Sihanoukville and Battambang


After Phnom Penh it was time to relax a bit.  Mike had left and I decided to spend a few days chilling at the beach.  One of the only significant beach towns in Cambodia is Sihanoukville, named after the Cambodian king.  On the 5 hour bus journey from Phom Penh to the coast I met one German and two Dutch travelers, and we shared a tuk tuk to look for a place to stay.

Sihanoukville is in the south along the coast

Based on a recommendation from our guidebook we tried a hostel called Mushroom Point.  It was booked up but we found a guesthouse nearby.  That night things were quiet, and the following day we realized that we were actually quite far from the city center.  It was nice to be near a relaxing, chill beach, but there wasn't much going on.  I preferred Serendipity Beach, where most of the hotels, restaurants, and bars were located.

The Dutch and German travelers were staying for longer, but after 3 nights I decided to move on.  Not that I didn't like Shinoukville, but I needed to keep going if I wanted to visit another spot in Cambodia before heading back to Thailand.  On a side note, if you are looking to get a job while traveling, Shinoukville seems to be a great place to do it - I saw lots of backpackers passing out flyers and pouring drinks at the local bars.

Serendipity Beach
this could be your job - well this isn't exactly
the typical Cambodian bar!

That next stop was Battambang, a provincial capital in western Cambodia.  Although it is roughly the same size as Siem Reap, it gets a sliver of the tourist crowd comparatively.  There aren't any attractions on par with Angkor drawing visitors to Battambang, but I still enjoyed my time there.  The town was cheap and the people friendly.  I saw a few Westerners but I could walk blocks without any signs of tourism (a definite good thing for me).

At my hotel I met a Mexican traveler and we shared a daily tuk tuk rental.  The driver took us to an Angkor-esque temple (albeit on a smaller scale) and a railroad operated with bamboo cars.  It was simply a floor of bamboo to sit on, no walls or ceiling.  The line is only a couple stops and used primarily for tourists these days.  We also visited a cave where every evening at dusk millions of bats fly out into the sky, separating into smaller groups to scour the surrounding countryside for insects.  The procession of bats exiting the cave lasts for over an hour!

File:Battambang..JPG
central Battambang
the bamboo railroad
the procession of bats goes on for miles!

The evening after our day trip we met two Singaporeans and the four of us hit the town.  Well most places closed up by 9 or 10 pm, so it seemed we were out of luck.  But we found what probably was the only club open on that random weekday, and although there were less than two dozen people there we made it a fun night nonetheless.

After three nights in Battambang it was time to move on.  I was headed back to Bangkok, but not to stay for long.  In a repeat of my Christmas holiday trip to Europe, I was scheduled to go back to Germany.  More on that soon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Training in DC and Prep for Georgia

Image
As mentioned a few posts ago, I took a new job back in the US starting in mid-January. I flew back from Japan to my hometown in Ohio at the end of December, arriving just in time for New Year's. My initial contract in Japan ended along with 2020, so it didn't make sense to start a new one for a week or two in January. This way I was also able to spend time with my parents and my sister and her husband (who live nearby) before moving to Washington, DC. In addition to family time, I had a lot of administrative tasks to take care of before the move; my new job is with the government, which involves a long, at times frustrating onboarding process. I had to fill out several HR packets, arrange temporary housing for my training in DC, decide on consequential things such as life insurance and thrift savings plan contributions, and choose my healthcare plan. By the way, why is healthcare so complicated here?! The electronic form listed over 200 healthcare options to chose from! After e...
Read more

Finishing Osaka, on to Tokyo

Image
I've covered some of the great food Andrew and I had in Japan, so now let me move on to whatever else it was that we were doing between meals.  Two posts ago I touched on Osaka, the second largest city in Japan and our fist stop in the country. Osaka is in the Kansai region of Japan, which also includes Kobe and Kyoto Osaka city proper has about 2.7 million people, but that is only a fraction of the true number.  Citing population based on city limits can be quite misleading.  Take my hometown of Columbus, and Cleveland, another city in Ohio, as examples.  The population of the city of Columbus is over 800,000, while Cleveland's is less than half that.  Take a look at the metro area, or the urban core plus surrounding suburbs and commuter towns, and the comparison is flipped: Cleveland is substantially larger than Columbus. Back to Osaka - while the city itself only has a couple million inhabitants, add in the urban sprawl and surrounding ...
Read more

My Dad and Uncle Visit Korea, Part 1

Image
Even before I left for Korea last November, my dad had mentioned that he might try and visit me.  In the past he has suggested trips only to say that it was just a hypothetical later on.  So when he finally booked a flight for a visit in the summer I was quite surprised.  Both he and my uncle flew in to Seoul on the 31 st of July and then also went to Japan together for four nights.  Here is a recap of their visit: My uncle (far right) and dad (second from right) were headed to Seoul! Korean public schools get over a month off for summer break in late June and August.  On the other hand, the private institutes (like the one I work for) often have much shorter breaks.  During the summer break from public school parents sign their kids up for extra classes at our school, so we actually are busier!  What a great vacation for the students – a full day of English classes!  My break was four days long (well six if you coun...
Read more