Sihanoukville 11.09.06....plus more

Sihanoukville 11.09.06

Today we were due to set off from Phnom Penh (recently discovered as being pronounced: nom pen) having just experienced a most incredible monsoon rain. But first……….

The rain was so hard that within 20 minutes the roads were like rivers. Emma and I took a chance to walk to the launderette and became almost cut off. Emma stayed under cover while I ventured out into the middle of the road, where the water was a mere 30” deep, and waded through a crossroad junction endeavouring to reach my destination before watching my flip flop rise to the surface and float off down the road. With a large bag of dirty knickers clutched to my chest, I set of in pursuit of the flip flop. With huge amounts of encouragement and laughter from locals (who, quite sensibly, were remaining under cover waiting for the rain to cease). I retrieved the escaping flip flop with accompanying cheers of approval and managed to regain my route to the launderette without further ado.

Getting back to our journey…….with landscape remaining the continuation of extreme flatness for miles and miles, broken by the occasional ramshackled village and row of stilted houses, we approached the coast. The distant horizon was interrupted by bumpy things. Described on the map as Elephant Mountains, the large hillocks reached the soaring height of 920m above sea level – beyond the limits even of Misters I’Anson and Trevedi (www.bikehigh.com)! (Can anyone please remind us when a hill becomes a mountain? Is it height alone or does a hill require a certain amount of ‘cragginess’ ?(any reference to maternal grandparent not intended)).

Approaching the bumps ensured a change in weather from general cloudiness to general raininess. Driving straight to our hotel without passage through a main town, we checked in and decided what to do.

Joe and I headed for the beaches, eyeing a pontoon off which we intended to jump. The ‘girls’, clearly not wanting to be stereotyped, disappeared to town hoping to gain some retail therapy.

Our initial opinion of the beach was ‘ugh, minging’. However as we continued to walk, we moved away from the beach front hotels (the probable cause of the mingingness) onto lovely sand and tasteful beach front bars. Avoiding most of the inevitable ‘you buy bracelet from me’ rush, possibly due to our gender, Joe and I settled into some lovely swimming and remarkably cheap beach front drinks. Simon


Meanwhile, us ‘girls’ went into ‘downtown’ Sihanoukville. This is Cambodia’s premier coastal resort. However, the important bit is that it is still Cambodia. The market was really quite depressing, very dirty. The road and pavement kind of melted into one, with red dust and mud everywhere. Not what we had expected. We walked up the road, our driver, Paol, saying he would wait for us. Lots of the Cambodians were openly staring at us, some giggling behind their hands, and we were certainly the only westerners around. We walked on past our van, but Paol must have thought that we had missed him as he shortly drove up next to us. As we were feeling more than a bit out of our depth, we relented and accepted a lift back to the hotel. On the way back, we stopped where the ‘boys’ had been dropped off and found only the ‘minging’ beach mentioned above, so returned to base for some air conditioned R and R, to wait for the boys and prepare for dinner! Emma

Following our swim and general relaxation, at exactly 5.30pm a whole flotilla of small fishing vessels left the nearby port. The boats headed off in two separate directions each line playing ‘follow the leader’. As the last boat disappeared into the horizon, the sun started to set. The sky slowly lit into a huge and most spectacular bonfire. This was a true extravaganza of colours. A full range of yellows, oranges and reds surrounded Joe and me. We decided that the best place to view the sunset would be from the water. Wading into the sea, we stood and watched as the constant changes in colours lit us up and bounced of the clouds. Remaining in the warm and refreshing South China sea, we waited until most of the light had gone before wading to the beach, drying and heading off back to the hotel to rinse the salty and unusually sticky ocean from us. simon

That evening we ate at a beach-front restaurant. It looked quite full at first, but we then realised that this was because there were so many staff there. Many of the hotels and restaurants here are absolutely huge… and empty. We are here in the rainy season and can only assume that it gets much busier here in the tourist season. Our hotel can be a little spooky it is so large and silent.

