Vietnam. Cambodia

Deep respect to the author !!!

To get from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville need to drive from north to south most part of Cambodia. First bus ride to Phnom Penh, and from there continued to move south until then, until it reaches the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, where, leaning on a line of beaches is a quiet resort town.
Tiring journey takes 12-15 hours and is only waiting for a relaxing holiday and its attendant pleasures brightens a little long hours moving. But reaching and breath, a tired traveler can immediately make - this goal was worth.

Taken from here





Clean, calm sea, beautiful sandy beaches, hot sun, friendly people, diverse cuisine. Probably only fans noisy get-togethers will be a bit disappointed.



But that is not the absence of such events, but only to those that might not find them in walking distance and have to look for hot spots. But the fans something more relaxing fully get what they need.
The organization reminds the beaches in Sihanoukville Goan India, even similar, smartly darting across the sand crabs.



The coastline is occupied by cafes, standing completely one after the other and divided between them.



Each institution puts their deck chairs, umbrellas-Ground, removes the jurisdictional territory and strongly attracted to it a rest, in order to profit from their service.



Should one dinner at one of the restaurants, as his waiters will remember you the next day, and will be welcomed as an old friend and good helping the best way to get a lounger and immediate response to any of your needs. Wonderfully cold beer, fresh juice, a large selection of dishes to suit all tastes: Khmer, Italian, German. Whatever your gastronomic preferences - you will not be hungry.
For example, delicious fish amok in the form of soups with coconut milk, fish, shrimp, a variety of vegetables.



Here amazing noodle soup with vegetables and meat.



And if you want - a great pho with the thin noodles, dumplings and soy sprouts



Would you like soup - try the fish. Very delicious, even the usual fried sea bass in sweet and sour tomato sauce with stewed vegetables: onions, sweet and hot peppers, slices of cucumber and pineapple.



Always worth to eat crabs in tomato sauce and a sprig of green peppers.



That is what exactly have to remember later in our latitudes. And on crabs, of course, but more importantly, mark my words - of fresh green peppers. Fragrant and mad at the same time, quite delicate, so it was interesting to just have a snack. It is a pity that unlike other types of round green peppers fresh is not saved and is not suitable for transportation, but it is prepared for the future, builders salt pepper and salt it is already possible to take in the farthest distance.
But the restaurant menu culinary offerings are far from exhausted. After all, here on a sandy beach, under the mercilessly scorching sun, looking for the opportunity to earn a little money by providing services to tourists, countless locals. Attach a portable brazier somewhere on the track, they cook seafood, sell a variety of fruit drinks offer.
Everything is fresh, tasty and being prepared in the presence of the client.



Right on the beach I liked the breakfast: a dollar given four small baked octopus or kalmarchika with a slice of lime and a sharp, peppery sauce.



A cup sparkling, cold beer, instantly putting on the table the waiter cafe, completes the already quite an inspiring picture of the meal.
Closer to lunch delicacies appear abruptly into carriers that go the beach with huge trays on their heads. And on the trays, bright, seductive mountains are big crabs and lobsters quite delightful. My God, what lobsters, guys! But only for this unforgettable meeting should go on the bus for hours!



Khmer traders do not pristavuchi. They do not pursue you and do not whine, persuading them to buy a product, and if eyes resting suspended or indifferent, pass by without even disturbing. But the slightest interest, trader reacts immediately. Lobsters are spread on a tray size. The biggest cost seven dollars per dozen, the youngest - three or four dollars. One person to eat a dozen of large lobster glut oneself means superbly. Each "beast" a trader opens and displays the type of impeccability of his meat, and the one on trial, even offer free of charge. The last move is just as reliable as a warning shot in the head - these tasted lobster, it is impossible to resist. Because shrimp, octopus and crabs, of course, does not compete with the taste of lobster, whose tastes so good, so gorgeous that they tempted people lose the will and closes the angle of vision to a narrow sector in the center of which lies just lobster.



Our happiness is that in nature, no one is hunting for people, otherwise, man, lobster dinners, could become the easy prey for predators.
In addition to the gastronomic pleasures of the beach is full of others. Massage? Manicure? Pedicure? Hair Removal? Khmerki learn the craft in search of clients a day walk on the hot sand, having with them everything they need - a little stool and a tool bag. Curiously enough for an unusual performance hair removal, which is made without any special tools, using only thread. And do extremely deftly and quickly.



