Sihanoukville sits in the Gulf of Thailand, on a headland, surrounded by half a dozen different beaches. We’ve suddenly hit high season and have had real trouble trying to find a room anywhere so have ended up staying at the Holiday Palace and Casino on Victory beach. In a bid to lure people to the casino, their rooms are really good value and we secure ourselves a huge suite for not much more than 2 separate grass-shack bungalows down on Serendipity (officially called Ochheauteal, but I think the backpackers who mostly stay here were too stoned to pronounce that) beach. We take a tuk-tuk down here one afternoon and are sadly disappointed. What was obviously once a beautiful bay is now ruined by side-by-side bars and restaurants (most selling pizzas with the possibility of a “happy herb” extra topping), large waste pipes every hundred meters depositing pools of god knows what onto the sand and the constant noise of jet skis bombing up and down. Serendipity doesn’t seem like a very fitting name.
The next bay over, Sokha, scores much higher. A 5-star hotel has been built in the middle of this beach so it’s much cleaner. Either end of it are open to the public and at one you can hire a beach chair for $1. A bargain compared to the £8 we paid in the South of France earlier this year. It’s absolutely beautiful here; white sand, calm, clean sea and blue skies.
We also visit Independence beach which houses the Independence Hotel. Once the resort where the King came to party, it was later bombed and only re-opened 2 months ago. It’s another beautiful white sand bay, mostly because there’s not another soul here except for the gardeners still clearing up the grounds. There’s also a distinct lack of guests at the hotel which gives us sole use of their pool for the afternoon, in exchange for having lunch there.
The kids really enjoyed going to the Snake Pit for dinner. Snake wasn’t on the menu (although crocodile was), but you eat surrounded by glass cases full of snakes, a huge open-topped aquarium in the middle and even snakes underneath the glass topped tables. Ruby bravely stroked the huge, yellow python which one customer had draped around his neck, but Harley wasn’t quite so sure, especially since we’d told him not to touch the bright green snake we’d seen slithering up the steps by the swimming pool in Kep.
It’s 3 ½ hours to Phnom Penh and our taxi, with extra small boot, awaits. So does the drivers’ mate who’s trying to catch a ride with us. He can’t understand why, with four of us in the back and two of our bags on the front seat, we won’t let him join us. To us, it’s stating the bleedin’ obvious that there’s no room, but he can’t seem to understand how we can’t squeeze him in for a free ride.
Only as we’re an hour into our journey do we start to understand his logic. We drive past numerous cars, overloaded with people and even with motorbikes strapped to the boot. How many people can you get into a hatchback? 16. Not sure of the configuration to make them all fit, but there were definitely 16 people inside. And the minivans were full to groaning, not only loaded up inside with people, but with goods, motorbikes and several people sitting on the roof. We feel like turning back and telling matey than he can sit on the roof if he likes – I’m sure he would have jumped at the chance.
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