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Bathing, island-hopping in Cambodia
Source: Manila Bulletin
Author: Bernd Kubisch
Date: 2000-01-31
 
SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia (DPA) -- At Ochheuteal Beach, a surfer is gliding

over the waves against the backdrop of the setting sun. In front of her, children

and youths are rushing around on the sand and in the water. A

Cambodian-German team is playing beach football against the rest of the

world, consisting mainly of Australians and Americans.



A few globetrotters and cultural tourists seeking refreshment after hot days exploring

the temples of Angkor Wat, are sitting outside a wooden hut that serves ice-cold

beer, prawns and grilled chicken thighs.



The water is clean, the sand light. Cambodia?s few beaches are neither as long or as

palm-bedecked as those of Sri Lanka or India.



But in the south of the Gulf of Thailand the Khmer kingdom, avoided by travellers for

many years on account of a horrendous civil war and violent unrest, offers bathing

and diving holidays to suit everyone ? except, perhaps, those who prefer mass

tourism and a dense network of hotels, buses and roads.



Around 1,500 hotel and boarding house rooms are available in the five or six beach

resorts and the small town of Sihanoukville. An air-conditioned room with satellite TV

and three decent restaurant meals a day costs about 35 dollars. Several luxury hotels

complete with swimming pool have been recently opened or are under construction.



On this particular evening the Angkor Arms, a British bar, is as noisy as a similar

establishment on Mallorca. Tourists from London, Vienna and Hamburg are engaged in

a beer-drinking contest. The locals stand around looking rather bewildered as noisy

foreigners wipe foam from their mouths. Luckily, evenings like that are the exception.

As a rule the coast ? like Cambodia as a whole ? is tranquil.



In Sihanoukville children greet you politely, and monks are happy to show you their

temples. There is fruit and vegetables at the market, but no tourist souvenirs.



?We?re just a big village. Anyone can walk here at night without worrying,? says

Moung Makary, a 28-year-old who feeds his family by driving a moped taxi and making

use of his good English as a tourist guide. He charges between one and two dollars an

hour for his services, and prefers greenbucks to the local currency, the riel. He

advises good divers and surfers to bring their own equipment with them.



Favorite outing spots are the nearby Kbal Chhay waterfalls, the Bokor Hills and the

Ream National Park with its stretches of coastland and mangrove forests.



Things get livelier in Sihanoukville at weekends, when city dwellers from the capital

Phnom Penh come here to cool down. Then the hotels, the dozen discotheques and

karaoke bars are all full. Popular with tourists are the Galaxy, the Nasa Night Club and

the Golden Lion Monument by the roundabout with the gigantic statue of a golden

lion, Sihanoukville?s emblem.



During the daytime, Sokha Beach is usually crowded. It is not particularly attractive or

long, but it has a genuine Far Eastern feel to it. Big families with dogs and babies sit

beneath giant sunshades, chunks of meat and fish sizzle away on barbecues, traders

sell green coconut water, mangoes and seafood, raw, boiled and fried.



From Victory Beach about three or four kilometers away you can take a boat to

nearby islands to snorkel, fish and picnic. The islands are uninhabited and have some

good diving grounds.



Alternatively, for those who fancy island-hopping, a boat can be hired very cheaply.



In 1955 construction workers and engineers from France and Cambodia began clearing

the jungle and building docks. During the Vietnam War, Sihanoukville was an important

transit point for weapons used in fighting the USA. In May 1975 the Americans

bombed the town after the Khmer Rouge seized the container ship SS Mayaguez.



Now there is a ferry and bus connection to Trat in Thailand. The GST Express Bus

takes three and a half hours for the 245 kilometer journey from Phnom Penh to

Sihanoukville. A ticket costs around two dollars and 50 cents, cheap for tourists but

an enormous sum for local people. The good asphalt road runs mainly through flat

countryside broken by the occasional hill, past paddy fields, banana plantations and

trim wooden houses.



Bus tickets to Sihanoukville and information about the town can be obtained in the

Capitol in Phnom Penh, a favorite meeting place for travellers on a tight budget. Fried

rice with chicken costs around 75 cents, glass-noodle soup about fifty. The Chinese

owners also operate tours of Phnom Penh and trips to Angkor Wat. The extensive

temple complex is an hour?s flight or just over five hours by boat from Phnom Penh.



Angkor Wat, built in the first half of the twelfth century by King Suryaavarman II, like

the ancient 11th-century town of Angkor Thoma, spreads across an area of many

square kilometers. The stone Hindu-Buddhist temples and palaces and decorated with

gods, dancers, snakes and innumerable sculptures.



Cambodia is no longer on the list of countries that western diplomats consider very

dangerous for tourists. However, some advise against taking overland trips at night

and urge their nationals to be specially careful in Phnom Penh, especially after sunset.

Nowadays, even individual tourists are welcome. Visas can be obtained on arrival at

Phnom Penh airport.
 

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