Sihanoukville - Serendipity Beach ( Cambodia )

 The rocky Serendipity Beach is located at the northern end of Ochheuteal Beach. You can also reach it from Sokha Beach over the small hill.




The tourist beach on the East Side. No beach stands here, just Western style bars and restaurants. One of the few places with rooms right on the beach. Many new internet shops, clothing, MP3 downloads, tour services and boat departures to the islands. Serendipity has turned into the shopping section of town.

                                                                                Serendipity Beach Resort 

                                                                                   We're a new and tastefully decorated resort hotel                                  
                                                                                located mere meters from the sands of Serendipity and Ochheuteal Beaches. We offer both double-bed rooms and single-bed rooms, with pool or ocean view.

Our large and relaxing pool is ideal for relaxing after a long day at the beach or as a refreshing way to start your day. Our rooms all have modern en-suite bathrooms with bathtub, enclosed shower with hot and cold running water and clean, modern fixtures.





We offer our guests free wi-fi, and breakfast is included in the price. Our restaurant and bar are opening soon.

Sihanoukville - Otres Beach ( Cambodia )

Outside of town, Otres is the quietest beach in town. Several small beach stands with food and umbrellas are available. There's no public electricity here yet, so many places use a generator when necessary. Also, sailboat and kayak rentals and windsurfing.

(Otres Beach is more relaxed and quiet than the other main beaches)

Otres Beach south of Ochheuteal is with its 3 km nearly white sand one of Sihanoukvilles nicest and relaxed beaches. There are restaurants and also bungalows right on the beach but it is still less developed and crowded than the other main beaches.

Otres Beach Sihanoukville

Well, it’s been awhile, but I just ran across another completely misinformed article about Sihanoukville in a major newspaper. This time it was the San Francisco Chronicle’s SF Gate. The title, Cambodia’s coast is hidden treasure, sounded promising, but the author felt knowledgeable enough to comment on Sihanoukville when he didn’t even bother to visit it. The article was about Kampot.

While there was some truth to his statement that Sihanoukville is a “chaotic beach party town,” it’s just one small section of the city that fits that description and he was completely unaware of how radically this town has changed just in the past two years.


Beach in front of Oochc

I only mention the article because it just happened to come to me today, after I spent a blissful morning at Otres Beach. It takes all of 10 minutes to get there from Ochheuteal Beach, but as you can see, it’s another world. In the past, there wasn’t much there in the way of amenities, but that’s all changed. There are perhaps a dozen bungalow-style guesthouses, some of them very nicely appointed, and dozens of restaurants. There is also a long strip of completely undeveloped beach.

Entrance to Oochc

My morning started with a cup of coffee and a chat with Dave, the Australian owner of “Oochc”, which boasts the distinction of being the “First Bar on Otres Beach.” That’s the first bar you come to on the beach, not the first established bar on the beach. Oochc is made for backpackers and has a semi-psychedelic atmosphere. Dave shows movies Monday nights and has DJs on “Psy-ville Saturdays” and “DrumF.U” Tuesday nights.


Cruising at Otres Beach

From there, I moved on down the beach, stopping first near this “home on wheels” in the middle of the long empty stretch. The guy outside playing with his juggling bowling pin looked so serene, I didn’t want to disturb him, but I parked close enough to be within earshot of the old acoustic Bob Dylan CD he was playing. It was the perfect music for the setting and set the tone for the rest of my morning.

Cinderella's at Otres

After about 15 minutes of just wandering around snapping photos, I proceeded to the very end of Otres Beach where Reiner, the owner of the lovely Cinderella Golden Lodge on Mithona Road on the Serendipity strip, has his funkier but absurdly mellow Cinderella Dive Resort & Beach Bungalows. It’s my ambition in life to stay there for a few nights, to get away from the family and recharge my batteries. Today I settled for a swim nearby and a blissful hour walking in the ankle deep water that extends for about 10 metres before getting slowly deeper.

The inland route to Otres Beach

There are two ways to get to Otres Beach. If you hire a tuk-tuk or take a taxi, you go the inland route, down a bumpy dirt road. If you go by bicycle or motorbike, you can follow the coast. After crossing the bridge at the end of Ochheuteal Beach, you go up to the grounds of the wonderful Queen Hill Resort (sorry, I don’t have a booking link) and then down a steep hill. You’ll notice a green fence at the end of an empty stretch of beach (save for Queen Hill’s great beachfront bar/restaurant. That marks the end of the land that is owned by Queenco and one day will become a mega-resort. The fence has an opening, though and you pop out on the other side right in front of Oochc.

I could jabber on forever about how mellow Otres Beach is, but I think my photos tell the story better than I can.

