Advice re Cambodia visit february2007

Its 6 years since are last visit to Cambodia, then we did the tortuous
overland journey from Bangkok-Poipet -Siem Reap.
With AirAsia flying we thought we'd now make a return visit.
The tentative plan is to fly from KL to Siem Reap, spend about 3 days, take
the boat (?) to PP , stay a few days, then fly back to KL (or Bangkok
maybe).
As we've not been to Sihanoukville before, I'm wondering if its
possible/worthwhile visiting for some R&R. -I'm assuming overland travel
will be viable!!
We can spend a total of 10- 14 days in Cambodia.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Thanks

Jan

Sihanoukville can be a very nice place to spend a few days on the
beach. See http://gorillatales.com/KhmerTales/Part8.html
for a very short description of our stay there in February 2002. I
highly recommend Serendipity Beach as one of the better beaches ithere.
You might want to consider getting the book - Adventure Cambodia: An
Explorer's Travel Guide (Paperback)
by Matt Jacobson. It was updated in 2005, but we used an older version
in 2002 and found it to be better than Lonely Planet.

I think you can get a reasonably nice bus from the market in PP that
takes you directly to Sihanoukville. I believe some are air conditioned
and they are much more comfortable than 3 or 4 people in the back of a
Toyota Camry.

Enjoy your trip.

Paul



Jan wrote:
Its 6 years since are last visit to Cambodia, then we did the tortuous
overland journey from Bangkok-Poipet -Siem Reap.
With AirAsia flying we thought we'd now make a return visit.
The tentative plan is to fly from KL to Siem Reap, spend about 3 days, take
the boat (?) to PP , stay a few days, then fly back to KL (or Bangkok
maybe).
As we've not been to Sihanoukville before, I'm wondering if its
possible/worthwhile visiting for some R&R. -I'm assuming overland travel
will be viable!!
We can spend a total of 10- 14 days in Cambodia.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Thanks

Jan

traveller wrote:
Sihanoukville can be a very nice place to spend a few days on the
beach. See http://gorillatales.com/KhmerTales/Part8.html
for a very short description of our stay there in February 2002. I
highly recommend Serendipity Beach as one of the better beaches
ithere. You might want to consider getting the book - Adventure
Cambodia: An Explorer's Travel Guide (Paperback)
by Matt Jacobson. It was updated in 2005, but we used an older version
in 2002 and found it to be better than Lonely Planet.

I think you can get a reasonably nice bus from the market in PP that
takes you directly to Sihanoukville. I believe some are air
conditioned and they are much more comfortable than 3 or 4 people in
the back of a Toyota Camry.

Enjoy your trip.

Paul


Thanks Paul

If we can get from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville reasonably easily, then your
route in reverse sounds good.
I also read your stuff about Laos- we were there 3 years ago, It makes me
want to go again !!

Jan

"Jan" wrote in message
...
Its 6 years since are last visit to Cambodia, then we did the tortuous
overland journey from Bangkok-Poipet -Siem Reap.
With AirAsia flying we thought we'd now make a return visit.
The tentative plan is to fly from KL to Siem Reap, spend about 3 days,
take the boat (?) to PP , stay a few days, then fly back to KL (or Bangkok
maybe).
As we've not been to Sihanoukville before, I'm wondering if its
possible/worthwhile visiting for some R&R. -I'm assuming overland travel
will be viable!!
We can spend a total of 10- 14 days in Cambodia.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Thanks

Jan




I was in these places in Feb 2006.

Sihanouk is a very mellow place indeed - far less developed than Koh Samui
was 30 years ago when I first visitted. If your R&R includes getting stoned,
dope is available in all the bars and restuarants, and in some cases freely
available (there's a box of it and some papers on the bar). There's not much
else to do there, eat crab curry, drink beer, some nightcluby things. I
don't think I saw a Westerner in the water at all; its not exactly Bondi
Beach.

The boat trip from Siam Reap to PP was fully booked, and I saw a boat and it
was massively overcrowded with backpackers all over the roof. The trip is
scenically boring for most of it, as you are on the largest lake in SE Asia
and cannot see land. I had already done the lower Mekong by boat, so instead
opted for the bus trip. PP is about 6 hours on the "VIP Bus" - there's a
hosty on board hands out tiny snacks, aircon largely works, easy trip. If
you want to directly kick on to Sihanouk, you change busses in PP and its
another 4-5 hours - you get there just after dark. Its a long day but not to
hard.

If you haven't been to Phnom Penh, get yourself a room at the front and on
the 4th or 5th floor of one of the riverside hotels, maybe $20 - $30 a
night. You can see the confluence of the two rivers - its one hell of a
view.

Peter Webb wrote:

I was in these places in Feb 2006.

