Monday 15th March
Minibus arrived half an hour early to collect us, causing a very rushed breakfast. We were taken to an express coach parked by the night market. The coach was very comfortable with air conditioning and on-board wc.
There were only a few other passengers so we sat high up at the front with a wonderful view as we cruised along, sometimes attaining a speed of 30 mph. It wasn't that the roads were bad, they were well metalled with wide laterite verges, it was just that when everything has to travel on a two lane road; tractors, lorries, tuk tuks, coaches, cows, motorbikes and bicycles, there are inevitable delays.
Add to this the absence of any discernable traffic rules except that you are supposed to drive on the right, unless you are overtaking, turning, or don't happen to feel like it at the time, and life gets very slow.
However this lack of speed was lucky for one calf who trying to join its mother, bolted across the road into the path of the coach. Despite a large bang as the two collided, neither the calf nor the coach was seriously hurt.
We reached Sihanoukville at 1:30pm and haggled with taxi drivers to take us to the Independence Hotel. This is 5km from town, which judging from the look of the town is a good thing.
The hotel is a 1960s building, the sole occupant of a promontory overlooking a private beach where we spent the afternoon, and a bar/restaurant a few feet from the gently lapping waves where we spent the evening.
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