Sihanoukville, Cambodia

After leaving Phnom Penh at 12:30pm and with a few stops along the way we arrived in Sihanoukville around 7pm. The bus ride was nail biting and I did have to close my eyes at times as other vehicles get very close and the road surface is all uneven, but we made it in one piece and that is all that matters. 

The bus drops you off at their office and if you walk down the hill you will come to the main round about with a huge golden lion on top. If you take the first exit to your right this will lead you down the main street of bars/restaurants/hostels and all the way to the beach. There are different road leading off this one which also have restaurants and beach access.



The hotel we stayed in was about a 10 minute walk from the golden lion taking the second exit on your right. its a nice walk, quiet, new hotels being built, restaurants, laundry and our hotel was right at the end of the strip so nice and quiet.... or so we thought. we arrived when the hotel next door was being built so lots of banging all day and at 8am in the morning the whole hotel shook as they had a massive power drilling putting in foundations. We did feel let down by the hotel as they never informed us about this when we booked or when we checked in, but as you know from my other posts a complaint knocked some money off our stay so we weren't as upset. Although the staff do need to be more quiet in the morning when setting up breakfast, i am not a happy bunny when I'm woke up at 7:30am! lol.

Anyway back to Sihanoukville, we are not party people, yes we like a drink now and then but its rare, (We would not be here if we were drinkers is something we are happy to give up for an adventure of a life time) and unfortunately we felt that is all this place has to offer. The beach was dirty from people partying on it in the evening so we didn't feel we wanted to sit on it. We stayed around the hotel a lot as it has a great pool, deep and very clean with two smaller pools for paddling in.

There are other beaches which seem to be very popular, these are:

• Otres Beach

• Occheuteal Beach   

These beaches can be found 5km from the Serendipity area. (15 minutes from us), we heard this was very nice, more tranquil than Sihanoukville beach and not as loud. The hotels in this area are more expensive so you might be best doing a day trip to the beach or looking into beach huts/bungalows.

We had some nice food in Sihanoukville and would recommend:
Ernie's Burger - here you choose what goes on your burger and there are lots of fillings to choose from. This can be found on Mithona Street.

Hotel we stayed in was booked through booking.com
Grand Sihanoukville, $183 US Dollars (today's exchange rate £131 ) for 5 nights including breakfast. This would have been a very nice hotel to stay in if it wasn't for the building work next door. The breakfast was a buffet and the pool was a good size and quiet. If booking just check on the progress of the hotel being built next door.