Winter in SihanoukVille, Cambodia. 2010.

It's Wintertime here in SihanoukVille, Cambodia.  And it's starting to get cold!  The temperature has dropped down as low as 25 degrees (that's like 75 degrees for you Americans).  The town's starting to fill up with tourists, as the seasonal rains have stopped.

Several new places in town, including:

Cambodian Villa at Ocheteaul Beach.  A new guesthouse with swimming pool.

White House Hotel.  A new hotel in back of Victory Beach.

Okata Guesthouse on Victory Hill

Discovery Tours.  A goat farm, river tours and horse rides, BBQ, fishing, and beer, outside of town

The Blind Beggar.  A restaurant/bar downtown

Anie's.  An Aussie restaurant downtown.

Sokhom Guesthouse on Serendipity Beach.

Jam / Rich House.  Korean food by day, party all night next to Serendipity Beach's new pier.

Thida's Inn Restaurant.  across from Fortuna serving English foods and pizza

Bambula Grill Cafeteira.  A new restaurant on Ocheteaul Beach with Finnish hosts.

Douceur Du Cambodge.  A French Bakery near the market.

Cambodian Resort.  A resort with swimming pool in back of Ocheteaul Beach

Dr. Fish.  A foot massage on Ocheteaul Beach.  And the 800 doctors are small fish.

Ku Kai Japanese has a new location downtown.

Pagoda Rocks.  A mountainside bungalow resort with swimming pool.

San San.  A Khmer breakfast joint.

Sihanoukville Villa.  A small boutique hotel on Ocheteaul Beach.

White Beach Hotel with swimming pool on Ocheteaul Beach.

Hooha Guesthouse - (forgot them earlier in the year) on the 3rd street in back of Ocheteaul Beach

Galaxy Cinema - Movies and Games

Harmonia Luxury Guesthouse - on Victory Hill, with a fine restaurant

JJ's Country Kitchen & Guesthouse - Home made English foods

Khmer Broneth Resort - A quiet resort with a swimming pool

Koh Thmey Resort - an Island resort off the coast from Ream National Park

Leng Meng Guesthouse - a longtime favorite right on Serendipity Beach

Nasa Guesthouse & Lotus Massage - Just off the Golden Lions Circle

Panorama Beach Bar - a new beach bar on Serendipity Beach with lots of activites

ParaVille Paragliding - Paramotoring, and lessons too.

Polowai White Sands Guesthouse - an isolated guesthouse, on Ocheteaul Beach

PreteMama Yacht Tours - a new luxury yacht for rent by the hour or day

Rainbow Guesthouse - a budget guesthouse on Blue Mountain

Sampo Meas III Khmer Restaurant - A longtime favorite right across from Beach Club Resort

Sovann Phoum Guesthouse - another old favorite, next to Cambodian Resort on Ocheteaul

Stevie C's Sports Bar - at the Golden Lions Plaza, Ocheteaul



and Jonathan has a new book out with sketches of SihanoukVille.

You can also find over 100 videos of SihanoukVille on YouTube on the SnookyVille Channel


Other than that, everything's pretty much the same.  Christmas / New Years next month should be the busiest time of year.  Several new restaurants and hotels are going up around town as always.  A large shopping center, Pearl City, (along with 100's of homes, offices, apartments, and offices) should be open by January 2011.

SihanoukVille, Cambodia, Summer 2010

SihanoukVille's seen a lot of action this summer.

Lots of tourist from Europe, Australia and North America (not so many Mexicans) came to enjoy the rain, and surprisingly a lot of sun.  Also, several (more than a few) cruise ships docked for daily excursions.

Sokha Resort and Independence Hotels are both finishing up major expansions for the coming Winter.

Sadly, we lost part of Otres Beach, but it should be replaced with an amazing garden sometime in the next several years.  Independence Beach, outside of Independence Hotel is now open, and sports a new garden for about a kilometer stretch.

Some new businesses opened recently are:

Hanuman's Boutique near Serendipity Beach,
Victory Club on Victory Hill,
Paradise Bungalows on Koh Rong Island,
Malibu House on Serendipity Beach, and
SihanoukVille Villa Hotel near Ocheteaul Beach.

Construction continues all over town on new hotels and restaurants, housing and condo developments, and business parks.

The road to Bokor Mountain, and hour outside of SihanoukVille is almost complete, and when opened will lead to a Billion dollar plus resort with casino, golf course, several theme parks and other attractions.

Kampot town, an hour and a half from SihanoukVille is benefiting, and the town has been upgraded with new roads, street lights, walkways and gardens along the riverfront.

And SihanoukVille's sister seaside resort of Kep is still a sleepy, hilly, town on the beach, but also undergoing an upgrade as well.  The crab market on the seashore has been fixed up, and several new first class bungalows, (and tree houses) are now secluded in the hills.


Koh Kong, one of the top entrance ways to SihanoukVille, on the Thai border, has fixed up the riverside district, and is growing as a base for trips to the mountains, riverside and jungle.

 Other than that, life continues.  Now is the rainy season until the end of October.  Lots of clouds and rain, with some beautiful days in between.  Winter should be beautiful, cool days (for Cambodia) from the beginning of November 'til the end of February.

Looking forward to your visit soon!

Pacific Partnership 2010 comes to Sunny SihanoukVille, Cambodia

This week, after the USS Tortuga left the SihanoukVille Port, The American USNS Mercy and Japanese JDS Kunisaki ships arrived to participate in the Pacific Partnership 2010 mission.  Last week, the Tortuga participated in a 9 day shipboard training session with the Cambodian Navy and many training session ashore, as well as a full schedule of community service projects throughout Cambodia.

