Day 9 - Sihanoukville, Cambodia

This stop we had not booked any tours for.  I had tried to book a tour but couldn't find any openings.  The tour operator suggested we just hire a taxi for the day, it should not cost more than $60, so that was our plan.  Then with all the cancellations and people having to get off the ship in Bangkok the group that we toured with the last 2 days thought there would be openings for us.  So off we go with the group that is now 12 and get on their tour bus.  From my readings I knew that Sihanoukville was in rough shape, pretty much bought up by the Chinese and made into a gambling city of casinos.  When you read back 10 years ago this was a must visit place, lots of beautiful beaches etc.  It is right now a mess of torn up streets, litter, and half finished casinos, which we came to know as "shitsville".  Why they even included this on the itinerary I do not know, if you booked a tour through the ship you were given a note with the option to cancel the excursion because of the mess it is.

Basketball/tennis court on the ship, even with bleachers.  Saw people playing tennis a couple of times, even walking was so hot, can't imagine playing tennis

We are now seeing lots of these fishing boats from the cruise ship.  They fish at night for squid and fish and come back to shore in the morning

Free shuttle to downtown, we spoke to some people that took the shuttle downtown and never got off, just stayed on for the return trip to the ship, it was that bad

Where you meet your tour, if you have not booked a tour you need to navigate through all these sellers to find one you want

Our bus for the day, a little different from our luxury van the last 2 days

Fishing village we visited, only about a 10 minute drive from the port.  Andre has done a good job at hiding all the garbage in the pictures, it was really sad to see.

Reminded Andre of him when he was a kid.

Monk going place, giving blessing and receiving donation. Kid was with him carrying the donations.

Where some of the fisherman lived.

Literally an outdoor urinal

Next we are off to visit the Kbal Chhay waterfalls. This was once a hiding place for the Khmer Rouge because of the fresh water.  Our  guide questioned us a couple of times if we really wanted to go, it is a longish bumpy ride on bad road, but we went for it.  Not much water at this time of the year, it is totally different in rainy season.  Again lots of garbage around.

No Andre, you can not have any

Next we are off to visit some temples and monuments around Sihanoukville

A visit to a square and the independence monument.

This is what ALL the roads looked like in Sihanoukville, and construction everywhere 

how do you transport a broken down motorcycle?

Now a visit to Wat Krom Temple. 

Residence for monks, clothes out drying 

Next we visited the main market.  You could buy everything from fruit/meat, to clothes, gold, hardware, get your hair/nails done etc.  We are on the lookout for a tiny lock for the suitcase for Nicole, she has booked a plane ticket to come and pick it up from our tour guide at our first stop in Vietnam, unfortunately we will not see her because she can't get the day off work.  We are successful and find a tiny lock

The meat market is across the street from the market we are in, we are staying away from raw meat and animal markets this trip....

We think he was making some kind of donuts?

Those are block of money. I believe they are real but not 100% sure

Stores on wheels.

We are now off for some lunch at what turns out to be a beautiful spot.  This section of the beach has been really cleaned up and we had a great lunch here.  Wish we had known about the beach, many of us would have brought bathing suits.  Andre didn't care, he went in the water in his shorts, I told him to take off his undies so they would be dry, he said they were soaking wet from sweat anyway so off he went.  Some great beverages and a good lunch, a nice way to finish our day in Cambodia.

I never have used hand sanitizer in my life so much as this trip

Lunch time, and yes we had wifi, yeah

Andre went for a swim, water temp same as air, around 30 degrees.

We asked our guide what a local dish was, he said Amok, so this is what Andre got, he said it was really good.  Will try to make it at home. 

Andre passed on the super hot peppers

Beach where we had lunch. All the building are under construction, none of these were completed.

Tonights show. Normally not allowed to take picture but this singer said yes.