Sihanoukville, South Coast of Cambodia

On the 17th June I went down to Sihanoukville, which is on the south coast of Cambodia.
The bus journey is around 7 hours from Phnom Penh.

Named after King Sihanouk (the father of present day Cambodia), the town developed around a deep water port...

Maps and more info can be found here:
Sihanoukville _ Wiki Maps and Info

The area actually has 4 main beaches. Toby, the bar manager from Phnom Penh recommended i stay near Serendipity (the busiest) and Ochheuteal beaches (slightly quieter) at a place called the Beach Club Resort. Richie, the French boxer had recommended Otres beach, (the quietest beach), so i thought i'd try go there on a day trip..

As it was the last town i was visiting in Cambodia, i thought i'd splash out a little and checked into a room at the Beach Club for USD 24 a night, walking distance from the beach...






Unfortunately, on the second day in Sihanoukville, my chest started feeling pretty tight & i went to see a doctor at one of the town's medical clinics. The doctor said i actually had a chest infection, which i'd probably had for over a week but hadn't realised. I spent the next 5 days going to the medical clinic and am still taking antibiotics.
Medical clinics in Cambodia are not cheap - every time i went there for a consultation & antibiotics, the bill came to 15 - 20 USD. This is because all clinics in Cambodia are actually private businesses. I think the hospitals are free but not as good...

Of course, being on strong antibiotics meant no alchohol & no partying :(
So, i spent the next 6 days holed up in my hotel room, mainly watching TV. In fact, i may have had to do this anyway as it's the rainy season here (May to October) and it was raining practically every day.

I did manage to visit two of the beaches though :
Occheuteal beach and Serendipity (taken on a day it had rained):

But my favourite by far was Otres. It's really quiet, and now in low season, even quieter. I think there were only 25 people on the whole beach when I was there...

The beach itself had a much more 'hippy' feel than the more commercial beaches like Serendipity.
(the photo on the right shows a hippy sunbathing, to underscore this fact)..



...and it was very similar to my favourite beach in the town where i was born - Galle, Sri Lanka.
Jan, if you're reading this, i saw people doing kite surfing and wake boarding here...i'm no expert but the waves looked pretty good...


Today, I left Sihanoukville headed for the Thai/Cambodian border town of Koh Kong....