Sihanoukville - INDEPENDENCE BEACH ( Cambodia )

INDEPENDENCE BEACH

Independence Beach was named after the long closed down Independence hotel. Although used by weekenders it is less crowded than the other beaches. Long and narrow this beach is better at low tide. The northwest end is better because it's wider there. A seafood restaurant and fresh water lake can be found there but don't swim there as you might meet an old crocodile. A grassy park with many kinds of statues is there for your relaxation as well as a few monkeys along the road to the decaying Independence hotel.

Sihanoukville - Sokha Beach Resort ( Cambodia )

(dragon tail beach called by young people in Sihanoukville) eventhough this beach is occupied by Sokha Beach Resort but it still remains open for public as well as guests of the resort. The Sokha Beach Resort offers beachside luxury accommodation. Sokha is a beautiful beach, a crescent of sand located about one kilometer from Sihanouville downtown and comparatively wide so that there is plenty of sand left during high tide. The fine off-white sand is perfectly groomed these days, but the beach is fairly quiet by comparison to nearby Ochheuteal and Serendipity, frequented primarily but Sokha resort guests. There aren’t any little seafood shacks on Sokha like the other beaches but a series of gazebos and upscale beach bars/restaurants run by the Sokha Beach Resort.

Sihanoukville - Ochheuteal Beach ( Cambodia )

Some of these Sihanoukville beaches are crowded with beach chairs, umbrellas, bars, and people. Some are just filled with sand. A few beaches are rocky, and nice to look at, but not for swimming. From most Cambodia beaches, you can take trips to the islands, and rent boats for snorkeling and fishing.

O’Cheuteal Beach is located in Sankat No 3. large and long with white sand and shallow water, it is the most popular beach in Sihanoukville, attracting many foreigners. There are a number of food stalls along the beach, in addition to fruit and seafood vendors.

SihanoukVille - Victory Beach (Cambodia)

 At over kilometers, Victory Beach is quite long, but like Independence Beach, the sandy area is narrow, making low tide the best time. Victory two beaches divided by a rocky point and a small hill. Set at the base of the very popular Weather Station Hill, the section of Victory Beach in the area in the area of the Vietnam Cambodia Monument (Victory Monument’) is the most popular of Victory. The beach is a bit quieter and more relaxed then Ochheuteal and there are a few good beach bars and restaurants right on the sand such as Tahiti, Mari-yan Beach (offering the only pentanque court on the beach), and Map Water Sports with jet skis, boat trips and more. Victory is a particularly good sunset beach.

Victory Beach
At the bottom of "The Hill", near the port, Victory beach has quickly become the tourist beach on the West side of town. An easy walk from Victory Hill, with plenty of seafood, boating activities, guesthouses, and a full service casino. Some quiet beach in the middle, and some restaurants towards the port. Also, featuring a pier for island boat trips.

Koh Sampouch ( Cambodia island )

Koh Sampouch ( Cambodia island ) 

 Two months ago I visited the south coast with my brother Tim and one of our trips whilst we were in the area was into the Ream National Park, an area of Cambodia I'd never visited. Joining us was a good   friend of mine, Vy, who works at the Sokha Beach hotel in Sihanoukville, as we took a tuk-tuk from the town out to the National Park HQ near the airport to find out more and book ourselves a boat trip. We   hired the boat, with a pilot (also called Vy) and guide (Heang), at the nearby Prek Toeuk Sap Ranger station and headed out past the mangrove forests that occupied both banks of the river just after 10am. Tim used to be a twitcher in his youth and pointed out white-bellied sea eagles, egrets and kingfishers amongst the birds we saw as we headed out past the mainland and Koh Thmei island, reaching the quiet and secluded Koh Sampouch beach in just under a couple of hours. The boat beached for a minute for us to jump off before heading back, whilst we took refuge from the

scorching overhead mid-day sun in a small wooden open-sided hut where we ate our lunch, to the sound of waves lapping against the shore. A handful of other sun worshippers had also found this remote spot where the sand was white and soft and the setting idyllic. Small crabs scurried across the hot sand and a lizard scampered across the floor of the hut as we dipped our feet into the sea before a three kilometre hike through the tropical forest brought us to the fishing village of Thmor Thom, which also houses a dolphin-watching station. We watched the day's catch of fish being gutted before reuniting with our boat for the 2 hour ride back to the Ranger station and a return to Sihanoukville. We didn't see all that Ream National Park has to offer by any means - it has a mountain waterfall, more secluded beaches as well as a healthy population of wildlife including freshwater dolphins around the turn of the year - but we got a glimpse of this untouristed corner of the south coast before the expected developers move in and turn the coastline into a resort and hotel extravaganza.