ALONE IN PARADISE I sprawled on a beach chair, stared out over blue waters that seemed to never end, and silently thanked the rest of humankind for being somewhere else.
As unfortunate as it may be to local vendors, the port city of Sihanoukville on the southwest tip of Cambodia remains underwhelmed by tourists, and it is that sense of peace that makes a weekend here worth the modest cost of the stay. Guidebooks scoff that there's nothing to do—it's difficult to even find an Internet connection, they harrumph—but that is precisely the point. Everything else to do in Cambodia requires hiking and studying and getting up early; Sihanoukville is for the lazy or those suffering from temple overload. The four-hour, $3 bus trip from Phnom Penh is the most strenuous part.
This poor man's Thailand boasts four dazzling but desolate white-sand beaches, each sparsely dotted with shanties where locals sell water, fruit and French fries. Victory Beach is a two-minute walk from a backpacker-hotel cluster known as Weather Station Hill, where $2 rooms abound. The adventurous can hike 3 km south to Independence Beach. Sokha and Ochheuteal beaches on the south shore offer bungalows for rent and are somewhat more commercial, but not by much.
A meal at Chez Claude's is required dining in Sihanoukville. A mixed green salad with grilled shrimp and scallops and an entrée of lemon and garlic trout cost a pricey (for Cambodia) $13, but I would have paid that just for the hilltop view of the Gulf of Thailand. Be sure to prearrange a ride back to your guesthouse if you go at night because there's little traffic on this pitch-dark stretch of highway.
The peninsula, named after the revered King, is used primarily by local Khmer families and expatriates living in Phnom Penh. Most foreigners pass through en route to the ferries leading to and from the Thai resorts of Ko Chang, staying here as briefly as possible and sniffing at the less famous beaches. This is misguided arrogance—for which the small club of Sihanoukville fans are grateful.
