Our new home – Otres 2 Beach
We’ve headed to the beach for some rest and relaxation. Honestly, I now fear that we may not leave or that the rest of our time in SE Asia (one more month) will be a heavy dose of beach and island hopping. Oh, it would be so easy to start living on island time! But first, let me catch you up on how we got here.
From Siem Reap, we booked passage on a bus to Phnom Penh. Our plan was to stay for a couple of days and then proceed southwest to the port village of Sihanoukville, on Cambodia’s southwestern coast.
On our way to the bus station to visit Phnom Penh
The 6.5 hour bus trip from Siem Reap should have bored me to tears. But it was great, thanks to my good fortune in sitting next to Sokha, a really sweet Cambodian woman who works for a rather nice hotel chain. She spoke great English and was kind enough to point out some neat things along the way.
Typical Cambodian houses on stilts in the country. During the rainy season, the land floods. The haystack is for the cows.
Cricket traps. Yep, they eat lots of different bugs here in Cambodia (water beetle, spiders, worms, and crickets to name a few). Strangely, no one in our family is keen to try them!
The capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh is the largest, busiest city in the country. Definitely not our cup of tea. So why come? To see the Toul Sleng Genocide museum and the “Killing Fields” (although we chose not to visit the latter). Before coming here, I had barely heard about (and had never seen the highly acclaimed movie relating to) this horrible event, but I had no idea of the magnitude of the Cambodian tragedy until we visited Tuol Sleung. Lori created a separate post about our visit to this museum.
Contemplating the horrors of S-21
None of us really enjoyed the frenetic pace of Phnom Penh. With few traffic lights, it’s often a frightening prospect to even cross the street. And I can’t count the number of times we were approached by a Tuk Tuk driver looking for passengers. Couple that with our visit to the S-21 prison and we were all ready to move on to another location. So off we went on another 4.5 hr bus ride to the coast.
Gage prepares for the trip with a hearty of breakfast of chicken curry baguette with pineapple shake. Mmm!
On the road to Sihanoukville . . .
And here I thought that I needed a minivan to transport our family of 5
We’re now staying in a cute, little guest house that sits on a river that leads to the ocean. A very short walk puts us right on Otres 2 beach, a beautiful and somewhat isolated stretch of beach southeast of the Sihanoukville. Each morning, they serve us a beautiful breakfast complete with French-pressed coffee on their pier. Yeah, I could get used to this!
Life is good
Taking this boat out for the day to explore 3 small islands off the coast
Sadly, we’ve been told that the Cambodian government has plans to tear down all the businesses and guesthouses within 50ft of high tide along this beach and others stretching back toward the city within the next couple weeks. Hope that doesn’t happen to this peaceful and unspoiled place.
Sipping coke off the island of Koh Ta Kiev
Otres 2 Beach
Gorgeous! Great post.
Beautiful and peaceful. Is the beach nice and warm?
DON’T take the kids to the killing fields, whatever they say. Each one, they killed so many, there are shrads of clothes and bones EVERYWHERE. I don’t mean, a couple places you find them, I mean disturbingly everywhere. And each has a rock where they killed babies, like I learned to kill rabbits. Don’t go there. I mean bones like you think you are walking on limestone rock dust, but is bones, and takes about a minute to see/feel/figure it out. They had no money to “clean” the hundreds of killing fields properly, so they are all disturbing. Not for kids, ever. Otherwise, the country is full of great folks like you find in all of SEA. Lands of smiles. Let me know if you get in a bind, I have some influential friends in PP.
Thanks so much for the heads up, Mike. I think we’re definitely done with this leg of the journey and are now looking to head back up the coast to Thailand. Thinking about staying on Koh Chang island. Have you been there?
Greg,
I’ve been to Koh Chang a couple of times, but the last time was 12 years ago! It has changed quite a bit, I hear, quite developed now. A great friend of mine returned from there about a month ago, let me put him in direct email contact with you.
Back 12 years ago, Koh Chang had a lot of the same feel as Koh Samet, but even less developed. I hope it is still somewhat like that, because Samet was very “Thai” still and not full of folks who had worked with gringos for over a decade. So it has great beaches and beach walks, bungalows built on/above the beach, seafood restaurants brought out onto the sand at night (and hookah bars), very laid back and great for relaxation. No good for snorkeling/scuba, though. I cannot remember why, perhaps stirred river sediments from the mainland.
Actually, why don’t you contact my friend, directly, and I will tell him to expect your email. It is raastad@erols.com He will probably then set up a call with you. He has traveled in Thailand a lot, probably 10-15 separate trips, this last one to Koh Chang.
Cheers, Mike
Hi everyone, Hope all is well. How does island and beach living fit your fancy? It looks very relaxing and the eating looks good also. Mom
I can see that you are all getting spoiled, Greg.
Well, maybe just a little 😉