Sihanoukville & Kep

Hello everyone!

Here comes the time to talk about the south of Cambodia.
First of all, I went a few days to Sihanoukville to dive a bit. Hmm... not sure my days in Sihanoukville will allow me to be fair, but, anyways, I will try.

Let me first tell you about my diving experience, which was out of my hands and out of the Diving club hands.
Visibility: bad. Weather: ok. People: ok. And that's it! Oh, no, I met my cousin's lookalike! This is funny!
An Australian guy to talk to me (we were dive buddies, meaning under water we stay together and looked after each other). So in the way back, he came to talk to me.
And suddenly I realized he just looked like my cousin!!! But really! I couldn't hear what he was saying to me!
I asked him if his family was Australian-Australian and he said yes. And kept talking about I don't remember what.
And suddenly I said:
"-Sorry... but you really look like my cousin!
- Oh, really? Where is he from? Is he Swiss?
- Well... actually, my grand-parents were from Bielorussia.
- My grand-father was from Bielorussia too!"
Mystery solved!!! All Bielorussian people looked the same three generations after!
I didn't asked him his family name... was too affraid it could be Walicki!

Sihanoukville beach, at least the most famous one, sucks. You feel you are in Thailand. But you're not in Thailand! You're in Cambodia!
You have one bar after another, women selling you fruits, massages, manicure. But at least the seats are for free :)

My hotel was the crappiest hotel in the whole region. Could you believe it? I was in the middle of nowhere, the drivers didn't know where the hotel was, the bed sheets were less than clean, there was no safe (the manager said: -Someone will bring you a safe today... I'm still waiting), the staff didn't speak English: they only say "yes".
- I need to go to the bus station tomorrow morning.
- Yes.
- Could you arrange the taxi?
- Yes.
- How much it will be?
- Yes.

But I went to Kep... and Kep was amazing :) It used to be called "Kep sur Mer" (Merci, la France).Of course, it's full of French people, but ohhh, how peaceful, how authentic, how cheap!
And food there was really good! Actually, food in Cambodia is really good. You can really feel the French influence. I had the best cordon bleu of my life! Seriously!
I spent New Year's Eve in Kep. Wow! I could count the tourist with one hand!
I actually spent a typical Cambodian New Year's Eve! Of course, they had their own New Year's celebration, but, who cares? A holiday is a holiday!
Cambodian people dance with their hands. Yep. Hard to explain by blog, but imagine a little "Aloha movement" and that's it. The Cambodian dance. So I dance with Cambodian teenagers in a Cambodian way. Dancing in circles moving the hands. Awesome! I definitely will come back to celebrate New Year's Eve in Kep. New York: you have serious competition!

In resume, beside the Thai influence in the Cambodian beaches, the south of Cambodia is definitely a place to visit! You don't only have beaches, but pepper plantations (Kampot pepper is supposed to be one of the best in the world...), islands, the King former Palace (with the Khmer Rouge bullets impacts...).

Cambodia has so much to share... and a blog is certainly not enough. You might want to come and see it with your eyes and couldn't do but encourage you to do so.

By now, I'm in Vietnam and will tell more in my next post. In the meantime, best of luck!

Rebeca