Sihanoukville
Well after unpacking we headed into town to have some much needed dinner and a few beers. The main beach, known as serenity beach is a long sandy cove clustered with beach bars and BBQ's. The majority of the bars have "happy hours" running from 4pm - 12pm where it's possible to get a draught beer for $0.50c and a decent BBQ meal of steak, ribs, chicken or fish (red snapper, tuna steak, barracuda - my favorite) chips, salad and garlic bread for $3.00. An absolute bargain and we must have eaten a BBQ most nights.
We spent the next few days chilling out in the sun either by our pool or at the beach. We basically just sunbathed and ate for a week and then decided to visit one of the islands for a few nights.
Koh Rong
There were a few different islands to visit but we decided to go to Koh Rong and meet up with Emma & Charlie the couple we had met in Don Det and Siem Reap. We set off early in the morning and took a small boat for 2 hours to the island. We were expecting it to be quite and deserted and we were not dissapointed. There were 3 places to stay on the island, Monkey Beach, Tree-top Villas and Paradise Island. We decided to stay at Paradise island purely because it had private bathrooms. Now the huts or beach bungalows as they are called are literally wooden sheds without ceilings but we were made up to be spending the next two nights on such an amazing island. There seemed to be no one about and we spent our first day on the beach with maybe 2-3 other people, the sand was so white and the water was blue and really clear, it was paradise. That evening we met up with Emma & Charlie and had dinner and a few beers in the Monkey Beach Bar. The following day we arranged to meet up for breakfast and then walk for 30 or so minutes to another beach just down the coast a bit. The walk itself was quite enjoyable and we followed a small path through the jungle until we made it to long beach. Now this was paradise 2 - 3km long of unspoilt white sand with no one about. I don't think there are many places left in the world that could compare to this beach, it truely was amazing. We spent the day swimming in clear turquoise water and lying in the sun. A highlight of cambodia for me. The following day we headed back to the long beach for the morning, did some snorkelling and lazing in the sun and then departed back to the mainland about 3pm.
Once we were back in Sihanouk Ville Chris decided that he was going to do a PADI open water diving course. This was a 3 day course consisting of a full day in the classroom followed by 2 days diving and 1 night back on Koh Rong island. Tracey decided to stay back on the mainland and do some serious sunbathing and sleeping. After completing the classroom day and passing the exams I was off to paradise again. But this time I was going to see what it was like under the water. At first I was a bit nervous about taking that first breath, what if it didn't work but after a confined dive in the shallows we were off on the boat to a dive site to get a bit deeper and practice some skills that we would have to complete in order to become certified. The skills included removing and emptying your mask, basic underwater navigation, emergency proceedures, basic bouyancy control and removal of equipment underwater. I loved it and only wish I had tryied it many years ago. Although the diving isn't considered to be world class in Cambodia there is still a lot of coral and marine life to see. It was another highlight for me in our trip through Cambodia and I would reccomend it to anyone who likes water.
Our remaing days in Cambodia were spent exploring surrounding beaches by bike, chilling by the pool eating BBQ's and guzzuling cheap beer....oh life don't get much better than this!
We arrived in Sihanoukville and made our way to the hotel we had already booked back in Phnom Pehn, it was nice room, nice swimming pool and only a 10 - 15 min walk to a lovely quiet beach. The main problem was it was miles away from anything else, shops, food etc. This meant we would have to either pay a few dollars everytime we wanted to eat and get a trusty olde tuk-tuk or negotiate a motorbike for the duration of our stay. We managed to get a bike for $5 per day which probably ended up a lot cheaper than tuk-tuks.
Well after unpacking we headed into town to have some much needed dinner and a few beers. The main beach, known as serenity beach is a long sandy cove clustered with beach bars and BBQ's. The majority of the bars have "happy hours" running from 4pm - 12pm where it's possible to get a draught beer for $0.50c and a decent BBQ meal of steak, ribs, chicken or fish (red snapper, tuna steak, barracuda - my favorite) chips, salad and garlic bread for $3.00. An absolute bargain and we must have eaten a BBQ most nights.
We spent the next few days chilling out in the sun either by our pool or at the beach. We basically just sunbathed and ate for a week and then decided to visit one of the islands for a few nights.
Koh Rong
There were a few different islands to visit but we decided to go to Koh Rong and meet up with Emma & Charlie the couple we had met in Don Det and Siem Reap. We set off early in the morning and took a small boat for 2 hours to the island. We were expecting it to be quite and deserted and we were not dissapointed. There were 3 places to stay on the island, Monkey Beach, Tree-top Villas and Paradise Island. We decided to stay at Paradise island purely because it had private bathrooms. Now the huts or beach bungalows as they are called are literally wooden sheds without ceilings but we were made up to be spending the next two nights on such an amazing island. There seemed to be no one about and we spent our first day on the beach with maybe 2-3 other people, the sand was so white and the water was blue and really clear, it was paradise. That evening we met up with Emma & Charlie and had dinner and a few beers in the Monkey Beach Bar. The following day we arranged to meet up for breakfast and then walk for 30 or so minutes to another beach just down the coast a bit. The walk itself was quite enjoyable and we followed a small path through the jungle until we made it to long beach. Now this was paradise 2 - 3km long of unspoilt white sand with no one about. I don't think there are many places left in the world that could compare to this beach, it truely was amazing. We spent the day swimming in clear turquoise water and lying in the sun. A highlight of cambodia for me. The following day we headed back to the long beach for the morning, did some snorkelling and lazing in the sun and then departed back to the mainland about 3pm. 
Our remaing days in Cambodia were spent exploring surrounding beaches by bike, chilling by the pool eating BBQ's and guzzuling cheap beer....oh life don't get much better than this!
