Sihanoukville, Cambodia - Islands

Our first night in Sihanoukville we met a really cool Canadian couple named Nashib and Maria. We had a few drinks with them, and decided to join them the next day for a tour of the islands lying off the coast.


We took this boat to reach the islands.


Once there, we spent the morning doing a whole lotta nothing.


Happy campers


For lunch, our guide cooked us up some FRESH barracuda he had just caught that morning.


We ate lunch with our group around a little palapa on the beach. It was one of the best meals I had on the entire trip!


In the afternoon Tom, Nashib, Maria and I wandered off down a trail that led through the center of the island, to another beach.



And then we wandered around on that beach too.


Like I said, busy days. Busy busy days.



There was even a little palapa bar on the beach, so we had a couple beers before heading back to the mainland.


We heart Cambodia!

- Jessi

Sihanoukville, Cambodia - Doing Nothing

I know. I know. We've been so bad about blogging! The problem is, we've still got so many Southeast Asia pics and stories to tell that it's downright overwhelming. And really, as much as we want to share it all with you, we want to get back to blogging in the present! But we can't, until we finish all the vacation pics. But there are so many pics left to post...

You can see the vicious cycle. I have to admit, I'm kinda shocked. I'm a big fan of making lists and getting stuff done. Typically, the more I have to do, the harder I work. I never really understood how people could be overwhelmed into inaction - it just didn't make sense to me. But that is what has happened.

And I'm procrastinating even as I write this post! Let's get down to business:

After crossing the border into Cambodia, we spent one night in Phnom Penh and then headed straight for Sihanoukville. Sihanoukville is a beach town in southern Cambodia, aptly pronounced "Scenicville."


Woohoo! A new map, finally!

As you know, rain had been chasing us down the coast of Vietnam and it was a real treat to find warm weather and sunshine waiting for us in Sihanoukville.



We wandered around for awhile, searching for cheap but nice rooms. Turns out there's no such thing in Sihanoukville - at least, not around Christmas! We wanted to actually enjoy our beach time, so we ended up going with something a little higher end ($30/night):






After we'd dropped our bags at our hotel, we walked 5 ft down a path to the beach, where we did.... nothing. All day. It was great.

The cool thing about Sihanoukville is that it's not totally built up. Although there are plenty of backpackers and tourist activities, there aren't a bunch of high-rise condos. It's still possible to eat dinner right on the beach (like, with your feet in the sand), which is exactly what we did.





Blue skies, gorgeous sunsets, friendly people... this is what we'd been looking for!

-Jessi