Utopia, Bamboo Island, Volleyball and some beach bars

I decided that Sihanoukville deserved a bit more of a writeup than I gave it in the previous post. Building on the amazing prose 'it's a chilled beach side village' or some other crap I wrote, here it is in a bit more detail.

Sihanoukville is actually shaped a little bit like a mini Wales, and actually has 4 separate beaches. We were staying closest to Serendipity Beach which seemed to be the main backpacker hangout. The beach itself is quite big, with guest houses, bungalows and bars along the shoreline, however we stayed in a slightly more hotel-like place about 5 mins walk away. Our bathroom was still a wet-room but had the decency to be quite big, meaning we didn't flood it each time we had a shower. Add air con, a tv with great reception (including HBO) and a beautiful pool area, and we were made men.

Right across from us was another guesthouse called Monkey Republic with a great restaurant and bar, and was where we started off most nights after dinner. A great place to meet people, we even ran into two Lilly Cole lookalikes. Don't tell them I said that though cos they don't like Miss Cole. And there was me thinking red-heads stuck together...

Utopia, yet another guesthouse and bar, was next on the agenda each night, and boasted free beds in their dorm room for punters. Not the nicest by any means, this is however the first place we've found which offers free accommodation. With a few crazy westerners behind the bar, this establishment regularly (if somewhat haphazardly) offers free shots, sometimes for reasons as innocuous as the bar staff like the song that just came on. Normally consisting of one of them walking around with an upended bottle over your mouth, it was a bit hit and miss regarding how much you swallowed and how much you ended up wearing. They also had a wet t-shirt competition on a night we were wining and dining two British girls, so I can't tell you about it, but I heard it was an interesting night with locals and backpackers, girls and guys all involved, including the missus of the guy who owned it. She won apparently. Nobody say 'fix'...

As mentioned the beach had quite a few bars along it, however I never made it past the first one for no other reason than I was quite content not to get too sandy, but I had a great time there each night.

For those after a bit of activity, there are a number of islands just off the coast of Sihanoukville, and Matt and I took a day trip to go snorkeling around them. While I was chuffed to bits my underwater camera worked, it was a shame the water was so murky. I have very dark pictures of some fish (not that there were many) but a great one of Matt which I'll stick up shortly. Apart from snorkeling, I spent most of the afternoon playing volleyball with the locals. Regardless of the fact it's their national sport, and regardless of the fact they play every day, I hadn't played in 6 years and felt like the slowest and least coordinated of the lot. When you see a 5'4 Cambodian jumping to spike the ball over an 8ft net when it's an effort for you, you'll know what I mean.

A great lunch on the island of BBQ Baracuda went down extremely well, and a small trek to the other beach gave us a slightly different but mostly similar perspective on things there: no electricity, no creature comforts, just bungalows and chilled beer.

As far as backpacker resorts go, this is probably the first one where so many people seem to stay for longer than a week, especially on Bamboo Island where they go to get away from it all. Some we spoke to had been there month, with others intending to stay till Christmas. All in all I can see why, and I was definitely falling prey to sitting by the pool or on the beach and having a few drinks in the evening as my new way of life. Matt however brought us back down to earth, and we're now in Koh Chang, an island just over the border into Thailand which deservedly holds national park protection. A lot fewer people however, coupled with it not really being as backpacker oriented, has made our decision for us - tomorrow we're off to Bangkok again.