Sihanouk Ville

We had the great experience of teaching in Sihanouk Ville last week.  It was a nice break to work.  (Yes, that is what I said.) We drove into the city after four hours on the Mekong Express, the nicest of Cambodia’s bus systems.  It was air conditioned, they provided snacks, and only a few seats had leaks over them.  The Koreans who run Life University met us at the bus stop and took us to lunch at a very nice, very vacant hotel.  We had a lovely meal, and truly enjoyed the company.  The Koreans spoke beautiful English and made us feel welcome from the beginning. 

They took us then to a hotel where we were to stay for the week.  We were intending to stay on their campus but it filled up more than they expected so they paid for our hotel, which was directly on the beach.  I have included some pictures of our hotel, because although it was more than I expected, I don’t think we can communicate the weirdness of it unless you see pictures.  I could never tell if it was being put together or taken down, but there was almost no furniture in the whole place, and although we were their only four guests we were on the third floor, away from the ocean.  The beach was virtually unusable, as there were no chairs or tables outside, and it was covered with trash and had a concrete beam was running through it.  If you walked down a ways it was usable, but the beachfront property was wasted on our hotel. 

We spent one day on the popular Serendipity Beach.  Tourism is the main draw for this city, but they are seriously lacking on major fronts.  Don’t get me wrong, I would love to live and teach here next year, but things are just not what I know you may be picturing.  The tuk-tuk dropped us off at Serendipity at the top of a long steep hill that he could not drive down with his moto and tuk-tuk because it was so rutted out.  We gladly walked down the hill, but I was shocked that their main beach was so inaccessible.  There were some little shops on the side of the road, and many guesthouses to choose from.  The entrance to the beach was unclear.  You had to go around this little stand selling all sorts of random wares, to the right or the left, climbing down a concrete wall or over dilapidated stairs.  Both directions on the beach were lined with restaurants and bars, some belonging to guesthouses, some standing alone. They all had chairs set up to enjoy the ocean view, but the cushions on the chairs were wet and I am pretty sure never moved out of the elements. 

Sitting on this beach is tiring.  We came down mid-morning and until we left at 4 we were constantly surrounded my women offering manicures and pedicures on the beach, or massages, or a strange form of hair removal I didn’t want to know anything about.  Some were friendly, some pushy, but it was constant. There were others selling fruit, or seafood along with tons of kids selling all sorts of things, crafts they had made, bookmarks, bracelets, etc… Their goal seemed to be to get you to say, “Maybe later,” and then they make you pinkie promise that you will buy from them later, and no one else. They will remember you too, so don’t think you are getting out of it for one second.  It only took me one pinkie promise to learn this lesson. 

Before heading to Sihanouk Ville I read about how to treat the kids who sell stuff on the beach. It is understood that they don’t get to keep their money and they are sort of pimped out.  They all say they are paying for school but that is hard to believe since they are there everyday.  I tried talking to one little girl about the truth of this. She didn’t try to sell me anything, she just kept touching my tummy and asking questions about my family and telling me about hers’ when I asked in return.  She said she gets to keep most of her money, but sometimes bullies take it. She also told me about some other kids who sell on the beach who are her enemies because they are not nice. I don’t know the truth but it is hard to ignore all of them, and that somehow doesn’t seem helpful either.

All in all, our time in Sihanouk Ville was too short. I would have loved to stay another week and teach another course.  Our students were excellent.  They loved having us too.  When they finished their test we told them they could leave, but they all stayed until we absolutely forced them to go, which was 45 minutes longer than class was supposed to run.  They even gave us a gift when we left and they all put notes in it.  I am excited about the prospect of teaching there in the future, even if it is in small spurts like this last week was.