I just got back from a short, but awesome vacation with 2 of my girlfriends. After months of deadlines, stock takes, audits, VIP visits and lots of meetings, I am finally done with all of it for the year, except for a VIP visit next week, which I am not too worried about. This was a trip that I was really looking forward to and I have to admit, it was kinda like the light at the end of the tunnel where after all these busy months, I will finally get to relax....a little.
When I told my colleagues and friends that I was going to Sihanoukville, they all asked the same question. Where is Sihanoukville? What is there to do in Sihanoukville? Is it expensive to go there? And how the heck did I know about Sihanoukville? To be honest, I never knew this place existed and I only came across it when I saw Air Asia was offering flights to go to Sihanoukville. It was when discussing about cheap flights to go places, one of my colleague told me to go to Sihanoukville first and tell him if it was nice. To be honest, the name just kinda stuck in head.
Sihanoukville.
It was about a week later one of my girlfriends commented about how cheap the flights were to go to Sihanoukville. A quick googled showed photos of white sandy beaches and crystal blue waters. I was curious and I knew if Sihanoukville is as beautiful as in the pictures I saw online, it would be a matter of time before it becomes over crowded and over commercialized as more and more people hear about Sihanoukville. Not mention that the flights would probably be expensive too.
So on a spur of the moment I suggested to my girlfriends to take a short weekend trip there. In the past it was very hard to get all our dates aligned and go on a trip together. It would had taken us ages to decide and plan the trip however, this time around, on the dates that I had picked, everybody was free. Decision were quickly made and we booked the tickets on that same night. We booked it on the last day of the Air Asia promotion for flights to Sihanoukville and we not only managed to get the dates we want, we also got a pretty good deal on it. Round trip tickets to Sihanoukville was RM254 each. It was a steal.
So we bought the tickets in May, so we had 5 months to wait before we could go on vacation. Like I said earlier, the trip to Sihanoukville was like the bright light at the end of the tunnel. The five months was hectic and I was crazy busy with work. Same went to my friends. We didn't really have time to research on what to do there. All we knew was that we would be spending time on the beach and relaxing.
To be honest as the dates came closer, we started to google about Sihanoukville and I noticed that there were not much info on Sihanoukville. Most of the info I got were on budget backpackers who wrote about the budget hostels and the bar scene in Sihanoukville. Most spoke about how Sihanoukville was just a stop before going to other more interesting towns or how cheap the drinks were in Sihanoukville. While I do appreciate reading about their thoughts and experiences there, but that was not the information I was looking for.
I found blogs writing about how dangerous it was in Sihanoukville and it was not safe to stay there. I have to admit, as I started reading these more and more of these blogs, I was getting apprehensive and was worried what I had dragged my friends into. They wrote about how the locals would repeatedly telling them to be careful of their surroundings and to guard your bags and phones as it would targets for pickpockets, snatch thief and robbers.
There were some blogs that wrote about how beautiful the beaches were and friendly the locals were and how delicious the food was. But most of the blogs that wrote that were several years old and I really don't know if it was something I would really trust as it was several years old and the more recent ones write about how dangerous it was to go there and also how awesomely cheap it was to get drinks there. I was not sure which ones to believe and it did got me worried. So I read more and more about the things to do from what little articles and blogs that were wrote about Sihanoukville, ignoring the nagging voice in my head telling me that perhaps we should cancel the trip.
But I am glad we didn't. We all had fun and regretted that we only planned 3 days for this trip. Since there were not much info on Sihanoukville online, I will try to share some of the info I have about Sihanoukville. Next post I will write about the hotel, the food and the wonderful beaches. So stay tuned.
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