Sunny Sihanoukville

View from Right Outside our Hostel

So, we left Siem Reap by a bumper comfy bus, and arrived in Phnom Penh for a day of practicalities back at the Velkommen Backpackers hostel. Except, having booked in a hurry to find somewhere suitable for work for a night, I’d accidentally booked the Velkommen Guesthouse instead. I thought it was more expensive this time! However, this was a nice slice of luxury after the Siem Reap hostel and its soupy mosquito-netted air, so we accepted the fact and revelled in the knowledge that we had clean crisp white sheets, and a sparkling bathroom… For five whole minutes, before I descended the stairs again and got to work in the quieter Velkommen Café Bar (not quite the rave nation of the Backpackers!). Fuelled by tea, coffee and diet coke (and even at one stage a Jack Daniel’s due to an error in translation, which I regretfully returned – though surely it would have been ok, as I work in publishing? Maybe if it was a glass of wine…), I worked through my penultimate day at the office, while Bradley organised our ongoing transport to Sihanoukville. 

One low point of this rather uneventful day was that we were both coming down with colds within hours of arrival, and by the time we boarded the bus to Sihanoukville the next day, we were both feeling pretty miserable. Fortunately, we quickly found our hostel (principally because we felt too rubbish to walk to it, so we jumped in a tuk-tuk!) and checked in to a quaint little hut by the beach at the brilliantly named Tranquillity Lodge on Serendipity beach. This had to be an omen for a quiet working environment!

Technically I wasn’t working that day, but I’d decided to do a few hours after dinner so we went out to the Nice Foods café for a late lunch. This stretch of Sihanoukville was a fairly predictable tourist area, lots of shops selling fake Havaianas and ropey pairs of sunglasses (and Bradley was now working his way through these having lost them in Battambang). The beach was quite rocky outside our hostel (though the bar looks straight out to the beach so is a beautiful view) but the beach further to the left was a strip of bars, sand and soft waves, where we planned to celebrate on Saturday the freedom from employment!

We went out for a hot curry for dinner before watching a film, feeling very coldy still (the curry didn't help, as hoped). Then finally it was my last day of work, so the whole day was wiped out tying up loose ends, Skyping and emailing ‘til late (though as it was a Friday night there was also a boat party nearby, so there was a distorted soundtrack echoing across the waves – deviant siren song!). I had planned a celebratory glass of wine too, but as I inevitably faffed around into the night instead, the next day would have to do! 

It was actually quite strange to suddenly stop working – I’d become quite used to the periodical break in our travel itinerary, and I’d find that the coming weeks would feel like the previous three months on fast forward, as the momentum would never break unless we factored in some time out.  Working also provided a routine and some minimal structure to our lives, so without that it became more difficult, oddly, to achieve things without wasting time. Of course, I’d also become accustomed to regular contact with the office, so not only would I miss speaking to the lovely people I worked with regularly, I’d also miss the regular window in our schedule to communicate with home. Normality would be stripped out of our lives even more for a fair while!

On our last day in Sihanoukville, and the first day of official unemployment, we spent the day wandering along the beachfront, indulging in being proper tourists by drinking a few beers at a beach bar. For a brief, horrible moment, rain threatened the celebrations - but then the sun returned and it was another glorious tropical day, with a sea breeze and an all-afternoon Happy Hour - perfect!

Each bar seemed like a replica of the one before it, but gradually the atmosphere changed as we made our way along the promenade. The bars became less obviously touristy, and more frequented by the locals - which is always a good sign of a place to trust, especially if food is on your mind too. We did set ourselves up undercover at first as the rain tried to invade yet again, but then the sun returned with a vengeance so we sat out on the sun loungers on the sand. It felt like a day for a small treat, so while Bradley went swimming, I indulged myself with a mobile pedicure from Ani, a very lovely girl who was telling me all about her family as she cheerfully scrubbed the sand off my feet and painted my toenails turquoise. She was telling me how nice it was to live there – I hope that’s true, as her family life sounded very happy.

As the afternoon wore on, we noticed the skinniest, saddest looking puppy staggering along the beach – he looked as if he would keel over at any moment. We decided to give him some water, so I asked at the bar if they had a bowl I could use, and not only did they offer me a suitable bowl, they also filled it with chilled water – the only kind he’ll drink, apparently! He’s a celebrity puppy here, they all know him and his favourite foods and drinks, and after a bit of water he perked up massively – though he didn’t seem interested in eating anything! Maybe he just has a fast metabolism then – how else to explain his scrawniness?!

It began to get dark so we wandered back to the hostel, arriving just in time as the heavens opened and threw down another tropical storm that vanished twenty minutes later. It was quite pleasant to feel the cleansed air rather than the heavy, sandy heat of the day. We grabbed a pizza and watched a film with the long-awaited bottle of wine – a nice and chilled way to celebrate at the most relaxed resort in Cambodia! Onward the next morning – we’re off to Koh Kong this time.

View 2012 Journey in a larger map