Sihanoukville: See a Hooker (it rhymes?)

How do we describe Sihanoukville politely? With beautiful beaches, only one beach resort and cheap lodging and food, it feels like a really filthy version of Cancun 30 years ago. Sihanoukville boasts what are considered the best beaches in Cambodia and is even a cruise ship stopover as it has the only deep water port in the country, which also facilitates international trade.

Let's go back to the word filthy. The Dangers and Annoyances section in the Lonely Planet is a half page for Sihanoukville, while most cities we've visited don't even have this section. Along the beach it is impossible to avoid harassment by aggressive and vulgar youth, fluent in English profanity, who do not appreciate your "ate hakon" (no thank you) to buying their crappy bracelets. Gabi even got kicked by a child. It was heart wrenching to see these uneducated children trying to be so tough and knowing that their futures would be the same at best. We saw children as young as four being taught the ropes by their 12 year old role models.

The older girls, prostitutes aged 18 (we hope) to mid twenties, made themselves very openly available to much older western men. While swimming we chatted with a 68 year old German man who frankly explained that he returns here yearly for three months at a time to "swim and enjoy the young girls..." who "don't like me so much as they like my money". He also mentioned his irregular use of condoms and chuckled at the fact that he "might have some Cambodian babies floating around" aside from the ones he already has in Thailand and Germany. He also explained that he wear a different color of faux Ray Ban's every day of the week. Wednesday was bright red. Does this remind you of the Royal Palace dress code (see 'Phenom Penh: Still Our Pearl' blogpost)? In all sincerity, it was very sad to see such visible, unglamorized prostitution day and night and this industry so heavily supported by foreigners.

Sihanoukville did have a few nice characteristics and many wonderful locals. On the beach we relaxed and met women who were happy to share about their lifestyles, promising their children were in school, while we shared sunscreen with them in return.

A special treat was Dr. Fish, a business run by a 15 year old, in which you pay $3 USD to put your feet in a tub full of 3,000 small, toothless, carnivorous fish who feast on your dead skin. A free beer helps ease the tickles. In the evenings we enjoyed yet another sunset seafood bbq, this time with garlic bread and potatoes instead of the regular rice, rice and more rice. At night the bar scene was bumpin' (and safe) and we happened to be there for the full moon party which ended with a dip in a pool and late night cheddardogs.

After three days of beach time with plentiful tans/burns, we were ready (especially Gabi) for our next destination, Battambang, just 11 hours away via Cambodian bus.