3M-squared in Sihanoukville

After Kampot we headed to Sihanoukville, or Sinville as the backpacker crowd calls it.  But don't let that suggest it is to be confused with Las Vegas / Sin City, as they couldn't be more different.  

Sihanoukville is a beach town, the new Phuket I guess (the latter being a beach town in Thailand that was dirt cheap bedore it was "discovered." Sihanoukville has definitely been discovered, and is teeming with "farangs," mostly Aussies and some Europeans.  It is still pretty cheap.  The 3 of us ate at the nicest restaurants in town, dinner with drinks and dessert (ya gotta have drinks & dessert) for about $20. We had a pretty swanky hotel room for $43. More basic rooms w/o air conditioning can be had for $10, but it's too darn hot & humid for me to do that.

Sihanoukville is most beautiful at sunset, when the fading light is no longer strong enough to harshly point out the lines on the beggar's face, the disappontment in her eyes when you say no, or the dirty tshirt her baby is wearing.  It's harder to make out the piles of garbage or the shabbiness of even the smartest hotels.  And of course the sun paints the ubiquitous poofy clouds infinite shades of pink & periwinkle. If the mosquitoes don't carry you off, or infect you with dengue fever or malaria, you're all set for a lovely evening.