Serendipity

Cloud 9  Bungalows, Serendipity Beach, Sihanoukville to be exact. Pacific Island bure style bungalows. No phone, no hot water, no air con .... but free wifi internet access. Travelling has changed. Try and tell the young people today about Post Restante..... and they won't believe you! Booked the bungalows by mobile phone while on the bus on the way down. Almost feel sorry for the touting tuk tuk and moto drivers waiting at the bus station. It must be pretty hard to find someone these days who hasn't booked their accomodation in advance.

It was nice to get back to the ocean again. Cloud 9 was a good spot. German/Australian owned but with friendly, smart local staff who knew how to mix a fine cocktail. (Note to self for future: do not follow vodka cocktails with pastis, no matter how persuasive the barman is....).

We probably didn't see the  Serendipity/Occheuteal beach  area at its best given that it is the off season. With a few more tourists around no doubt it is a party town. As others have said before the area suffers from something of an identity crisis, with large resorts and casino hotels mixed in with backpacker accomodation, guesthouses and bungalows. The beach is lined with shacks selling food, drink  and massages, and offering shade and opportunity to the everpresent hawkers that wander the beach (along with when we were there one obvious group of local thieves).We found the shacks encroached too far onto the beach and walked further down the beach to get some peace.

 We enjoyed our stay. Managed a few ocean swims, downed a few Caprioskas at Cloud 9 , before turning our sights northwards again...