Sihanoukville, Cambodia
November 3, 2005
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End your Cambodian journey in a relaxed way
A journey through Cambodia is an attack on the senses. The horrors of the Khmer Rouge, the dust and dirt of the jungle roads and the splendour of the temples ... you simple need a day or two at the beach to deal with it all and relax before going back home.
Our journey ended with a couple of days in Sihanoukville, Cambodia's leading beach resort. This destination has been popular with the Cambodians for some time, with people coming down from Phnom Penh in the weekend, but more recently has also drawn in a lot of foreign tourists.
There's a lot of beach bars and places to relax at the towns four beaches. If you feel like doing something more adventurous you can go Island Hopping or take a short jungle tour in a National Park nearby.
Regarding Island Hopping, don't expect anything spectacular, just a relaxed day out on a boat visiting some of the islands along the coast of Sihanoukville. Below is a part of my travel journal:
We visited three islands. The first one, uninhabited, did not have a beach but we could jump out of the boat and do some swimming and snorkeling. Like on the beach, the water was amazingly warm out there. Not feeling comfortable with snorkeling equipment I just took a swim, while the others tried to see something beneath the surface, which turned out to be rather difficult in this time of year.
The second island was inhibited by some people, among whom an owner of a beach terrace. This person was quite an entrepreneur since he charged money for almost everything, from using the beach chairs to the rubber tires you could use to float in. As you can imagine this attitude did not result in the will to spend a lot of money here.
The third and last island was probably the most fun. Uninhabited and with a huge beach of .... 2 meters wide. Since there wasn't a lot to do on the beach and the sea shore had a very slight slope, making it possible to walk a long way into the sea and still be able to stand, we just ended up doing some silly water games.
Our journey ended with a couple of days in Sihanoukville, Cambodia's leading beach resort. This destination has been popular with the Cambodians for some time, with people coming down from Phnom Penh in the weekend, but more recently has also drawn in a lot of foreign tourists.
There's a lot of beach bars and places to relax at the towns four beaches. If you feel like doing something more adventurous you can go Island Hopping or take a short jungle tour in a National Park nearby.
Regarding Island Hopping, don't expect anything spectacular, just a relaxed day out on a boat visiting some of the islands along the coast of Sihanoukville. Below is a part of my travel journal:
We visited three islands. The first one, uninhabited, did not have a beach but we could jump out of the boat and do some swimming and snorkeling. Like on the beach, the water was amazingly warm out there. Not feeling comfortable with snorkeling equipment I just took a swim, while the others tried to see something beneath the surface, which turned out to be rather difficult in this time of year.
The second island was inhibited by some people, among whom an owner of a beach terrace. This person was quite an entrepreneur since he charged money for almost everything, from using the beach chairs to the rubber tires you could use to float in. As you can imagine this attitude did not result in the will to spend a lot of money here.
The third and last island was probably the most fun. Uninhabited and with a huge beach of .... 2 meters wide. Since there wasn't a lot to do on the beach and the sea shore had a very slight slope, making it possible to walk a long way into the sea and still be able to stand, we just ended up doing some silly water games.
Sihanoukville, Cambodia
Sihanoukville, Cambodia
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Relax but keep your eye on the bill
While staying in Sihanoukville we stayed a day at Chiva's Shack. A nice place with kind people, although honesty seems to have its limitations here. Below is a part of my travel journey.
Chiva's Shack turned out to be a cool place. It had beach chairs, a large terrace, a pool table, Internet (half the price of the hotel) and the 'Boom Boom Room'. The latter was a service not only providing a DJ but also the possibility of copying or burning MP3 or audio tracks to CD-Roms or your MP3-player or I-Pod. They had a huge selection from which Peter and I decided to choose some albums to add to our collection. 75 cents for an MP3 album, 1,25 dollars for an audio CD.
We hadn't quite seated ourselves in the beach chairs yet when we were approached by numerous different sales people selling all kinds of things and services. So we spend the full day at Chiva's shooting pool, drinking Angkor, having a fine lunch, getting massages, the ladies and Jaap (who later joined us) having their legs de-haired (using a strange method involving strings) and having their nails done, buying fresh fruit and bracelets, swimming in the Gulf of Thailand and generally relaxing and having a good time. What an enormous contrast with the tiring travelling, dust, temples and other physical and emotional exhausting experiences of the previous week.
After a shower and some rest we went back to Chiva's Shack at eight for dinner and more Angkor. The owner was very hospitable and asked us to make a selection of music from the PC in his living room. So we took our shoes of and went into his house, where he lived with his family.
We had some more Angkors and then we called it a day at midnight. And that's where a nasty aspect of Cambodian hospitality became apparent. We had given the people at Chiva's a generous tip earlier that day and I had even given one of the guys one of my earrings. Still, when Peter asked for the bill he noticed that they spontaneously added 5 dollars to the bill ! As you can imagine we didn't agree on paying that. So far for Buddhist's Right Intentions and 'friendship'. :-(
Chiva's Shack turned out to be a cool place. It had beach chairs, a large terrace, a pool table, Internet (half the price of the hotel) and the 'Boom Boom Room'. The latter was a service not only providing a DJ but also the possibility of copying or burning MP3 or audio tracks to CD-Roms or your MP3-player or I-Pod. They had a huge selection from which Peter and I decided to choose some albums to add to our collection. 75 cents for an MP3 album, 1,25 dollars for an audio CD.
We hadn't quite seated ourselves in the beach chairs yet when we were approached by numerous different sales people selling all kinds of things and services. So we spend the full day at Chiva's shooting pool, drinking Angkor, having a fine lunch, getting massages, the ladies and Jaap (who later joined us) having their legs de-haired (using a strange method involving strings) and having their nails done, buying fresh fruit and bracelets, swimming in the Gulf of Thailand and generally relaxing and having a good time. What an enormous contrast with the tiring travelling, dust, temples and other physical and emotional exhausting experiences of the previous week.
After a shower and some rest we went back to Chiva's Shack at eight for dinner and more Angkor. The owner was very hospitable and asked us to make a selection of music from the PC in his living room. So we took our shoes of and went into his house, where he lived with his family.
We had some more Angkors and then we called it a day at midnight. And that's where a nasty aspect of Cambodian hospitality became apparent. We had given the people at Chiva's a generous tip earlier that day and I had even given one of the guys one of my earrings. Still, when Peter asked for the bill he noticed that they spontaneously added 5 dollars to the bill ! As you can imagine we didn't agree on paying that. So far for Buddhist's Right Intentions and 'friendship'. :-(
Chiva's Shack, Sihanoukville, Ca…
