Shore Leave

Hello from paradise! We are now on the southern coast of Cambodia, in a town called Sihanoukville. Cambodia is great, just as people along the way said it would be. People are super-friendly, the food is fantastic, and of course (Matthias’ favorite point) it’s cheap. We spent two nights in the capital city of Phnom Penh and then left for Sihanoukville by the sea.

We have been here for four days enjoying sun, sand, and good food. We rent bicycles everyday and ride to the quiet beach on the other side of town – a bit of a challenge as it is quite hilly here, but it makes me feel like I deserve all the fish with coconut curry (called amok) I’ve been eating. The area in which we are staying is pretty lively at night, but thankfully our hotel room is quiet.

Matthias and I were both quite surprised upon our arrival here to see lots of young American men around. We had no idea that Southern Cambodia was a tourist destination for Americans (in fact, I couldn’t imagine that many Americans could even locate Cambodia on a map – not sure if I could have before this trip.) I was also taken aback when I saw the hotel manager ask a young Black American to pay for his room in advance in the middle of the day (we never pay until check out) thinking RACISM! But later we got the full story.

It turned out that there is a US Marine aircraft carrier in the harbor, and the Marines aboard are taking shore leave here. We learned this later in the evening when we saw scores of Marines in the local bars (many with Cambodian girls fawning all over them) including a few hanging out in our hotel bar (thankfully, without the girls.) We also found out that they went back to the ship each night to sleep – so the young Marine mentioned above must have rented the room by the hour, which made a bit more sense. According to the locals, this is the first time a US ship has visited the area – hopefully, they will leave a decent impression.

After two more nights here we are going back to Phnom Penh. I thought we had to pass through there to move on, but it turns out that’s not the case. But, we still have to go back to visit the Killing Fields, which we haven’t seen yet. Then, we’ll take the bus to Siem Reap to see the Temples of Angkor.

We have just reached the halfway point of our Asian journey – our flight to the US will leave Kuala Lumpur on January 30th. That gives us two months for Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. Now that the weather is fine, we plan to slow down a bit, spending more time in some of the laid-back places.