Not so sleepy Sihanoukville

On the coast of Cambodia, about a 4 hour bus ride southwest from Phnom Penh is Sihanoukville, the main (only?) beach destination in Cambodia. The area encompasses a bunch of beaches, but there are two main ones that people head to now; Serendipity and Otres.

Serendipity is right off the main drag and has beach restos strung along almost the whole stretch of sand. It is packed though (with a surprising amount of older people), and has a busy, kinda run down vibe to it. Sure its nice, and the water is warm, but it definately has the most touts and beggars we have seen on any beach so far. As well as loads of people.

For a more quiet beach experience, where there are still lots of food options and the occasional tout, head to Otres beach. It is cleaner, the water is clearer, and there are less people there. After spending one day at the busy beach, we opted for Otres for our next two days in town and were glad we did.

The Lonely Planet makes Sihanoukville sound almost like a sleepy little town in comparison to beaches of Thailand and Vietnam (at least to me), and while it is true that there are way less visitors than Thailand, its no smaller than the beach we were at in Vietnam and is not a sleepy little town. Don't fret though, if a laid back beach is what you are after, come to the area and hire a tuk tuk to take you to the quiet beach each day for 5 bucks (there and back).

On another note, pics are up of Siem Reap and Angkor, enjoy. (Disclaimer: I can`t remember what the names of all the temples around Angkor Wat were called and I am not in the mood to go back and check, so some are nameless in the pics!)