Feb 16- We travelled by bus from Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville. It is only 250 km but took us 6 and 1/2 hours to get there. We finally got to try some roasted bananas with mixed reviews. We arrived pretty late so we didn’t see much of the city of Sihanoukville and headed straight to our hotel at Otres Beach 2 and called her a night. In the accommodation department we went from fab to drab. The new place had big clean beds, fridge, and A/C and I guess the basic needs were met.
Feb 17 – We had breakfast and went back to the room to get in our swimsuits. We found out that on Sundays the power gets shut down everywhere and it usually comes on before dark. Our place did not have a generator. It was a beach day for us! Renelle made some friends with the local vendors and even got a massage from one of them. There were quite a few people coming to sell massages, pedicures, sunglasses, and even baked mantis prawns. A few were quite stubborn and would sit with you for awhile and hope you’d cave. One made Renelle pinky promise her that she would pick her later for a massage. They were all complaining that business was slow. Not as many people for them to take care of.
Many people also tried to sell tours of the islands that are close by. We ended up renting a boat for $50 and would go the next day to three islands.
The beach is nice and goes on for seemingly ever. Sayer figured out that they will serve him beer (to give to his dad). We had a fresh fruit salad cut up right in front of us with pineapple, mango, and bananas. We had a great beach day and soaked up the sun. The water was warm and we all were sun kissed at the end of the day. We found the Bamboo restaurant on the beach and we loved every dish. The kids found some of their favourite Cambodian food.
Feb 18 – We ate at the restaurant where we rented to boat. We left for the first island and snorkelled there. We had two masks and snorkels or our own but we left the flippers in Thailand. There were some pretty well used snorkels and masks for the rest of us to use. Snorkelling with three kids and swimming against the current seemed difficult and it didn’t last too long but we did see some fish. We did not bring the Go Pro since our hands were tied with the boys.
After this island, we went fishing using a line and bottles. The boys actually got to touch the fishing equipment unlike in Thailand. Shawn even caught something…… an eel!!! Our guide caught an eel and a tiny fish as well.
Once fishing was done we went to the island Koh Ta Kiev. We had lunch at the restaurant there and saw the cutest huts on the beach. The owner said he was all booked up so we were quite disappointed. We walked along the beach and saw another tree hut resort. They had two huts available for the next two days so we put our name down and decided this would be our next stop on the trip. The kids played in the hammocks in the water while we were organizing our stay.
We waited and waded in the water until someone woke up our boat driver who was sound asleep in the hammock and then we left Koh Ta Kiev. Actually, we all had to help push the boat out first as it didn’t want to budge. Our driver asked us if we wanted to snorkel again near the third island. We declined since it was already 6 hours or so and we had bus tickets and hotels to book since we wouldn’t have wifi at the island. We ate at the Bamboo restaurant again and later took a long walk from where we were on Otres Beach 2 to Otres Beach 1. We were looking for the place we would need to buy the return boat tickets to Koh Ta Kiev. We loved looking at the sea creatures, crabs and acorn worm remnants. the sunset was amazing to take in. – Renelle
Lew Crew Adventures 
Good to hear from you… where to, next??
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