2/11/09 Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville Monday

We checked out of our hotel and left our big bags there to meet up with Diamond our great tour sorter, bit of a character and fingers in many pies we think, everyone seems to know him. He had said he would arrange the drive to the bus station in time for the 7.45 bus but by 7.42 there was still no transport for us. Loads of the roads were shut due to the festival and eventually the tuk tuk came to take us to the bus. Diamond said "no problem the bus will wait" and it did. We arrived and it was still there, so we boarded for the ride to the coast. We passed through loads of lovely countryside with stilted houses and many rice fields with farm workers out with their water buffalo. The bus movie was a Michael Jackson movie of his videos followed by the usual Khmer karaoke disc which are played everywhere and a Cambodian history film dubbed in American which was really bad. Thank goodness for the good views. As we neared Sihanoukville famous for its sweeping white sand bays and blue sea we had our first glimpse of the Gulf of Thailand. We were looking forward to a few days relaxing on the white sand beach. We stopped at the bus station and got a tuk tuk to take us to a guest house called Mick and Craigs recommended in the Lonely Planet but they were full. We stopped for lunch there, then carried on up the road in the direction of the beach to find some accomodation. We stopped and looked at a room in the next place called Monkey Republic which were $5 each and had bathroom and fan. It was a prety good room but we decided to take a look closer to the beach as we had heard about beach bungalows which all sounded very nice. As the festival was on in Phnom Pehn alot of the people who live there escape the madness to stay at the beach for a few days so it was really busy there too. We went to a few places which were full but eventually found a room in Leng Meng beach bungalows right on the beach....or so we thought!!! There was a gateway straight onto Serendipity beach from our guesthouse but unfortunately about two weeks before there had been bad storms and the beach had been washed away. There was a really narrow strip of sand left and no room for sun loungers of sunbathing, but we decided to take a walk along to see what was there anyway. We negotiated sandbags, tree roots, sewage outlet pipe and many pieces of flotsam to get along the beach to where it was a bit wider. The whole beach is lined with beach bars all with really cheap beers and barbecue food. It was great to watch the families there who were all going swimming with rubber rings and with all their clothes on. It was the Khmer national holidays so the beach was packed with happy families all running in and out of the water, it was all very happy and we really enjoyed watching it all. There were lots of girls and ladies walking along the beach selling beauty treatments and bits of handmade jewellery, fruits and barbecue squid. We walked along for a while then stopped in a bar on the way back to our hotel. We were surrounded by loads of the sales girls pestering us to buy some things and Liz decided to have her legs dehaired. The girls were using cotton to remove hair by twisting it and pulling the hair out in the twist. It was really painful and Liz spent the whole time squirming. Several girls joined the fun and took it in turns to try and get rid of the hair. They were all complaining that the hair was really strong and it was very difficult. Liz felt relly good about that as you can imagine but had nice smooth legs in the end...hope you all enjoyed that bit and weren't eating you tea at the time you read it. A small boy came along selling hand held fireworks which he demonsrtrated for another man next to us, by holding out the lit firework out at arms length and shooting the little rockets out towards the sea. Phil decided to get one which had 80 fireworks in it and stood like an excited little boy being naughty on the seashore firing off the rockets into the sea. At the same time the whole length of the beach lit up as hundreds of these fireworks were let off. For about two hours there was a continuous stream of lights shooting into the water like nothing we had seen before. We could also see some fire dancers in the distance in both directions performing with huge flaming ropes and sticks. The atmosphere was just as good at night as it had been during the day...the Cambodians really know how to have a good time. We walked to a different bar where there was a little bit of beach left to sit on and ate supper there whilst watching the fireworks and firedancers perform. Liz was still feeling a bit rough so we had another early night.

3/11/09 Sihanoukville Tuesday

We had a lovely lazy start to our day then went with our laundry into town to drop it off. We were at the Utopia information desk to ask about better beaches and managed to arrange a lift on a moto the next day. Phil was a bit dubious as it would mean three of us on a small bike but after the sights we have seen three on a bike is really the norm here. The driving is so slow that if there was an accident you would escape reasonably unharmed but you woudn't dream of doing it in the UK. We then spent a few hours catching up on the internet then went to the market where there was a real party atmosphere with hundreds of Cambodians out enjoying themselves. We spotted a casino over the road and thought we would check it out, went in and found a few wealthy Cambodians playing poker. We sat at the roulette table and waited for a croupier to come over. They laughed when we asked for our chips as it was for such a small amount and after three spins of the wheel we were out of chips...hopeless!! We then went up into the more touristy part of town as there looked to be a few good bars. We stopped in Monkey Republic for food and some drinks then moved onto the Utopia bar which was lined with young Cambodian girls out looking for some Western company...and suceeding with loads of young and old men hanging off them....eurgh!!! We have seen a fair bit of Ting Tong action here but not on the same scale as in Vietnam. We stayed for a drink then went to another bar next to our hotel where we had another drink before heading to bed.

