Seaside Sihanoukville: relaxing by the beach

At the end of two months’ teaching English in Cambodia, the interns are ready to kick back and relax – and where better than the beaches of Sihanoukville?

Teaching had sadly come to an end but a much deserved ‘holiday’ awaited us. We travelled to Sihanoukville, a popular tourist destination on the south coast. It felt great to get away from the craziness of Phnom Penh and chill out a bit. We had five days here so we were all ready to do some snorkelling and visit Koh Rong by boat. An island tourists rave about.

The snorkelling trip started us off, all of the interns hiring a tour guide to take us around three islands for a full day out at sea where we stopped off at a secluded beach for lunch with water that was amazingly still and clear. Whilst snorkelling we caught sight of some interesting coral reefs which were home to an octopus and crab that we were all crowding around to see.

It’s definitely a place where you could sit on the beaches all day sipping on Angkor beer or $2 cocktails and a whole day will just breeze by. After living in the hubbub of Phnom Penh and the travelling around the country at weekends, we were all thankful for the reprieve and did little but eat amazing sea food and dip in and out of the sea. Sihanoukville has a crazy strip on the beach which was good for saying our drunken and emotional goodbye’s to fellow interns. A wonderful local sea food BBQ was arranged to celebrate surviving the internship run by the brilliant Kimlay. Absolutely everyone had an incredible time teaching out here, and a few of us are going to teach elsewhere around the world or carrying on travelling through SE Asia. If you feel like you need to get out of your comfort zone and want to truly experience the Khmer way of life, then come and teach in Cambodia.