Day 5 - Fly, Bus, or Boat from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville?

I had a great time in Siem Rep, better than I expected actually, but it was time to move on.  The next stop was to Sihanoukville which is a backpackers beach town, home of Serenity beach and the gateway to the Koh Rong Islands.

Most travelers take the night bus, which is 11 hours and stops in Phnom Penh which is where I need to be at the end of my trip to fly out of.  The boat, after reading a few reviews turned out to be slow, uncomfortable and not recommended.  Everyone takes the bus as it's only $15.  I was tempted to do the same, but now my priorites have changed as well as my options.

Pros and Cons of taking the bus:

Pros - It's cheap.

Cons - Everything else.

Pros and Cons of Flying: 

Pros - It only takes an hour.

Cons - It's expensive.

Flying wouldn't have been an option as it was 10x the price of the bus ticket, and my time wasn't worth that much anyways.  But every since I started an online business, I figured my time is actually worth something now.  If I really wanted to, I could spend the 10 hours working instead of sitting on a bus and not only have my flight paid for bus also some reoccuring future income.

The second is my health. Sitting on a bus for 11 hours is not good for my body and more and more I realize how important my health is.  So $115 for a 1 hour flight vs $15 for an 11 hour bus ride was a no brainer for me and I'm glad I did it.  I have to remind myself not be cheap about these things, because this is exactly the reason why I've worked so hard building my ecommerce store in the first place, so I could have the travel.

Arriving at Ortes beach.

I ended up staying at a place called Mushroom Point which are mushroom themed and shaped bungalows with round beds 20 meters from the beach.  At $30 a night it was fair but the basic rooms were just okay.  I would recommend having the tuk tuk ($5 from Sihanoukville town to Ortes) drop you off at Mushroom Point or really anywhere on Ortes as it's small anyways and walking around and booking when you get there instead or booking online in advance.  

I didn't spend much time there but would go back if I was traveling with someone that I wanted to spend time with.  Other than that, I would have headed to Koh Rong sooner.  There was Stand Up Paddle Boarding for $8 an hour which was excellent fun and surprisingly a great workout!  It's like doing Yoga on a Surfboard.

Safe travels,

Johnny 

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