Saturday, March 15, 2014

Relaxing in Ream Beach

Happy Saturday everyone!!  I was very happy to sleep in for a bit this morning before taking a Yoga for Runners workshop at my studio.  The workshop was just ok, and I left the studio wishing that I had just stayed in bed instead... oh well!

Earlier in the week, I did a recap of the days I spent in Siem Reap last month.  I wanted to pick up where I left off to tell you guys about the beach that we went to!!  We flew from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville and then headed to our guesthouse at Ream Beach.  It was late afternoon when we arrived, so we dropped our bags and had the guesthouse owner show us around.

View from the room

Back porch where we ate all of our meals

I spent TONS of time on this dock

This was my first time staying in guesthouse, and I have to say - I absolutely loved it!  The owner of the guesthouse, Marco, was super hospitable, and the food was delicious.  Although there were other restaurants up the road that we could have gone to, we ended up eating all of our meals at Marco's because it was just so good!

We arrived just in time for sunset

So beautiful

Our first night was pretty relaxed.  In fact, the whole time we spent at Ream Beach was incredibly laid back. We were originally only booked to stay for two nights, but once we got there, we decided pretty quickly that we should just stay there an extra night and cut out any other cities.  It was bliss.

On day two, we spent the day swimming and sunbathing under a gorgeous sunny sky.

Perched on the dock for sunset

Another thing that I loved about the guesthouse was that we became pretty friendly with the other guests that were staying there.  I guess the small accommodations make you more chatty with others?  Anyway, after dinner, we all ended up going down the road for what we thought was just some sort of festival at a temple.  As it turned out, there was a pagoda that had just been built, and the dedication of the pagoda was happening that night!

Tons of people were there.. but we were the only tourists.

They had lots of these set up around the corners of the pagoda.  You drop in some money into the square part, and then you tug on the rope.  I think it's for good luck?  Or a long life?  Or blessings?  Not sure, but it was kind of neat to see.


Inside the pagoda was a spectacle of people and colors

Outside the pagoda, a monk played with his smartphone :)

Our third day at the beach, basically everyone staying the guesthouse rented a day boat to take us out to some of the neighboring islands!

So beautiful

Before we had left, Marco had drawn us a map to let us know where there were places on the beach where we could get food and drinks.  Funny story - there was a place owned by an American couple and, next to it, a place owned by a French couple.  We stopped into the American place (Ten 103) and had a snack, some milkshakes, and a lovely chat with the girl who was working there (she's from Seattle!).  After a while, we figured we should go check out the other place, so we walked over to the French place.  We walked in, and it seemed like everyone just looked at us and then turned the other way.  We stood there for a couple of minutes, then decided that we clearly weren't welcome, so we just went back to the American place! Some would say that is pretty representative of the French haha...

The American bungalow

It was a gorgeous day

Beautiful bungalow but not very friendly.. the French place




It was so peaceful and beautiful.  I could've stayed there all day.  But after a while, we headed out into another cove so that we could do some snorkeling before heading back to the guesthouse for sunset.

Our last sunset in Ream Beach

All in all, it was an amazing couple of days at the beach.  Just what I needed to decompress and just relax!!  There is definitely something to be said about simplifying life...

The only downside to the guesthouse and the simple life was that we didn't have hot water, so I hadn't had a hot shower in days!  So you can imagine that I was very much looking forward to checking into our hotel in Phnom Penh and finally feeling clean :)  I'll post some pictures from that next time, as I think it's nice to end this post with such a peaceful picture.. hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend.

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