Otres Beach

Our fifteen-hour bus trip ended in Sihanoukville after dark. A tuk-tuk driver offered to take us to our hotel for $10, which seemed unusually expensive considering I could buy an entire bakery for that, but there was no other choice.

Twenty minutes later, we were starting to get nervous. From the back of the carriage attached to the driver's low-powered motorbike, we found ourselves on a lonely muddy road, lit only by the single weak light in the front of the bike. Surrounding us, nothing but darkness. Looking over at Pinky, I could tell we were both thinking the same thing. 

I cleared my throat and asked "how much farther?" 

"Two kilos".  At this point, there was no other choice but to sit back and trust the driver.

Then, abruptly, we found ourselves on a bigger road with a number of hotels. And there it was, Mary's Beach Bungalows. There had been no need to worry after all.

"Fifteen dollars now", the driver tried to bargain. I was so happy that we had made it safely that I gave him twelve.

Sihanoukville

As it turned out, we had booked into a bungalow resort on one of the more remote beaches in Sihanoukville, Cambodia's premier seaside resort town. Our plan had us staying for one night in Sihanoukville, then taking the morning ferry to Koh Rong island.

Mary's Bungalows

We didn't end up spending much time at the beach however, because the weather looked like this:

Otres Beach

The resort was great, one big garden with nice bungalows, tropical flowers, birds, and hammocks to relax in. Super nice after a long day of traveling.

Ultimately, we booked another night at Mary's. Neither of us felt comfortable trying to take a little ferry out during the storm. The waves looked really rough, and the weather still looked like this:

stormy day

And it was getting rougher as the day went on. The rain didn't stop all day, and by the evening it was a full-on storm. As it turned out, we had arrived at the tail end of Typhoon Chaba. I'm glad we decided to stay another night though. Since there was really nothing to do, I finally got the rest that I had been wanting- and of course lots of tea and baguettes!

the first sunset we had seen in Cambodia