First let me begin this post with an apology. I was probably a bit too harsh on Cambodia and poor little Koh Kong in my last post. The people here have been through a lot and they deserve a break. Right after I finished posting my little infantile rant against Koh Kong and its flea pit hotels a few nights ago, I walked two doors down and enjoyed a Tiramisu, a pizza, and a Campari rocks in a lovely little cafe. (don't judge me it was my first taste of western style food in weeks and it was the only thing on the menu) I took advantage of the free Wifi graciously offered and made a free iphone skype to skype call to my beautiful fiance hundreds of miles away in India while I enjoyed my refreshments. I can't say that really qualifies as suffering in anyone's book. The establishment I found myself in did seem to be an oasis of civilization in what was truly a pretty rough and tumble town, but with places like that Koh Kong obviously can't be all bad.
So the next morning despite being told the night before to be ready to go at 8:15, the bus would pick me up outside and breakfast would be ready for me anytime after 7:00. I awoke to no breakfast and a scooter driver knocking on my door at 7:30 asking if I was ready to go yet while I was still trying to deconstruct my bug tent, and pack away my thermarest, bedding etc. Annoyed I ignored the driver's constant knocking and took my time packing. I emerged from my room around 8:00 and off we went to meet the bus.
Here's a few shots of the Cambodian countryside as seen from my bus.
Is it me, or do these landscapes remind anyone else of "Tropic Thunder"?
I saw a lot of these scarecrows , especially this one area where every house had one. It was always posted at the entrance to the family property and I suspect the practice has more to do with superstition/tradition than utility.
There's something more than just a little strange about Sihanoukville. Don't get me wrong, it certainly is a much nicer place than Koh Kong but there is something eerie and a bit odd about the whole place. For starters there is a palpable post-apocalyptic feel to the place, but rightfully so as an apocalypse of sorts did really happen here about thirty years ago. The Khmer Rouge managed to kill about a quarter of the population through murder and starvation during their half-baked quest to create a pure communist agrarian utopia. Adding to the post-apocalyptic feel Sihanoukville seems like it may have gotten a bit carried away during the global real-estate boom and started believing it was to become the next Phuket. From what I can see it hasn't yet become, and it isn't ever going to be Phuket. So on top of the old architectural detritus from the French colonial period (1920-1960)there is a new layer of vacant or abandoned half-built villas and condos that will perhaps one day be occupied and finished or perhaps will remain vacant and abondoned and will be refered to as "late-phase shoddy capitalist ruins".
Abandoned grand old colonial period beach mansion where recent construction/refurbishment was started but then apparently stopped and abandoned again.
Now given that Sihanoukville has only recently emerged from the official rainy season and the tourist high season isn't slated to kick in for another month maybe the ghost town feeling is just the calm before the storm and the crowds are on the way, but I will offer this anecdote to illustrate my point. The second night I spent in Sihanoukville I decided I would try the restaurant Lonely Planet dubbed "the very best cooking in Sihanoukville", Chez Claude. When I arrived at this grand building on a hill overlooking all of Sihanoukville it appeared to be abandoned as well, lights out, building vacant, no one around. The barking dogs must have aroused someone because pretty soon I was chatting with Claude's affable son Kubli while his mother whipped up a nice dinner for me. Kubli said business had been unusally bad even for the low season and they had three customers for the entire month of September. Well its too bad for everyone else. I had a wonderful evening inside Chez Claude's cavernous, empty, nautical-themed dining room that felt like a ghost ship. Kubli was a very genial host and his mother probably is the best cook in Sihanoukville.
Chez Claude or the galley onboard the Black Pearl?
Kubli leading me up to the roof of Chez Claude for a look at the sunset.
Sihanoukville sunset as seen from the commanding heights of Chez Claude.
my simple fish dinner
Kubli's delicious flambéd banana recipe.
Chez Claude's exterior. Blurry, but I like how this photo captured the moonlight seeping through the clouds. This night was supposed to have been the biggest brightest full moon of the year.
Despite the rampant real estate development and speculation of the past few years there appears to be little or nothing new in the way of infrastructure or roads since Phnom Penh fell to the Khmer Rouge. The beaches here are nice, but not Thailand nice. Even the white tourists here seem a bit more down and out than the well heeled crowd I met in Thailand. The sand is almost white but there is just not quite enough of it. Wherever the beach is developed its completely chock-o-block with little haphazard ramshackle shacks built right up to the water's edge selling barbecue fish and drinks by day and vodka-red-bull buckets by night with crappy house and disco music. The stretches of beach around town that are undeveloped are completely covered with trash and are still plied, albeit not as heavily, by roaming bands of beggars and hawkers that plague all of the beaches here. There is no serenity for any tourist visiting Serendipity beach. "You want massage, I cut your nails, trim your hair? You want bracelet? Key chain? half price for you. You play me game. Why? Why? Money...money...money... Why? You buy from me. Give me more." Even with four bracelets on my arm and a new sarong at my feet there was endless invasions of my personal space with lot's of touching, pleading for hours on end, extortion and other high pressure sales tactics. It's not like you can kick a three year old and they know it. One sideways look and they will wield your guilt like a razor sharp machete.
On the the bright side of things the whole of Sihanoukville is cheap as chips and the food is delicious. If you've got a scooter and twenty bucks in your pocket you are an absolute king! It is fairly lawless here as well and you can ride your scooter anywhere you want to go and explore all of the broken down ruins and vacant lots at will. Speaking of lawless I was told by a friend in Thailand that you can shoot a bazooka here for twenty dollars and for around a hundred dollars you can blow-up a cow with a bazooka. Not that I'm interested, but just saying you know. So basically no one here is going to stop you from having a poke around as long as its not some property owned by the guy that runs the Sokha beach corporation. Whoever runs that operation seems like they are intent on annexing all the best real-estate in Cambodia and walling it off from anyone who can't afford the two-hundred or more dollars a night it costs to stay there. It looks like the Sokha beach corp has nabbed the three best beaches around Sihanoukville and now apparently has managed to snatch Bokor Hill and its eerie old ruins that were slated to be designated a UNESCO world heritage site. I was hoping to visit Bokor Hill on Wednesday but now I may have to wait three years until the new and improved luxury version is reopened minus the ruins that made the site so special. I guess I'm a little late to this discover forgotten Cambodia game.
I leave for Kampot tomorrow and I will get to the bottom of this Bokor Hill mystery. I hear there are still wild elephants and tigers up there!
Ochheuteal beach
Two associates from the local woven bracelet mafia. They tracked me down like bloodhounds way out at the end of desolate Ostres beach, a good solid 45 minute scooter ride away from Serendipity beach. T-Nacious!
Dining area of GST, a backpacker hotel just off Serendipity beach.
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