I was in Anchor Wat in 2009, so I skipped it on this trip. I spent a few days in the Capitol, Phnom Penh, and then headed to the beach. Phnom Penh is pretty meh. The thing that made me crazy was that there was garbage piled up in the streets as if the garbage collectors were on strike. In some places, it was 3 meters high. Talk about a disease vector!

I stayed at Otres 2 beach in Sihounikville for a few nights. It is pretty chill, and the water is excellent for swimming. After riding a bike for 5 weeks, it was just what I needed to relax. I spent a day on a long-tail boat doing some snorkeling. I’d not recommend it. After the Philippines, the snorkeling in Vietnam and Cambodia was disappointing. The best thing about Otres 2 is that it is not overdeveloped yet, and there are almost no hawkers! It was swim, read, sun, eat and repeat!

Then I took a boat to Koh Rong. From what I heard from others and read, this island is one of the last undeveloped islands in Cambodia. I booked a room for five nights. It was just OK for me. It’s a very social island. Most everyone is concentrated in one place. The only locals are those who work/live there. it’s basically a backpacker island with primarily western food. The issue with all the beaches I’ve seen in Cambodia and Vietnam is the trash on the beaches. Koh Rong is no exception. Most of Asia seems to treat the ocean as its own personal dump and much of it turns up on the beaches. This makes me ill, having grown up in beach culture, where no one would throw trash in the ocean.

I spent a night in downtown Sihanoukville, so I could quickly jump on the bus to Phnom Pehn to catch my plane to Bangkok. It’s not a nice place, full of young people partying their ass’s off and super overdeveloped and commercial. Sorry Cambodia, but you did not make my list of places I would like to live.