This week, over 1,000 military and volunteer medical personnel and NGO's brought world class medical care to Cambodia for a week.  They even brought a hospital the size of an oil supertanker with them. (The Mercy was actually was an oil supertanker in it's former life.)

 The USNS Mercy Hospital Ship.  Part of the Pacific Partnership 2010 mission

The teams from the ships, as well the local embassies and international NGO's (Non Governmental Organizations), also worked on community service projects throughout Cambodia.

At The Goodwill School.  SihanoukVille, Cambodia

The SihanoukVille Hospital had more patients in a week, than in a usual year. Usually not a good situation, but in this case, we'll make an exception.  Top quality medical services for free is usually a good thing.  Even Operation Smile returned for a visit.

Some travelled several days to get here, so they're glad to wait a few hours longer

at the SihanoukVille Hospital

Some of the ship's personnel took some time out to visit the Angkor Beer Brewery.  Brewed fresh, 24 hours a day, everyday, they couldn't resist sampling Cambodia's National Beer.  Made only in SihanoukVille, of course!

 International Relations are always better with a cold one in hand.

It's been a busy couple of weeks in SihanoukVille, and we're all loving it!

A Big Thanks to everyone who's helped out in the last couple weeks.

Cambodia's a much healthier and happier country for all your efforts.

VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!!!

Happy Khmer New Years 2010 from SihanoukVille, Cambodia

Happy Cambodian New Year 2010!

New Year's starts April 14th to the 16th, but really is an all week affair.  (Friday the 9th 'till Sunday the 18th)

Every room in SihanoukVille's hotels will be filled (you'll want to make reservations if possible), the beaches and islands will be filled, and everyone will be having a great time!

Some new happenings around town....

Sou Ching Hotel  is newly renovated next to the Vietnamese Consulate


Golden Lion Hotel around the golden lions circle has also been renovated


Home Sweet Home  is open near the Vietnamese Consulate

Les Merlus restaurant just opened at the old Les Rougets, (which has moved to the old Blue Frog Guesthouse)

Nomad's Land opened on Koh Totang Island


Sahara  and Safari Bars opened up on Victory Hill

Snooky Beach opened up at the end of Ocheteaul Beach, a restaurant and guesthouse.

So Ngoung Hotel is open by the Port


Splash, Cambodia's first ocean water park opened up off Ocheteaul Beach, (in the ocean)

Sunshine Beach Hotel opened up on Victory Beach

SihanoukVille's coastal sister city's of Kampot, Kep, and Koh Kong will also be booming, and Bokor Mountain National Park will be open for the New Years Week.

Happy New Year 2010 from SihanoukVille, Cambodia.

New Year's Eve 2009 in SihanoukVille, Cambodia on the beach was great!.
About 12,000 people filled the beaches and islands of SihanoukVille for an all night party.

From the top of SihanoukVille Mountain, you could see literally hundreds of thousands of fireworks, bursting in the air. (although most were very small).  The temperature was a chilling 28 degrees (that's somewhere in the 80's for Americans)

Every hotel room in town was filled up (many at triple price for those without reservations), and beds right on the beach were going for $15.

Many new places opened in SihanoukVille, in time for the new year.

* The Wall, restaurant and night club opened on Ocheteaul Beach.  With and upstairs rock 'n roll bar open all day, and a downstairs nightclub open only at night.

* Angelo's Restaurant  re-re-re-opened on Ocheteaul Beach, and is better than ever.

* Chez Fred on Victory Hill, also know as Fred's House, opened with fine French Cuisine.

* Wok Bar opened downtown, and with Tom and Bopha as your hosts, serves fine French and other cuisine.

* Aqua Resort, a 20 room hotel with a swimming pool opened near Ocheteaul Beach.

* Brown Sugar Thai Restaurant also opened right on Ocheteaul Beach

* CamboDive - Chez Claude's new creation opened an International Diving School

* Golden Spa opened up on Serendipity Beach Road


* Happy Dayz - a Bob Marley tribute bar, opened up on Victory Hill

* Juicy Ru's Juicery - another venture by Ru opened up in Utopia Plaza

* La Reserve - a resort with a swimming pool, and fine French Cuisine, opened on Victory Hill

* Le Papillon d'Or - a boutique hotel, opened up on Victory Hill

* Les Rougets - a French, Thai, Lao restaurant opened up downtown

* Snooky Beach Guesthouse opened up on Ocheteaul Beach

* Martini Pub opened up near the Golden Lion Circle

* Master Suki Soup opened up it's latest branch in Cambodia around the Golden Lion Circle

* Mo Mo's - a chill out, absynthe, hookhah smoking lounge opened at Utopia Plaza

* Moon Shack opened it's 4th B.B.Q. restaurant on Ocheteaul Beach

* Motel 7 opened up on Ocheteaul Beach

* Paradise Sport Bar opened up near Ocheteaul Beach

* Pizzana - our first fast food in SihanoukVille opened up downtown

* T'zot Genot restaurant opened on Ocheteaul Beach

What's going to happen in SihanoukVille in 2010 is anyone's guess.  There's a number of new hotels under construction, including a 1,000 room beach resort.  The airport may (or may not) open on a permanent basis.  The marina is nearing completion, and the bridge to the island formerly known as Snake Island is a least halfway done.

Several new residential housing developments are going up in and around town.  And a city within a city is sprining up behind Sokha Beach.

SihanoukVille's neighbor towns are also booming.  Koh Kong was apparently voted as one of the top 10 travel destinations by the Lonely Planet guidebook.  Kampot's riverside is brimming with new bungalows and restaurants.  Bokor Mountain is getting a 3 year facelift, starting with a new road to the peak of the mountain.  And sleepy Kep is still sleepy, but growning at about 40% a year bungalow/restaurant-wise.

Where it will stop, nobody knows.....

See You Soon!