Sihanoukville, Cambodia

Sihanoukville is the main beach town in Cambodia.


Our estimated 4 hour bus ride was closer to 6 in reality due to our departure date coinciding with the king's birthday. Everyone was out of work and school turning a 15-20 minute drive out of the city into an hour and a half crawl. We got a chance to see a more rural side of Cambodia, driving past shacks and huts in the countryside, surrounded by fields of rice and taro. Everyone appears to sell water and products from their home along side the highway. There were lots of advertisement banners for Angkor Beer which is manufactured in Sihanoukville but owned by a foreign company. Cambodia Beer was started a year or so ago and is locally owned.

Our bus

Small market area

Happy riders!

It's hard to take pictures from a moving bus

Everyone seems more friendly here in Sihanoukville versus Phnom Penh. I had 3 young girls smile at me while taking the 5 minute tuk tuk ride to our guesthouse. A group of school children were very excited to wave and tell us "Hello." Almost everyone meets your eye and says good morning. We saw an Indian/Singaporean restaurant called Jee Boom Bar on our walk to our resort the next day and the chef immediately said that he would cook us a special vegan meal. We had a vegetable curry, chapati with masala potatoes, and taro balls with coconut milk. So delicious! We went on to eat here every day and have become good friends with Sajee and Indu, who is one of the sweetest women I've ever met and is also a vegetarian. If you're ever in Sihanoukville and need a veg-friendly place to eat, their restaurant is the best, hands down!

Taro balls with coconut milk

Morning glory beans, eggplant curry, rice, and chapati

Vegetable fritters

Their adorable pup, Rocky

Grilled veggies with tamarind sauce

We also went to Holy Cow Restaurant a couple times, once for breakfast and once to have their chocolate cake. We were disappointed to be served pumpkin soup garnished with yogurt and pesto pasta topped with cheese for lunch. We had been assured upon ordering that the dishes were vegan and trusted the waiter as their menu stated a "vegan chocolate cake." They fixed it easily enough for us but we weren't able to have the bread which was unfortunate as good bread is a rarity here in Asia.

The indoor/outdoor seating at Holy Cow

It was nice to have a Western breakfast

Who doesn't love chocolate cake?!

We felt like locals while renting a moto for the day for $6. After filling up tank with $3 of gas, we made the 13km trek to the Kbal Chhay waterfalls which involved a lengthy stretch on a red dirt road with little reassurance that we were heading in the right direction until we came across a toll house. The falls were beautiful once we figured out a good viewing angle. There are no signs or safety warnings and it appears that the locals who run the vendor stands live there on raised platforms with hammocks for beds. To complete the experience, we got a flat tire from a piece of metal a little larger than a paper clip. Luckily, the parking attendant, a 17-year-old boy named Kies, fixed it for us.

Great place to meditate

Some girls invited me to come into the waterfall and take pictures with them

We spent a few days being lazy and working online while Carlos recovered from being sick with acute pharyngitis (aka a sore throat). After getting our laundry done by professionals, we had a traditional Khmer massage. It was only $8/hour and you can find them as cheap as $2-5 in Thailand and Phnom Penh. It was more of a relaxation massage than the ones I'm used to in the US (being focused on pain relief) but interesting nonetheless.

The pool at the Makara II Bungalows which we never swam in

View from the Sunday Guesthouse

Another view from the Sunday Guesthouse

I had a craving for Western sweets!

The street from the Sunday Guesthouse

We took the night bus to Siem Reap last night. We left Sihanoukville at 8 PM and arrived in Siem Reap around 6:30 AM. I managed to sleep most of the ride but I still took a nap today. It was an adventure which Carlos relates very candidly on his site.

Onward to Angkor Wat tomorrow!