Asia Step 5 - Cambodia Chilling in Sihanoukville (Otres Beach)

For your culture my friend, historically, Norodom Sihanouk was the Cambodian King between 1941 and 1955, and then again from 1993 to 2004. He was called by Cambodian people "King Father" or "Royal Father", and was beloved by his country. During his first reign, he negotiated that the French leave Cambodia, he also hardly try to keep Cambodian people neutral, away from the battle between western imperialism and Vietnamese communism. After the General Lon Nol's putsch, Sihanouk had to leave. The civil war began, between the Lon Nol army, pro-American and a Republic, and the famous Khmer Rouge, communist. During the civil war, Sihanouk lent his support to the Khmer Rouge, those who won the war.

Nowadays, his eldest son, Sihanouk Sihamoni has the throne.

I learn it from Cambodian people I meet and through a book I bought here : Survival in the Killing Fields, by Ngor Heng.

We arrive by bus, as usual, in Sihanoukville, in the South, at the sea (Gulf of Thailand, South China Sea). We find a tuk-tuk, or in fact a tuk-tuk finds us and brings us to as small restaurant downtown, where we want to take our lunch, as we are starving. (I will write about this place in the next post). Then he drives us to our actual area, Otres Beach. There, we find our hotel, Magic Tree.

We're not right at the beach, but 6 minutes walking are enough to finally have our feet in the white sand. The landscape is totally amazing. The long white beach, sprinkled by some trees and few Asian tourists and locals, faces some islands in the middle of the blue and warm water.

It's exactly how we need it, calm and chill.

After a swimming, we spend our first evening at the bar of our hotel, surrounded by Russians, drinking few beers.

During the night, we have our fun hunting a big gecko and a noisy cricket. We put them outside our room, and go to sleep, hoping that it's the only kinds of beast we gonna cross.

The next days in Otres Beach, we explore slowly. The countryside of Sihanoukville is really beautiful. We're still amazed by the colors around us, the violent red from the roads out of earth, the deep green moving in the wind, the different blues of the sky and the sea.

Along the beach stands a line of restaurants and guesthouses, for a wide panel of prices. We succeed to eat good for cheap.

We wander what to do then. The basic idea is to go back to Phnom Penh, as we didn't see it so much during the two days we stayed. But thinking long about it, we find out that we don't really want. At the end, the evening before the leaving day, we decide for a night bus having for destination Siem Reap.