Beaches, hawkers and barbies

Beer by the sea
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From Graham :

We headed off to Phnom Penh's bus station, full of anticipation for our first road trip of the holiday.  In my case there was the added excitement of travelers' bug, but the promise of a lav on board the bus meant we could travel in comfort.

Just five hours of traveling at precisely 50mph in a straight line, with occasional emergency stops to narrowly avoid animals crossing the road got us to our destination, and just one hour later we were checking into the Sea View Hotel - no Sea View of course, but Serendipity Beach was literally one minute away.  Twenty minutes later, we were on the beach, absorbing the scene - some thirty (maybe more) beach bars serving anything from sticky rice to lobster on the barbie.  Other beach dwellers provided special personal services for an extra free...

mmmmmmm
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During the course of our stay in Sihanoukville we fell in love with the place, and some of the beaches around the town - especially Otros beach a little to the east - were stunning and ironically much quieter than the Serendipity.  Hawkers were the main pest on Serendipity beach and even the local Cambodian press ran stories about the problem.

Within six hours we managed to get our Vietnam visas at the local consulate (10 minutes and $35 each), and then decide not to use them... but see later for another change of heart.

Enough laziness, now onto Siem Reap and Angkor!