Sihanoukville: Beaches, booze & baby back ribs

Once we arrived in Sihanoukville some kind of brain fog set in and we haven't been able to leave. This town is a wonderful mix of beaches, restaurants and mini marts. There are five or so beaches separated by rocky points. Each beach has its own unique style. We've visited three or four of them but only two have been worthy of our continued presence. (Clearly we're valuable customers.)

We're staying at Serendipity beach with our Aussie friends, Will and Sarah, at a Motel 7. When we tell Motel 6 they are being trademark infringed upon, no doubt they'll come after Motel 7 with the big guns. Just like the "7-Twelve" we found in Vietnam that had a 7-Eleven like sign and paraded around as a mini mart with slurpies. Amir and I have been thinking of opening up a little store of our own here but we can't decide between Kentucky Fried Chicken Wing or MacDonaldsons.

Serendipity beach is lined with restaurants (shacks) with lounge chairs covered with umbrellas. The unwritten rule is anyone can use the lounge chairs but if you do, you're expected to order something. The restaurants don't even mind if you only order a fruit shake and then buy the rest of your meal from the numerous vendors walking up and down the beach selling spring rolls, fruit, grilled squid-on-a-stick, river lobster, crabs, and some inedible items like sunglasses and bracelets.

The ocean water is so warm that sometimes we sweat more in the water than out of it. The best days are those that bring afternoon or nighttime showers to lower the temperature of the water to slightly less than hot tub levels. Two of the restaurants have giant floaty toys that you can climb on all day for the bargain price of $1. We watched and laughed one day as a group of Cambodian kids flipped over the giant white mountain floaty and then the restaurant staff spent the next hour trying to right it again.

Our days consist of waking up, lounging about in our air conditioned room until 11, heading to the beach for some lounging around under umbrellas and lunch until 2 or 3, going back to our room for showers and naps and then going out around 5:30 for white Russians followed by dinner by delivery straight to our room where we dine in air conditioned comfort while watching movies on HBO or Starz. The two most frequent dinner we order are barbecued baby back ribs with baked potato and salad or Quattro Formaggio pizza. We also hit up a mini mart at least twice a day for waters and snacks (read: cookies). There are 4 or 5 mini marts we go to regularly, just to keep things from getting too routine. :)

We'll be reluctantly leaving this paradise tomorrow night (yes, we're finally caught up on this blog) for Bangkok where we have to catch a flight on April 16th to Nepal via a 30-hour layover in the Delhi airport. Once we are in Nepal, we should have internet for 4 or so days before we begin our trek on the Annapurna Circuit. We expect to take between 21 and 24 days on the trek before busing back to Kathmandu where we will once again have internet and can assure the world we are safe and once again fit. (We'll have a lot of pizza and ribs to burn off.)

Next stop...Nepal.