Two years ago I was living in Malaysia, waiting for my next Global HitchHiking adventure, or in other words, waiting for my next boat going west. Kuala Lumpur is a great location for visiting South East Asia, which is partly why my last captain (Henrik) suggested I stay with him and visit the area until I found my next boat.
So in December of 2017 I bought a cheap flight and flew to Cambodia, destination Sihanoukville, which is a cool little beach town. In Khmer, the language spoken in Cambodia, it is called Preah Sihanouk, which means King Sihanouk, named after a king who helped build the city and the port there in 1955. I found an AIRBNB for $25 per night at a beach area called Otres Beach and started walking around the area. I quickly found a little dive bar (not for diving, but a dive bar to hang out in.) It had rooms to rent for $10 a night, but they were very “hostelly” (shared rooms, shared showers, etc.) and decided to stay where I was. But everything else was priced accordingly: $1 beers (except during happy hour when they were half off!) and lots of inexpensive food. And it was right on the beach. They even had “happy spliffs” for sale, right on the menu.
I enjoyed hanging out there on the beach with my butt in a lawn chair and my feet in the water. The view was great and the people there were fun to hang out with. They had a pool table and they let me play my son’s album one night when there was someone DJing. I was only planning to spend a few days here, but before my visit was over, I decided to return here before leaving Cambodia.
I went from here to Phnom Penh, where I got my iPhone stolen, and then from there to Angkor Wat, and I’ll be posting about that later since there are so many things to see. I then traveled down to Kampot and someone put a bug in my ear about not missing Koh Rung, which I couldn’t resist, so there will be yet another post about that beautiful island (seen in the map image above). But after all that meandering around Cambodia, I ended back in Otres Beach near Sihanoukville to end my trip before going home. It felt like coming home before I really went home to Kuala Lumpur.
Here are some notes from my time there:
Back in Otres Beach at my favorite chill resort, Mom’s Kitchen, just relaxing. There’s something about this place. I hope it survives the Chinese invasion (the Chinese are buying up most of this area to put in resorts and high rise buildings along the beach).
I got here at 4pm after finding a room for $15 per night (private room and bathroom) and had a beer because happy hour started. Then I walked across the street and got a Khmer Massage, my new favorite massage in the world. I was only going to do 60 minutes but after 2 minutes into the massage I upgraded it to a 90 minute massage. $12!!! It’s a great massage. I passed out before it was over. They use pressure points all over your body and put all their weight in to it.
Then I walked back over to Mom’s just as the sun was setting and got the pictures below. I’ve been in some really great places over the past year of traveling. For me it doesn’t get much better than this. Total relaxation and beers for 50 cents!
I did take a day trip on a scooter to the city of Sihanoukville, but honestly, other than getting stopped by a couple of police officers that saw me as easy prey to be bribed, there was nothing there to see. It was kind of a dirty crowded town. After one circle around town I decided to head back and passed by this field. I honestly don’t know what these pillars are but I found them quite picturesque.
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