Travel is more than the seeing of sights;
it is a change that goes on,
deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.
-Miriam Beard
here are times when you crave a holiday from your travels. This enables you to rest, recover, reflect and prepare for the journey ahead. It also helps you to get caught up with your laundry, take care of stuff such as banking and reconnect with family and friends back home. So, it was with great anticipation that we arrived in Sihanoukville, the beachside town of Cambodia. We were a bit travel weary and ready for a rest. If you are familiar with the geography of Cambodia, you know there isn’t much coastline here. Most travellers certainly don’t visit Cambodia for it’s beaches. So, we were all pleasantly surprised by what we found on our 3 days of beach discovery!
The beach in Sihanoukville is extremely touristy and for the first time we felt really hassled in Cambodia. Many of the vendors on the beach have come here from Vietnam and are more aggressive in their approach than the far more mild mannered Cambodians. However, we were happy to spend a bit of money for beachside pampering and invested a fair bit in the Cambodian economy that day! The women were offering everything from manicures and pedicures (at $3 each, this was surely value for money) as well as massages and threading!
Threading is a form of body hair removal which is quite painless on your legs but more painful on other parts of your body. Most of us splurged on at least a few of the services offered. There is nothing better than lying on a deck chair listening to the ocean while having your nails manicured with a French polish, your legs threaded and your body massaged!
On the second day we did a boat trip to one of 
the islands. After a bit of snorkelling, we visited the island for lunch, a walk and a swim. The coral here is not terribly spectacular but it was still good fun to look down on life in the ocean. 
The ocean in Cambodia is incredibly warm..it is like lying in bath water that never goes cold. Even in Sri Lanka, I have never experienced such warm water. The cove we were in was also extremely sheltered and it was great to just lie there in the water, relax and chat to my fellow travellers. 
I hate having my life disrupted by routine. ~ Caskie Stinnett
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