Left Phnom Penh on a bus for the coast town of Sihanoukville which I think is named after King Sihanouk of Cambodia but haven’t checked that little fact. After Nomads Land we returned to experience the town which breaks down into three sections: the actual town with lots of places to stay and many backpacking hostels, the beaches a few km outside called Otres 1 and 2 and the Islands.
As we had already been to Nomads Land and the two Otres beach areas looked amazing and still undeveloped we decided to stay at PatPat on Otres 1. Little guest house with a pool but in reality the beach is so nice who needs a pool really if only to wash off the salt at the end of the day.
White sand and warm water with large swathes of beach virtually to yourself we decided that our chill factor had definitely moved down another notch “ohh pass me my sunglasses and a coconut dear”.
Fruit and coconuts and even king prawns were in abundance from the colourful beach ladies for ‘one dallar’, and still you negotiate. I think the pics tell it all.
Saturday night is the big night at Otres with the Otres Night Market, a gathering place for all new and old hippies who for one reason or another are stranded on the Cambodian coast plus the holiday makers and travellers. Surprisingly and despite looking and smelling like the old London Ken (Kensington) markets it was pretty well organised, a wooden barn-like open air structure with hemp pants / jewellery stalls to the left and food on the right a mix of vegie and vegan, Mexican and BBQ but times have changed so there was a Russian pastry stall as well, I liked that. Music, not bad, till 4am and then a tuk tuk back.
Despite Otres consisting of just the beach and 2 rows of hotels and restaurants on either side of a dirt road, which was frequented by a band of cows that come to town to go through the bins, we found one of the tastiest Italian restaurants this side of Naples (Malene’s words) ravioli to die for, pizzas yum and no hole left in your pocket and right on the beach.
We could have stayed there much longer and we were sad to leave…
What a tough time you are having..deciding where next to chill out?! (Only jealous). The Russian stall…shades of recent influences in Cyprus? Spoke to your Mum on Skype yesterday. She was cheerful as ever and looked well. She gave a rendition of a rude song from her army days! Happy Birthday! Love to you both, Joan
Hi Joan
Thanks for following our plod around the world, it is very chilled and using buses rather than flying adds to it. I also skyped mum but the connection was poor so we had to cut it short, she was well but Sue reminded her that her back was playing up so she had to correct her first assessment of how she was.
Keep in touch love nick and malene