Sihanoukville; Less Blood, More Aggro
Monday, September 22nd, 2008Beach. That’s basically Sihanoukville, the booming touriust spot on the south coast of ‘bodia.
While they are nice, white sand and relatively gentle crashing waves, the beach comes with more than it’s fair share of annoyances too. Within seconds of sitting down today Lauren and I were bombarded with children trying to sell us things. The moment one of the urchins dissappeared the next would turn up trying to sell us the same items. This happens for the first 25 minutes of sitting down, then sporadically for the rest of the day. It was the same story a few nights ago, when we went for a pint or two on the beach. I’m trying to keep calm about it, I really am, and when it comes to the genuine beggers on the beach, those with missing limbs who appear in me peripheral vision from time to time, shuffling towards me with the slowness and certainty of a glacier, I don’t mind one bit dropping some cash into their gnarled hands. A big thing out here is collecting empty tin cans, I think that it is possible to sell them by weight to recycling facilities, and t’other night Lauren gave one of the severely disabled beggers a can of sprite rather than money, and the poor old man’s face lit up with glee. It was very touching for Lauren, watching the man slide off to a slightly more secluded spot where he could gulp down the drink. I missed most of it though, I was faffing about with fire sticks again, a la Koh Tao (this time though, I have singed hair on my head, beard, arms and legs; a new personal best.) The point being that as Sihanoukville only has beaches to offer, we checked out the charmless and vaguely threatening town yesterday, and on those beaches it is near impossible to relax due to being hassled at every opportunity, makes me wonder why the people we have met have ranted so much about the place.
It feels as though the two of us have an inverted view of Cambodia and Vietnam, whereas most people we have met have sadly detested the Vietnamese people, we loved them. That’s not to say we don’t also like Cambodian’s a great deal, but I can not stress enough how, when leaving the hotel (in most cases before we have even left the hotel grounds,) we will have been accosted first to get a tuk-tuk, then to buy drugs. Not in any threatening way, but when this happens every fifteen to twenty metres it really gets to you, you know?
mikeloken