Sihanouk is a very mellow place indeed - far less developed than Koh
Samui was 30 years ago when I first visitted. If your R&R includes
getting stoned, dope is available in all the bars and restuarants,
and in some cases freely available (there's a box of it and some
papers on the bar). There's not much else to do there, eat crab
curry, drink beer, some nightcluby things. I don't think I saw a
Westerner in the water at all; its not exactly Bondi Beach.

Not so bothered about getting stoned !!! Some snorkelling would be good and
a decent beach.

The boat trip from Siam Reap to PP was fully booked, and I saw a boat
and it was massively overcrowded with backpackers all over the roof.
The trip is scenically boring for most of it, as you are on the
largest lake in SE Asia and cannot see land. I had already done the
lower Mekong by boat, so instead opted for the bus trip. PP is about
6 hours on the "VIP Bus" - there's a hosty on board hands out tiny
snacks, aircon largely works, easy trip. If you want to directly kick
on to Sihanouk, you change busses in PP and its another 4-5 hours -
you get there just after dark. Its a long day but not to hard.


We did the boat trip in 2000- in the week following our trip the boat was
boarded by pirates and tourists had their belongings taken !!
Any idea if there's a bus from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville? We don't want to
do the usual boat-bus to Thailand return, We would go on PP.

If you haven't been to Phnom Penh, get yourself a room at the front and
on the 4th or 5th floor of one of the riverside hotels, maybe $20
- $30 a night. You can see the confluence of the two rivers - its one
hell of a view.

Sounds great, any recommendations? Last time we stayed at Narins Guest
House- they organised our onward travel to Vietnam.
Are there ATMs now? In 2000 there were none, I remember having to wait in a
bank for over an hour while we had some money changed.

Jan

"Jan" wrote in message
...
Peter Webb wrote:

I was in these places in Feb 2006.

Sihanouk is a very mellow place indeed - far less developed than Koh
Samui was 30 years ago when I first visitted. If your R&R includes
getting stoned, dope is available in all the bars and restuarants,
and in some cases freely available (there's a box of it and some
papers on the bar). There's not much else to do there, eat crab
curry, drink beer, some nightcluby things. I don't think I saw a
Westerner in the water at all; its not exactly Bondi Beach.

Not so bothered about getting stoned !!! Some snorkelling would be good
and a decent beach.

I doubt that there is much snorkelling - I didn't see anybody doing it
except off a dive boat. The diving itself is poor, and I was not impressed
with safety standards.

The beach is a strip of sand 10 - 40 metres wide depending on the tide, and
several kms long (that's the main beach, Serendipity Beach, anyway). There
is no surf. Its not a great beach by Australian standards.

I recommend the Orchidee Guest House - the only budget hotel with a pool
(and its great) - spotlessly clean, great cable TV, a block from the beach
(so its quiet) - somewhere under $20 (it was cheaper than LP said it was
which is unusual).



The boat trip from Siam Reap to PP was fully booked, and I saw a boat
and it was massively overcrowded with backpackers all over the roof.
The trip is scenically boring for most of it, as you are on the
largest lake in SE Asia and cannot see land. I had already done the
lower Mekong by boat, so instead opted for the bus trip. PP is about
6 hours on the "VIP Bus" - there's a hosty on board hands out tiny
snacks, aircon largely works, easy trip. If you want to directly kick
on to Sihanouk, you change busses in PP and its another 4-5 hours -
you get there just after dark. Its a long day but not to hard.


We did the boat trip in 2000- in the week following our trip the boat was
boarded by pirates and tourists had their belongings taken !!
Any idea if there's a bus from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville? We don't want
to do the usual boat-bus to Thailand return, We would go on PP.

If you haven't been to Phnom Penh, get yourself a room at the front and
on the 4th or 5th floor of one of the riverside hotels, maybe $20
- $30 a night. You can see the confluence of the two rivers - its one
hell of a view.

Sounds great, any recommendations? Last time we stayed at Narins Guest
House- they organised our onward travel to Vietnam.
Are there ATMs now? In 2000 there were none, I remember having to wait in
a bank for over an hour while we had some money changed.

Jan



I didn't change money while I was there. Proper hotels take credit cards,
and the place is pretty cheap (as you no doubt remember) so taking $US cash
is very practical particularly for a short stay.

For the PP hotel, I can't remember where I stayed, but there is a long strip
of mid priced hotels along the waterfront, and they are pretty similar (I
checked out a few) - as I said, a/c, hot water, clean, large, and $20 - $30
a night. A guest house away from the river might be $10 - $15 a night, so
for another $10 you can stay somewhere really nice with spectacular views.

I think that we were "dumped" at Narins Guest House (or Narins 2 Guest House
?) by the Vietnamese tour company that organised the HCMC to PP link. The
tour companies have deals with guest houses to deliver prospects to their
door. They are usually in the middle of nowhere (eg in PP suburbs) so when
you get off the minibus, there is nowhere else obvious to stay. I got
straight of the bus and onto a tuk-tuk to get to the riverfront - a far
better environment.