Sihanoukville and Lazy Beach

I just received reports from Stockholm that the first snow of the year has fallen. So I´m posting some photos from warmer latitudes to help you all to feel a bit.. well, warmer... Here are some photos from our trip to Sihanoukville and the island of Koh Rong Saloem that we did by the end of October.

First, we made an overnight stop in Sihanoukville. The hotel we stayed at, the Reef Resort, was a nice and friendly place with good food and a true haven in an otherwise very much destroyed Sihanoukville.

Janne in the pool (where else?!) at the Reef Resort

We were actually shocked to find Sihanoukville in such a state... A very sad experience and so totally opposite to the memories we have from our first visit there 6 years ago. What used to be a nice and quiet little seaside town with beautiful beaches has turned into a very shabby, dirty town and the Serendipity part of Occheutal Beach is covered with garbage and dominated by an overestablishment of shabby backpacker hangouts. Yep; things are changing quickly in Cambodia, just as at so many other places around the world that suddenly becomes popular tourist destinations...

So, after one night in Sihanoukville we were happy to take the boat to the island of Koh Rong Saloem, approximately 3 hrs off Sihanoukville.

Janne on the boat, looking forward to the beach...

After a quite pleasant boatride we arrived to Lazy Beach, a lovely bungalow establishment where we stayed for four nights.
The view from our bungalow

This is truly a great little place, a tropical hideaway from the rest of the world... Very basic accomodation, a bit more basic than we were up for at first actually, but the rest of it totally made up for that; the restaurant with delicious food, the relaxed athmosphere, the two lovely dogs running around, the nice staff, lazy afternoons in the hammocks reading books, swims in the turquoise sea and so on, made our stay there very pleasant and enjoyable. There´s no mobile phone connection or electricity on the island, only a generator running for a few hours in the evenings. Which all adds to the feeling of a hideaway from the rest of the world.

Lazy Beach, seen from the boat

The only drawback was the boatride back to Sihanoukville, as there was a very bad weather on our day of departure from Lazy Beach. Which made it impossible to board the boat from the pier, so we had to swim out to the boat in quite rough sea, and try to climb up and onboard. But with good assistance from fellow passanger we made it without any bigger difficulties. The worst was still to come, though; the seasickness that kept me company for most of the 3,5 hrs it took to get back to Sihanoukville. Next time, I have to remember to bring medicine for that....!