We then drove about 20 minutes to Otres beach. Otres is basically one very long dusty road that runs along parallel to the beach. The beach has a good selection of bars and restaurant, and the road is lined with guest houses and two little shops, it looks a bit like something from the wild west. When we arrived Lee was not there as he had gone to an island so we ended up in some nice rooms for $15 a night.
After a couple of days when Lee returned we put our names down for the $5 a night rooms at a bar called sunshine. The next day Elliott got one and then myself and Craig did too. The rooms are really nice for $5, you get a mattress on the floor, a mosquito net and a shelving unit. There are 5 rooms and they are basically plyboard separated areas in the loft of the bar, they certainly do the job. The only downside is the shared bathroom and the fact that it is down a stepladder, but i am getting quite nifty on the stepladder after a bit of practise!
The plan was to spend a week here with Lee and then move onto one of the islands. The beach here is really nice and there is a really good community of backpackers, expats and beach sellers. One of our new best friends is this lady who sells, what i think is some sort of crayfish, with a pepper and lime dressing, they are divine! And of course fresh mango everyday can never be bad!
I havent seen anything untoward with regards to the children but there are young Cambodian women who are obviously prostitutes all over the beach with old, fat white men. The women pour their drinks for them, apply their sunscreen and in some cases feed them, like a slave. The sex industry is massive in Sihanoukville.
The police only earn $25 a month, they are totally corrupt and always looking to top up their earnings anyway they can. The most popular way seems to be fining people riding motorbikes, with each offence costing $1. So when Lee took Elliott into town on the back of the bike, they of course got pulled over. They came away with a $5 fine, made up of - No helmet $1, No licence $1, Light out $1, No insurance $1 and finally being western $1.
After a few days myself and Craig decided to go camping on Koh Ta Kiev for a couple of nights, just an hour away by long-tail. The island was really pretty and the camping was run by a group of travellers. We picked an awesome spot and spent the next couple of days exploring the beaches the island and snorkeling. The snorkeling was totally different to what we had done in Thailand as it was not coral but weeds. It made it feel like quite an eery jungle type thing but underwater.
Unfortunately in 2008 a Malaysian company was been given the go ahead from Cambodian authorities to develop an integrated resort similar to Singapore’s Sentosa Island. Ang Tom Nam Company is to develop an almost carbon copy of Singapore’s development plans in Cambodia’s Koh Ta Kiev Island, which has long been famous as a destination for snorkeling and scuba diving.
The island offers a huge potential for development. Cambodian authorities granted the Malaysian company a 99-year lease on 1,000 hectares of land for the integrated resort, which would include a golf course, hotel accommodation and casino. However since the financial crisis all this work has stopped. So the island is now left with 3 massive unpaved roads that have been bulldozed through the jungle. We took a walk and although i am sure before the bulldozers came in there was lots of wildlife, it was dead quiet. There was literally no birds, no monkeys and no weird unidentifiable noises, now i hope that they are still there but deeper in the jungle, but it was quite a weird experience.
Of course as on every island sunset is a amazingly different experience each night.
On our return from the island as well as lazing around on the beach we went on a short boat trip. We were meant to go on an organised trip with one of the guest houses, but for some reason the guy was not there that day. So we wandered over to the next bay and found a fisherman (in his boxer shorts) and his son, who would take us out and around a couple of islands for $5 each. It was the best unorganised boat trip i have ever been on. The fisherman gave us watermelon, and then took us to his friend who he had to deliver phone credit to (in the middle of the ocean may i add!) This friend of his was just having dinner. So after the fishermans son killed the shark type thing by banging it very hard against the boat, the other guy cooked it on a built in stove on his small wooden longtail boat. We all had a bit of a swim at that point (well i actually didnt because i have a real problem getting back in these boats with no steps, and noone wants to get towed back). The fisherman then took us round the island and back to the bar on the mainland. Armed with our JD and lemonade in a bottle (backpacker style) it was a perfect way to spend the afternoon!
The rest of the time has been spend lazing and balancing on a beam (simple things)!
And having massages.
One afternoon a boat that has been wrecked in a storm and rebuilt was blessed and launched back into the ocean. The blessing was attended by a monk and the family from the guest house that owned the boat. The blessing did go on for quite some time, but probably 80% of that time the monk was texting or actually talking on the phone while the other guy was chanting, it was quite funny.
On the 14th February we have a overnight bus booked to Siem Reap, so until then...
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