"Ach, mein Gott, I cannot eat this," Renate Schönbach said, looking at the fried tarantula on her plate. 

Only a few days earlier this woman, who is forever in search of new and different things to do and try, took what I thought would be a journey down the dysentery freeway when she ordered fish and shrimp from the open market in Kep. The seafood that sits on the counters in this smoke-filled, hot and smelly market, are hatcheries and toilets for the countless flies that surely love these conditions. I said as much, then picked up the arachnid from her plate and wolfed it down. 

 
With a day left in Cambodia it's reflection time:
 
We'll fondly remember our dinners at the Sunshine Cafe on Otres. We'd sit at a table on the beach and most nights eat barbecued barracuda by candlelight. And each evening, as though on a timer switch, a cool breeze would sweep over us. And of course for the final month we had the Schönbachs and our old dog Rover who would greet us and lie by our table each and every night.

 
For one crazy reason or another Elenka and I found ourselves sleeping in 17 different beds during our two months in Cambodia. But each and every one of the beds was incredibly firm; my back feels better than it has in years.

 
Unfortunately, the barracuda, the breeze, the dog, and the better than ever back weren't enough:
 
Otres Beach is part of an approximately 11 kilometre stretch that makes up the beaches of Sihanoukville Town. It's the only one that's relatively clean. One day we went for a long walk. At a beach called Serendipity there is a sign that asks people not to litter. Still there is litter everywhere. Even on stretches of vacant beach trash is abundant. There's a beautiful 2 kilometre stretch of beach between Otres 1 and Otres 2. There are three toilets spread out along the way, but they're all padlocked shut. Yet on that same stretch of beach there are finely manicured hedges. Where do the weekend masses make toilet? In the finely manicured hedges, of course. There are no trash bins along this route either. Refuse is collected in a when-they-get-around-to-it manner and burned in selected spots just across the street from the beach. There's nothing like the black smoke of 1,000 disposable plastic water bottles each Monday morning.   
 
 
Five years ago the government told business owners on Otres Beach that soon their properties would be torn down. Since that time - even though they're all still there - the owners have done nothing to maintain their properties. The result is leaking cabina roofs, and in some cases whole buildings that look as though they're about to collapse. Couple that with an abundance of rats because of the garbage; boom-boom base music from midnight to seven which is permitted through police bribery; recreational drugs out the ying-yang; over-priced food and accommodation; and no coral reef to speak of, and you soon find that it's not the place you really want to be. 
 
 
Most visitors to Cambodia have a notion that they're going to an exotic adventureland. And because of its proximity to the rest of South East Asia, it's an easy 'bucket list' tick off country. Ten or more years ago it was enchanting. Now, those days are gone. 

 
Bottom line: Go to a beach in Thailand. There are probably more than a thousand of them that are better than almost all of the ones in Cambodia.