One of our ethical dilemmas, as we have touched on before, is that our driver is constantly around, either driving us exactly where we like or waiting for us to need him. Our understanding, given the lack of common language, is that he sleeps in the van. We could see him from our bedroom window, just sitting. This is something we are obviously not comfortable with, yet also need to be aware of cultural differences etc etc… Simon spoke to the reception staff here who speak English. They do not provide accommodation for drivers here, the expectation clearly being that the driver sleep in the van and use the hotel staff facilities for showering. It is clear the employed staff work 12 hours a day, 7 days per week, with no leave. The upshot of all this is that for $20 we have paid for our driver to have a room and food for 3 nights. He is very pleased. The first day he said that he just slept all day, because he could! We are very pleased too as we hope that this is more comfortable for him and it appeases our western middle class guilt. Emma


Tuesday 12th September

I woke to a sound of rain. (Well, if I was going to be detailed, I actually woke to the sound of Mum calling me to get up!) I just hoped it was the sound of the AC… I opened the curtains and staring at me was a bloody monsoon. From that moment on I was really down and annoyed.
We all went to breakfast depressed. We had lots of trouble ordering food. Firstly, all on offer were basically noodles & chicken. Not particularly what our bellies wanted at that time in the morning! So, I ordered toast, but received a small bagette. I was so hungry & ate it anyway! Moreover, Jo had lots of trouble ordering a coffee. (She is diabetic and all of the milk that they serve here seems to be sweetened!). Anna

What we had seen so far of Sihanoukville so far had not been what we had hoped and I think this emphasised any homesick feelings were are having. I was getting tired of just eating rice and vegetables for every meal. Anna and Joe were wishing for Tesco’s eggs cooked by Dad! Even Simon I think was struggling a little bit…….also, it was absolutely pouring with rain and we had come here for some beach time Emma

After breakfast our driver Paol took us to a Diving Centre to check it out. It didn’t look good. The visibility was down to 10 metres and the dives appeared too deep for us novices.

Simon and Joe were very enthusiastic about the beach they had found the day before so, despite the weather, we went anyway. Luckily the rain had stopped, however, there wasn’t much sun. It was warmer than any English beach though!


As soon as we placed our things down on some deck chairs we were swamped with Cambodian girls [apparently 18 years old, but as they are so tiny, they looked no older than 13] they were selling bracelets, fruit, manicures, pedicures and much more. I think all of us spent about $5 in 5 minutes! I immediately brought a few bracelets, whilst watching Mum deciding on three names so the girls can make bracelets with names on. She asked for 3 as 3 girls offered to do her one and once she asked for one they were saying ‘What about me? I make you one?’
All the while Dad was looking at food, ordering drinks & taking pictures while Joe was getting changed ready for a swim!
I slid off to see Jo who was sitting down with yet more Cambodian girls round her. She was buying bracelets and getting a manicure done. I, noticing this, asked the woman if she could give me a Pedicure afterwards!

While I was having my pedicure, there was about 6 young women, 2 adults [their mothers I think] and two little toddlers. [Who were probably about 10….!] By the time I’d had a conversation with them all they were singing Black Eyed Peas, I was holding two bracelets while two people could carry on making them , one of the kids were leaning over my knee showing me her giraffe cuddly toy [ironic?] and I was still having my pedicure! Whoever said women can’t multi task?!!

It was starting to spit a bit, and once they had all received their money they slowly left us. Joe & I swam for a bit while Mum, Dad & Jo went under shelter in a little beach hut/bar. Joe and I then started to build one of the legendary family drizzle castles © Banham which encouraged two very little Cambodian girls to join in. The universal language of sandcastle bulding!
While we sat back, enjoyed a few beers, ate some squid & langoustines, & just relaxed on some hammocks, 3 little kids came over.. Jo helped them make some bracelets, and then dad and Joe joined with them and played with the local kick about toy shuttle cock thing! Slowly they interacted with us more, Jo called Emma & all of a sudden all of the children were calling ‘Emma, Emma, Emma, Emma’!! In the bar we were chatting generally with our Cambodian host when Joe heard and identified a Leeds accent. Sure enough the accent came from yet another Joe, the husband of the Cambodian host. Having moved here with his wife four months ago, they had set up this bar and seemed very relaxed, identifying us initially as Australian or New Zealand, we soon put him right.

With new Joe’s help, we were directed to an establishment that sold slightly different cuisine. We went, with our driver, and enjoyed a variety of pasta and salad type dishes for dinner. Anna still had crab and our driver Paol stuck to traditional Khmer food. A happy end to a day which started of miserably! Anna