The Simple Life

Sunset from Otres Beach (no camera filters!)

When Middlesbrough was voted the worst place to live in Britain the Mayor attempted manfully to defend it, describing all of the beautiful scenery around the city but failing to mention Middlesbrough itself.  Our next stop was to visit Cambodia’s answer to Middlesbrough, Sihanoukville.  Nobody stays in Sihanoukville for the town which consists of some dirty roads and buildings and some even dirtier old men.  Its saving grace are the sandy beaches and tropical islands that surround the country’s only deep water port.  Having learnt our lesson from the previous experience of Cambodian public bus’s we arrived in a taxi having splashed out the extra $2 each this time to avoid any unwelcome traumas.  After one night in the town we jumped on a tuc tuc early the next morning and headed west 5 kilometres to Otres beach which ticks every travel brochures beach criteria with room to spare.  Alongside the beach is a red dirt road which is home to a handful of backpacker’s hostels and some of the crustiest people in Asia.  Feeling overdressed for the strip in my 3 day old shorts and my yellow (previously white) t-shirt we trawled the road trying to ignore the locals shout of ‘tuc tuc’ and ‘weed’ every 10 metres as we searched for accommodation in the blistering heat.  We eventually managed to rent two bungalows on the beach where we spent three days in a radius of less than 100 metres as the hostel served cheese and bean toasties and an excellent Italian restaurant was next door!

Koh Ta Kiev

Our beach side hut

After a stressful few days on the beach we wanted to explore a few of the Islands just off of the coast and so we went on a day tour with the intention of staying on Koh Ta Kiev Island.  Wading ashore from the small boat we found a collection of six tumble down bungalows on the beach and a small ‘restaurant’ on the waterfront complete with cows, geese and dogs.  Walking in we met Andy, the quintessential hippie that everyone on the main land had been trying to aspire to be.  Andy was quietly telling some Germans that they would have to pay to camp on the Khmer owners land as they would be using their facilities.  It transpired that these facilities accumulated to a tin shed featuring a hole in the ground and a plastic water trough with an old container in that doubled as a shower and toilet water.   There was even a generous three hours of electricity a day from the generator! We of course ended up in the hut that was due to be demolished after we left and despite it leaning heavily to one side it seemed solid enough for a few days.  Over the three nights we spent on the island I tried  to not ‘shower’ in the toilet water.  I lasted until the evening of the third day when Hannah became increasingly indignant about sharing a bed with me due to the smell. 

Sunset views from the hut

After the handful of day tours had left the island it became a deserted paradise with no lights on at night and just the sound of the water in the evenings.  It was so dark we were able to swim at night surrounded by glowing bio-luminescence in the calm waters.  The only menace on the island were the sand-flies and deranged cows that would trample all over towels and belongings trying to steal sandwiches and rice from peoples plates whilst they were still in their hands.  This culminated in a funny stand-off with Clément and a cow over a chicken baguette – I learnt not to try and steal a baguette from a hungry Frenchmen.  Having lived on the Islands of Cambodia for four years helping local families compete with western projects Andy spent the days walking up and down the beach with a huge joint and his emergency supplies (a guitar, some marijuana and papers in a water tight bottle plus a lighter and torch tied to his shorts) having a chat with anybody that would listen.  He also had an inflatable kayak to row to the islands only bar and a sail to hoist for the return journey after too much of the locally distilled absinthe had been drunk.  The only problem with paradise was the Asian mentality to throw rubbish anywhere, a problem where excuses about education and learning to manage plastic packaging rather than banana leaf packaging will only last so long.  The Khmer family would diligently sweep the area in front of our hut every day for leaves and plastic before throwing it all in the jungle behind.  Unfortunately my lack of washing and running out of money meant we had to leave on the fourth day and head back for mains electricity and an ATM but with another two weeks of beach time to come we may well head back before our VISA expires.