23 May 2009
Asean Guesthouse, Sihanoukville, Cambodia
Guesthouse
US$15
10°37'19.19"N 103°31'33.89"E
1 Room

May 2009 approx A$19

The Little Battler is getting stronger by the day, and while we're still nowhere near the levels we had last time we were in Cambodia, at 78 cents to the US dollar we've gone up more than 30% in the last 6 weeks or so. Woo-hoo!

We were dropped off in the new bus station which knocked us off-course a little bit. Heading around to the Marlin we passed the Asean and it looked brand new and as we were getting chewed to death by tuk tuk drivers and it looked about to throw it down, we stopped for a look. Good move as it turned out because the Marlin is no more, having changed hands recently.

The Asean is indeed brand new - I think we may have been the first in the room. It was basic, but had the three important things to us - a fridge, windows with fly screens and a fan as well as air conditioning. There was also a TV with the standard Cambodian 60-odd channels (about two thirds are local/Thai/Chinese).

The room was so new the hot water hadn't been hooked up, but it was so hot and humid whilst we were there that it didn't matter - the coolish shower was actually a bit of a relief.

The guesthouse is operated by a lovely young brother/sister team, one of whom has 2 of the sweetest toddlers imaginable. They did everything they could to make us comfortable, including setting up a DSL modem in the lobby so we could connect to the Internet when we wanted. We were only going to stay for one night until we found somewhere on the beach, but we ended up staying for 3 nights and heading for Kampot just to get away from the very persistent tuk tuk drivers and offers of dope.

It's not fancy, but it's clean and comfortable and everyone is very friendly and helpful. If you want to stay in downtown Sihanoukville, this is a really good place to spend a night or two.

Satellite TV, small fridge, fan AND air conditioning, cable internet access in lobby.

+855 15 798999 / +855 11 587090