Sometimes, on the beach you can see very young boys or girls. No, they do not play here, and do not bathe, they are also working to help his parents, brothers and sisters. For example, they can be seen with a bag whose dimensions are sometimes clearly than he who drags him. Here we have a rather large bag seen the girl in the center of the frame.



Do not worry, he is not very heavy. There's an empty aluminum cans for drinks and beer. Here on the beach, do not go unnoticed by any one source of income.
I have already said that the Cambodian government is quite tolerant of soft drugs. Therefore, when hooked on the beach young man starts to rub you about some Maryvanna do not try to remember compatriots the same name and patronymic. You just ask you if you want to smoke marijuana mentally.
There on the beach, and the poor, beggars, but even they are quite delicate and not break a certain distance before the feed will show a willingness to part with money.
Noon impozatny and colorful beggar grandfather walked cafes around as walked to his tenure feudal prince, collecting taxes from the peasants.



No flattery, not the slightest vanity or humility. On the contrary, generosity, peace and dignity in every step and every gesture.
There is just a little bit in another part of the beach, relaxing and Cambodians, massively arriving in Sihanoukville on weekends. Therefore, all the beach services and sharpened for them, except that cafes in their half of the simpler in his entourage,



yes the food hawkers have focused on the local population, poprivychnee terms of local traditions. Those unforgettable balut eggs,



about which I wrote in my notes, various pastries, sometimes, as here, these pies, prepared steamed,



and sometimes fried,



rice, beans and vegetables.



After all, even here, in the seaside town, not all Cambodians could afford to eat seafood. Taking a walk on the beach, I saw a vendor dining lobsters. Tu, which I myself otovarilsya hour ago. Yet half of her standing next to the tray was filled with unsold beauties. But the vendor, sitting right on the sand, eating from a bowl, which was empty rice, a little, on the edge, poured some sauce. He caught my eye and read him a question, she gestured to me that there is its lobster it can not, they are intended for sale.
By the way, we met here with another very curious variation of cooking eggs.
A raw egg is pierced by a stick in the hole poured a mixture of salt and pepper and the same wand gently stir in the egg white and yolk. Further, the egg is pierced through and is sitting on a stick. And, on one stick, so is pushed three or four eggs, which are then, without removing from the sticks, baked or steamed warm brazier and eat. Outside is the egg, not counting the two small holes in the shell, looks as usual, but inside it is a sharp-spicy welded homogeneous mixture of albumen and yolk.



It gets dark early in the tropics, and fast, but with a sunset beach life does not end, but only modified.
All coastal cafes switching to offer a barbecue. From the interior of the cafe pulled long roasters and specialty food boxes. They are under a transparent cover is meat, fresh fish, shrimp, shellfish and other edible sea inhabitants.



Your finger on what it is like and cook immediately.



For eight dollars, we ate big fish in taste and form of which was something of mackerel and two large plates with coleslaw and fries to Rybin relied free.



It is in the coastal cafe close to the evening and night butterflies flock together, wanting to satisfy the interests of their sex, however, the number of proposals of this kind, far from equal with Thailand.



As it gets dark on the tables are lit light or a lamp and put an indefinite time you can sit on the beach, sipping a beer and listening to the rustle of the waves. A separate and busiest places along the coast include music and begins the night tusnya.



However, the city at nightfall freezes and rare places still working after 10-11 pm. But the next day, right from the dawn of life again boils everywhere: restaurants, shops, markets.
By the way, the whole sianukvilskie markets differ little from Phnom Penh or Siem riepskih. All the same abundance of vegetables,



fruit, meat



and fish.



The same friendly, smiling people around communication which is essentially a separate and special pleasure.
Taken together, all evaluations Sihanoukville your correspondent left the best impression. Wonderful city with affordable and excellent conditions for recreation.

And despite the fact that we've been here longer than originally planned to leave when the time came, I would not want to. And if ever I wanted a second round to visit the best of the places where I have had a chance to visit, the Cambodian Sihanoukville will undoubtedly be in this list, one of the first.

To be continued. Today everything)), and thanks to Alexander Shipilevskomu.



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