Sihanoukville

We left Siem Reap and headed to the coast via Phnom Penh which is the capital of Cambodia.  We stayed here for one night and got the bus down to Sihanoukville which has a number of beaches on the Gulf of Thailand.  After a long old bus journey we finally arrived and after much bartering got a ride to Otres Beach which was apparently not so crazy built up and fairly quiet we set off for Otres.

The driver eventually dropped us off at a tired looking beach with shit loads of rubbish everywhere.  There was a couple on sun loungers in front of a horrible looking hotel looking perplexed  probably wondering how the hell they ended up there.  I was thinking 'really this is the beach...'  Thankfully he just couldn't be bothered to drive us the whole way probably because of Andy's tireless bartering.  So we trekked the rest of the way quite thankful that wasn't our fate.  We got to Otres Beach which had a few bars and beach hut affairs dotted along it.  We just walked around and eventually went for a hut with a hot shower to treat ourselves.  I have been itching like mad after showers and it so much better when I shower with hot water.  I was beginning to think I had developed an aversion to water and washing.  Just another notch on my trail to hippy-dome   Thankfully not.

We just spent time by the sea.  It's not as cheap to eat but in the grand scheme of things was still fairly cheap to exist by the sea.  This probably wasn't my favored beach.  I still think that No7 Beach in the Andamans was so much more beautiful.

We woke up one day and the sun was shining so we ran down to the beach only to discover that about a million flying ants had committed mass suicide in the water.  A load of them were on the beach but more and more were just floating in on the water.  It was actually quite gross.  You think you've found a little bit of contentment and then this happens.  It was quite amusing that we still tried to get in the sea but you couldn't move without having something buzzing against you.  Plus every so often you'd happen upon  really big ones that were red and still half alive.  Imagine getting that in your mouth.  Anyways we decided it was a sign that we should move on and find somewhere else.