(Backup) Sihanoukville

We arrived in Sihanoukville at around 1 pm and our new home is  set of 11 bungalows with a swimming pool and restaurant attached. It is located just outside of the village up on the hill with a view of the Gulf of Thailand. Our hosts offered to rent us a scooter for $5 per day so that we could tour around on our own. Traffic doesn’t appear to be to crazy here as long as you stay off the highway so we rented the scooter. Bill has his international drivers licence but this was not in the original plan so he did not bring it with him. Ferat, our host told us that if he showed his Canadian licence and bribed the cops about $3 US if we were stopped it should be fine. He said they might ask for $20, but that was way too much. He said just keep the $3 in your wallet separate from the rest of your cash and it shouldn’t be a problem. Great not only do we have to worry about the traffic we now had to worry about the cops!  Bill said, relax honey it will be fine. So off we went to explore until it got dark. That was rule, we had to be back before dark!

It took a little getting used to but everyone drives really slow, 0 to 40 km max. There are no road rules other than singling when you turn. No one and I mean no one looks left when they pull out into the road, the guys coming up behind are responsible for watching, slowing down and letting you enter. That took some getting used to. Ferat, also pinned about 5 key places on maps.me to help us get around and gave me a crash course on how to use it. This proved to be our lifesaver as we just pinned where we wanted to go, hit 'route to' and I held the phone on the back of the bike and Bill listened to the directions. Ferat also created a chat group on “WhatsApp “ so that if we got into trouble we could message him. I learned a lot about these two apps this vacation, seems everyone is using them!  I tried Instagram too, but there is only so much learning I can do on vacation. 

 We managed to make it to the main city 'round about' called the 'Two Golden Lions' and made it through without getting killed. Then we decided to go the Otres Beach to see what that was like. On our way we saw some guy being pulled by another bike side by side and they were going way too fast on this terrible road. As they went by us the guy being pulled lost control and hit the ditch. Not a smart thing to do. There were lots of local people behind us so we didn’t stop. Hopefully he was ok. As we made a turn the traffic was at a stop as there was a dump struck being pulled out of the mud. Bill stopped behind a tuktuk, which we learned in a big hurry was not a good thing to do. The tuktuk started to back up and Bill hadn’t found the horn, so the two local guys who were stopped beside us started honking their horn and the guys stopped. We thanked them profusely and they just smiled back. We then pulled off to the side behind them and not the tuktuk. Riding a bike has it’s advantages as you learn to follow the locals through some tight spaces in traffic and keep going. The bigger vehicles have to stop.




 The Beach was beautiful so we stopped to have a drink and watch the sun go down. It gets dark here around 6:30 so we headed back and made it just as it was getting dark. 

Phew, not bad for our first afternoon. Tonight we stayed at our hotel for dinner, that was enough excitement for one day. 

The next day we decided to take the bike and ride up the coast to a small fishing village and maybe a beach just beyond that depending on the weather.  As part of our hotel package we received two free days at the Independence Spa Hotel on the beach so we thought we might stop there and check it out because it was on our route. We spent the morning having coffee on our bungalow deck, then had breakfast and then headed out on the bike.  Both Ferat and our cab driver had been talking about how the Chinese investors has been buying up property and building casino after casino all over Sihanoukville. At first we thought they were exaggerating, but as we drove though town it was incredible. Entire beaches had been purchased, and the existing structures smashed and huge resorts and casinos were being constructed. All the workers were being brought in from China so really no benefit to the locals. It was really quite sad to see.

 We reached Independence Beach and walked out onto the pier just in time to see a big thunder cloud heading our way. We decided to take cover at the hotel pool for a couple of hours until the storm blew over as being on the bike in a down pour didn’t seem like a good idea.  The infinity pool was lovely and due to weather there were not too many people there. The storm blew over and we decided to continue down the coast.

 From what I had read it should have been a very beautiful rural ride. Well I guess it was once you got through the port and past the oil refinery. By this time it had started to rain again so we stopped and put our rain ponchos on.   The scenery was just staring to get nice and we had about 10km to go to get to the village. By the time we arrived it was pouring again, so we took shelter in a small local store front under their tarps. There was a local guy sitting at a table and room for the bike. They were very friendly, but did not speak any English.

We managed to buy a cold beer from his cooler, luckily I had some Reil with me. When I opened the beer we checked the tab and we won another beer. The little lady was so excited. She brought another beer for me. I opened at and again we won another beer, she was about to bring it but we declined and told her she could have it. Next thing I knew she was giving me money.

By this time we had attracted the attention of  3-4 little boys that had come over to the store to join us. They all know how to say “hello” as well as a few other words. We purchased dried peanuts with the Reil the lady gave me for the beer and shared it with the boys. There was an open market across the street so we went over to see what the guy was cooking on his grill. If it would have been fish I might have tried it but it was chicken so we decided to pass and wait until we got back into town.

It was after 4pm by then so we decided to head out in the rain and make our way back home. We had seen a beautiful beach on the way out so stopped there to take a few pictures. If it had been a nice day it would have been a great spot. However as you can see it was pouring rain. But our ponchos were keeping us fairly dry and warm. Since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast we decided to eat dinner in town and then get back before dark.

Bills hands were like prunes from being on the handle bars all day in the rain.  We had found wine in the grocery store so headed back to the hotel and enjoyed the evening on our deck. 

While  we were in town we had purchased tickets for boat cruise for tomorrow and arrange to leave the bike at the tourist information booth for the day. 

We arrived at the tourist information booth and parked the bike.  There was a slight change in plans as the boat we were supposed to go on wasn't full enough so the company arranged a tuktuk driver to take us to Otres Beach to another boat.  We eventually jumped into the boat and headed out to our first stop.  This turned out to be a snorkel stop, but the current looked pretty strong and the snorkeling didn't look impressive.  We opted to stay in the boat and watch as about 4 of our passengers got caught in the current and had to be rescued by another boat.

Next stop was a beautiful beach where we spent some time swimming in the ocean and relaxing on the beach.  They cooked us up a great lunch served with cold beer and we watch the boys fish with their net right off the beach.

Then we headed out in the boat again to a cliff jumping spot.  We again opted to watch the young participants climb the rocks and jump in.

It was a beautiful day to be out on the water and we enjoyed the scenery along the way.

Our tuktuk driver was waiting for us when we landed, but we convinced him to come back in a few hours because we decided we wanted to have dinner on the beach.

 This meant a bike ride home in the dark but only from city center which was well lit and not too far.

 He agreed and we headed down the beach to find a place to eat and watch the sun set.

The prawns were to die for and the sunset spectacular!
 








On our last day we headed back to Independence Hotel to hang by the pool and relax.  After a few hours in the sun we headed out on the bike again to find a seafood restaurant we had heard about.  It wasn't anything fancy but the food was good and the view was amazing.

We flew to Phnom Penh at 6 pm for our last few days.