Phnom Penh was rad, or at least all of the movies I watched in my hotel room were. Once my throat could handle some food I booked it to Sihanoukville, the Cambodian beach paradise. This is the place you dream about, people. This is the place with quiet stretches of beach, warm water lapping against the soft sand, and hammocks abound. Sure, the main beaches of the town are pretty tourist-ed out and full of club resorts and illicit product pushers. But Otres Beach, the particular stretch of sand I found myself at, lays a few kilometers out from town and offers nothing but a stretch of dirt road and a handful of bar/restaurant/bungalows. Nothing much else one needs, if you ask me.
Where I took my meals.
I don't know if it was the oh-so-tasty bacony breakfast burritos or just the sound of gentle surf putting me to sleep, but within no time Otres had any memories of my presumed-tonsillitis erased and replaced by something near enough to bliss for me. It was an awfully lazy few days, but a damn good way to be lazy by my standards. On the third or fourth day (keeping track of time just seemed overrated), I booked a boat tour around the local islands. Managed to get in some snorkeling on a reef that was in a shockingly sad state, but judging by the numbers they seem to boat to the spot each day, it comes as little surprise. That said, I did see a few interesting specimens, namely some gorgeous giant clams. I used to keep those in my aquarium! It was a good enough taste to get me excited for the diving that awaits me in southern Thailand and beyond.
Speaking of taste, I chowed down on some grilled barracuda for lunch. Mmm.
Always looking to see what else there is, I took a ride out to the main town and explored the downtown. Thinking I was taking a shortcut from downtown to the main beaches, I ended up walking down a back alley that turned into a slum and eventually a collection of shacks and almost-farms. Needless to say, I ended up being chased around by snarling dogs until some children rescued me. Then they started poking me excitedly and pulling at my clothes. But I suppose a lost white guy is only so interesting, as they quickly resumed their game of "kick the styrofoam box." Eventually a man doing something with goats pointed me down a specific path and I found my way back to a road. A couple miles later and I was at the beach bars!
Totally a successful shortcut.
Eventually I decided that if I stayed much longer, I'd find myself one day physically unable to remove myself from the beachside sunchair. So I set off via shared taxi to Kampot, a nearby riverside town known for its local pepper plantations. The ~60km drive took somewhere over four hours. Between the exceptional number of pickups (there were about ten people in the cab by the time we left Sihanoukville) and errands, and the state of the road, it was one of the slowest trips I've made so far. Why the driver thought it acceptable to take a Camry on this moonscape of a road is beyond me, though the fact that he only blew out a single tire is a feat in its own right. But we did make it eventually, and after another few hours of wandering around I finally found myself settled down in a guesthouse for $3 a night. And that is where I find myself now, enjoying a relaxing riverside atmosphere and preparing to head back to Phnom Penh in a day or so. I'll stop there just long enough to see a certain film that everyone seems to be urging me to watch. I think it's some kind of documentary on nocturnal flying mammals or something, but I always liked the discovery channel back in the day so I figure it should be right up my alley. Then on to the rest of Cambodia and eventually into Laos. Onward and upwards!
Then again, I may just come back here for keeps.
