The ride was fine (other than the seat) until we got to a dirt road, which is very hard on a non-mountain bike. We eventually got to Otres Beach, the water was crystal clear and the sand was an off-white colour. The water was very shallow, we had to go in so far just to get shoulder deep. It was the typical Cambodian day - 30+ degrees and the water was warm but very very nice. We spent a few hours here. Unfortunately, eventhough we charged Kay's camera the night before, the battery was dead so we could not take any photos. 

We went to the beach for dinner, although they were doing the same things as everywhere else. It was annoying on the beach as we had beggers and people selling shit constantly asking us. Some kids actually took some bread of the guy on the table next to us.


Sianoukville was a place where we were meant to do things, particularly since we didn't do much in Kep and Kampot. We decided against renting a motorbike since the police like to 'fine' tourists, we saw many being pulled over. Prices for tours in Cambodia are so much more expensive than in Vietnam, just to go to Ream National Park was $22 and snorkeling trips were $15+. Nha Trang was better than Sianoukville, although Otres Beach was very very nice and the perfect place for a relaxing dip. I would say Sianoukville is worth visiting, we just didn't ultilise our time here effectively, although NYE was to blame.

Sianoukville was annoying in terms of touts. We were constantly bombarded with offers of moto and tuk-tuk rides. You couldn't walk out of your hotel without someone asking you.They don't seem to realise that if we want to go somewhere, we will ask. You shouldn't bother asking when you can see we've walked past five who asked us already. Even if we wanted to go on a tuk-tuk, they simply asked way to much for the distance and time of your trip.