4/11/09 Sihanoukville Wednesday

We were met by our moto driver and headed off to see Otres beach, a continuaton of Serendipity beach but about 5km further along the coast. We had chatted to a Scottish couple the day before who said it was a much better beach. We had to get off the bike and walk for a steep section as the bike wouldn't have coped with all of us. It felt really safe though as the driver took it all very slowly and carefully. As soon as we arrived at Otres beach we were greeted by white sands and clear blue seas. We stopped at Danys bar and arranged to be picked up later in the day so we had a free day on the beach to relax...bliss and about time !! Dany was a chap from Seattle married to a Cambodian woman who together ran the beach bar and restaurant. They had been in the states wth their little girl for twelve months but had returned to Cambodia to live. Their daughter could only speak English though so couldn't speak to all the locals who were visiting the family. No doubt she will pick it up soon. We had some breakfast at the bar then settled on some sunbeds for the day. We spent our day sunbathing, swimming in the really warm sea and generally relaxing. Unfortunately we had to jump into action at one point when somebody managed to swim with the waist belt on soaking all our money!!! We won't mention who it was but needless to say he spent the next hour drying out the notes using Lizzies fingers as a washing line..he said he was money laundering !!! We spent a lot of time deflecting sales tactics from all kinds of locals trying to sell us manicures, massage, fresh fruit and jewellery and Phil finally relented and had an all over massage whilst lying on his sun lounger, very decadant and for only $6 . We also had some fresh pineapple from a little girl which was delicious. Our moto driver arrived to take us back to town and we asked him to drop us along the beach from our hotel so we could walk back along it. As we drove along we passed a few big hotel construction sites. they were huge and our driver asked us if our house in the UK was the same size..we wish! All the people in Vietnam and Cambodia must think westerners live a luxurious life with huge houses and loads of desposible cash. As we were leaving him he asked us if we would like to go to a Khmer resturant a little way from town which he knew. we agreed to meet him later to eat there as it sounded good. We walked from Occheuteal beach onto Serendipity beach which was pretty quiet compared to the last two days. Some holiday makers were still there jumping into the waves with all their clothes on. We walked along the beach to our hotel and were shocked to see that the little sand that had remained had now been washed away too. The bar we had sat on the beach outside no longer had a beach seating area. It is really sad as there will be no rescue plan or sand shifting here like at Noosa in Australia which suffered the same fate. We stopped for a drink in another bar where we chatted to an Aussie guy who really reminded us of a friend of ours. We chatted to him for a while and he spends several months a year here visting his girlfriends in Cambodia and Thailand. He said that the businesses down this end of the beach would be out of business and the government weren't interested in helping as they were building loads of luxury hotels and didn't want the lovely beach bars there anyway. We went back to the hotel and changed for dinner to meet up with our moto driver. He picked us up and we drove about 10 minutes out of town to a restaurant. We had thought he would eat with us but he just dropped us off and left us for an hour to eat. It was a bit bizarre as we were the only non locals there but it was good food. We went back to town and had another drink in Utopia bar watching an extreme mountain bike DVD on the big screen then went off to bed.....lightweights.

5/11/9 Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh

A tuk tuk took us to the bus station early to catch our bus to Phnom Penh. We passed through towns and villages along the way and could watch the Cambodian life go by. The people here are very poor with very basic living conditions and are still using traditional cooking and farming techniques which is all very quaint for the tourists to see but is a hard life . The houses in the rural areas are mostly wooden constructions on stilts, sometimes with a corrugated iron roof but some are thatched. There are fires burning in most of the homes under the stoves and children playing outside making their own fun and swimming where water is there to play in. It is great to just watch the goings on as the bus passes through and most of the people wave and smile as we pass by. Occasionally we pass a randomly placed mobile phone shop in the middle of nowhere. However poor the people are they seem to have a mobile phone so we are definately ripped off in the West as these people can't be paying very much. We arrived back to Phnom Penh and were met by Diamond who gave us a lift to our hotel where Liz was greeted by the owner with a big welcome back hug. We dropped our stuff off in the room and went to and Irish bar (Rorys) next door for a bite to eat, then went to the royal palace for a visit. We had a tour guide inside the complex who took us to see the main buildings inside including the throne room, the silver pagoda and the gardens too. The throne room was all golden in decoration and was immaculate with a throne at the end only used when the King is crowned. The present king is a single man who lives alone at the palace with his staff. He prays at the silver pagoda within the palace grounds so named because the floor is tiled in 5000 solid siver tiles. There is one guard to watch the pagoda which is full of precious metal and jewelled statues of Buddha as well as the tiles themselves. The grounds and buildings of the royal palace are very impressive and really immaculate. All the buildings have yellow roof tiles which appear golden when the sun is shining on them. Strangely the whole complex was left untouched by the Khmer Rouge as Pol Pot had respect for the royal family, which seems at odds with his philosophy of equality for all. In the garden area there were many lovely Stupas commemorating previous royal family members including one for the four year old daughter of one king who died of malaria. Her stupa is the only one the public can climb as it is felt as a child she would want to be with people and play. The adult stupas are kept quiet to let the deceased lie in peace. There was a French style building that was presented to the royal family by Napoleon that is now used as an office building. We really enjoyed the look around and were glad we had a chance to see it after it being closed before for the festival. We walked from the palace to our favourite resturant Anjali on the river front to get dinner overlooking the river. Phnom Penh had a much quieter feel now that the festival was over. We stayed there for a while people watching then went to bed .