Sihanoukville

We've officially been in Cambodia for two weeks now, although it seems like we've been here for months! After spending 10 days in Phnom Penh we headed down to the beach for a holiday in Sihanoukville. Our guesthouse was only 3 blocks away from Occheteal beach and was owned /operated by a wonderful Khmer family. We had a nice room with two queen beds and A/C for only $15/night!

We arrived in the late afternoon and our first mission, after checking into our guesthouse, was to find cold beer and some good food. On the advice of Abbie (Mack and Sam's cousin, who had visited Sihanoukville just weeks before), we went in search of the nearest reggae bar. Thankfully we didn't have to walk far, just down the street we found Jamrock, an Italian owned reggae joint, that had amazing food and even better company! We met the owners Irene and Andre who are Italian expats that have been living in Cambodia for a year. We sat, ate and drank for 7 hours swapping stories, advice and complaining about how hard it is to learn Khmer. Cait, who studied Italian in college, carried on whole conversations with them in Italian, which they really appreciated! It was an amazing start to our holiday!!

Eating dinner at Jamrock

We spent most days laying on the beach, drinking $0.50 draft beers, eating fresh seafood, and practicing our Khmer with the locals. Our favorite afternoon snack were mini lobsters fried in mild chili paste that the locals sold on the beach, we bought at least 10 per day! We met an amazing girl on the first day selling lobsters, her name was Sang and we all became fast friends. She would make a point to track us down everyday to sell us her best lobsters at the best price. One day she spent an hour with us teaching us new Khmer phrases and correcting our pronunciation. On our last day, she gave each of us a present and hugs! We will miss her and her lobsters.

Sam and Cait hanging out at the beach getting their legs waxed. Sam is enjoying it much more then Cait! =)

One afternoon we spent a few hours exploring Wat Leu (the huge Buddhist temple perched on top of the tallest hill in Sihanoukville). The grounds were absolutely beautiful, full of nature and ornate buildings. We arrived during afternoon prayer, so we were greeted by the sound of Monks singing, chanting and praying. 

We also took two day trips out to Bamboo Island. The trip cost us $15/person and included breakfast, lunch, drinks, and two stops at little islands where we had the opportunity to go snorkeling. We were all super excited about the snorkeling until we were warned about the sea urchins and our fears of sharks, whales, and large fish kicked in. We spent about 5 minutes in the water, then promptly got out. Being out on Bamboo Island was really peaceful! Next time we're at the beach, we plan to stay a few nights to get away from the hustle and bustle of the mainland beaches.

We had seen a few signs around the beach for the once a week, Saturday only, 4pm-LATE, Otres Market, our friends Irene and Andre had also recommended that we check it out, so we did. We really had no idea what to expect and when we got there our minds were blown! It was an amazing set up...at the time we described it as the Oregon Country Fair on the Bayou. There were tons of wooden stalls with expats selling their jewelry, clothing and other goodies, as well as tons of food stalls and live western music. We browsed the shops, got some food, then sat on the ground on the beautiful wooden dock, played cards and listened to all the awesome artists. We met some amazing people from all over the world, and thoroughly enjoyed the change of pace.

One of our favorite things about the beach was the easy access to delicious, cheap food. In addition to the amazing fresh seafood we ate during the day, at night we would feast on the best BBQ in the world (sorry Dad!). Beef, chicken, squid, clams, prawns and fish barbequed to perfection and served with cabbage salad, a baked potato and the best sauce in the universe. Our last night we ended up ordering an extra plate because it was just that good! 

Overall our experience in Sihanoukville was much different than our experience in Phnom Penh. In Phnom Penh we spend all of our time doing the Khmer thing with Cambodian people, in contrast, Sihanoukville was the first time we've done the touristy stuff and truly felt like tourists. Just staying in the touristy area was eye opening and at times extremely annoying. From sunrise to sunset, the beaches were packed with Cambodian women and children trying to sell you anything and everything; bracelets, fireworks, massages, manicures, pedicures, leg waxing, eyebrow tweezing, Chinese lanterns, fruit, and seafood of all kinds. Then when the sun goes down, the sex industry comes out and is shoved in your face. It was crazy how many old white men were 'accompanied' by beautiful Khmer woman at dinner. And we were all disturbed by how disgusting the men looked, gorging themselves on delicious food and cheap drinks, while the Khmer women just sat there looking bored. It's very apparent that with tourism, comes the sex trade, but we were all surprised how blatant and in-your-face it was.

We were all truly heartbroken to see all of the landmine amputees begging for money on the beach. Though, even worse, were the small children out past dark, begging for scraps and spare change. The whole experience was much different then we expected. Thankfully, we were able to escape most of the negatives of the tourist beaches by heading to the Khmer beach and hanging out where the locals do. We still had the occasional person wanting to sell us seafood or a disabled person asking for money, but it was much less. And the best part was that the sex industry was no where to be found.

Lesson learned, DON'T GO WHERE ALL THE TOURISTS GO, get off the beaten path! Having said that, though, we did enjoy some aspects of the tourist trade, for example we all bought ridiculously awesome traditional Khmer trousers which are simply too silly to be sold in Phnom Penh. Plus, Mack would start going through withdrawal symptoms if she didn't buy a barbequed squid on a stick from one of the wandering beach-side vendors at least once a day. In fact, it was very noticeable how the vendors' treatment of you would change according to your treatment of them. It's no wonder that the vendors can be overbearing at times when the majority of their customers dehumanize them by treating them as mere nuisances – or, worse, by propositioning them for sex as they try to do their jobs. A good example of this is Sang who at the start of the week we affectionately called “our lobster lady”, but by the end we were honored to call our friend. It was startling how happy it made her to sit and talk with us, simply because we treated her like a person and not an annoyance. We very much enjoyed her charming company when she would take some respite from walking the beach by sitting with us. As for many of the other vendors, a polite “no, thank you” in Khmer was enough to send them smiling on their way, or to strike up a conversation about how good our Khmer is!

We are back in Phnom Penh now and are happy to be home. Next week our adventures will take us up North, to Siem Reap to visit the ancient temples of Angkor and meet up with our awesome Thai friend, Pope :)

Cheers!