Sihanoukville

Travel Stories - Cambodia


Sihanoukville-Cambodia-Beach-Sun-Coast-Backpack

Port-town


It takes about an hour before we leave the traffic and chaos of the capital Pnom Penh behind us and we drive into the real Cambodia.

 

Everyone has now put on thick clothes and I see people putting parts of the curtains in the holes of the air conditioning. The area looks green with rolling hills and here and there little villages with huts and kids playing in trees.

 

In Sihanoukville, the city that arose when it was decided at the end of the 1950s, that the country needed a deep port to trade. Nowadays, the city named after the Cambodian king, is the most important seaport in the country. We stop on a dusty piece of land what the bus stop suppose to be and where dozens of motorbikes are waiting for customers.

 

When the door opens most of them approach the bus and ask where people want to go. Ofcourse I’m a desired target – as a tourist they can ask more money. 


manicure on the beach


I decide to go immediately to Serendipity beach on the back of the motorbike and negotiate the price. While I am on the back with all my bags, I'm glad I did not go walking all that way - it's far and it's hot! The heat and the humidity is there. Since I have not yet found out where I want to go (and stay), the driver drops me at the entrance of a very large, efficient, Western hostel and I think it's fine.

 

I check in and make my room mine. Then I leave my room and run into the hallway I I run into Mario, the long Italian man I still know from Thailand and Laos.

Last battle Vietnam war: 

The last bloody battle of the Vietnam War was fought ironcally off the coast of the port city Sihanoukville. On May 12, 1975, a month after the capital Phnom Phen fell to the Khmer Rouge, they attacked an American freighter with the help of captured American boats and the 39-storey staff went to Sihanoukville.

 

President Ford of the US reacted immediately and had the oil refinery and the port bombarded. On 15 May, the attacked boat was boarded by American marines to find it completely deserted and the island of Koh Tang attacked by air marines.

 

This island was very well defended in what the Americans expected, because the Khmer Rouge was afraid of a Vietnamese attack and almost all attacking helicopters were damaged or destroyed while 15 marines were shot dead.

 

The crew members of the boat had already been sent back on a Thai fishing boat before the attack had started but were noticed far too late. Three Americans were accidentally left on the island and were most likely executed by the Khmer Rouge.

We decide to have lunch together and then we end up in a big beach chair on the narrow strip of sand on the beach of the city. Surrounded by local women who besides got everything to sell, also offering to give a manicure, pedicure, backscrubbing, massage and I don’t know what else.

 

Unfortunately, there are also enough stray dogs, orphans and wanderers who are all begging for money or food. There is fine music played and we enjoy the view of the sea there all afternoon with some cold glasses of beer. When the sun goes down, tables are dragged to the waterline and candles are lit. We talk with an Amsterdam NGO girl and the owner until we order fresh caught fish from the barbecue. In the evening we walk past some night bars but it is not full unfortunately.

 

We end in a bar not far from the beach where a number of very lascivious ladies walk around - it is clear that you have to pay if you want them to go along. We take one last beer and will enjoy the beach the next few days.


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tips & advice (2009)


The bus station in Sihanoukville which looks more like a big dusty parking lot is located in the center of town, a block north of Ekareach street. You can go to any place in the city best on the back of a scooter/motorbike.

 

Sihanoukville - Kampot: bus company Phnom Penh Sorya runs daily to Kampot from the bus station. The journey takes about 2.5 hours and costs $ 3.50.


  • Name: Hostel GST

Address: on Occheuteal Beach and Serendipity Beach

Price: $ 6 (single)

Phone nr. : 016 210 222

 

Content:

Large, impersonal, uncomfortable but professional hostel and very centrally located – nearby the beach. You can eat in the main hall (breakfast) and drink a beer, but again - it is not too pleasant. The room is fine (somewhat noisy) and you have your own toilet and shower. It is nice anonymous.

 

You can buy all your bus tickets here, but ofcourse you pay some commission.


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