Today’s excursion through the ship was to visit Ream National Park in Sihanoukville (See-HAN’-uk-vil), Cambodia.
We had our usual early start (6 am wakeup, 6:45 breakfast, 7:45 am meeting in the Stardust Theatre) and boarded our bus to our destination about 8:30 am. Our guide, Ray, spoke excellent English and shared all kinds of information about Cambodia. I took notes on my phone and ordinarily would double check the information (on Google or with English signs) before sharing on my blog, but sadly my Asia e-sim card doesn’t seem to work in Cambodia and I am down to 18 minutes of internet coverage with the ship. So I will share unvetted information today!
Cambodia has the Riel for currency (which we could not purchase in advance in Canada). I now know why – 80% of the currency exchanged in Cambodia is the US dollar. Only 20% of workers get paid in Riels. $1 US is equivalent to 4,000 Riel. Cambodia has a population of 17 million people and 2 million of them work in the textile industry (the ladies were happy to support that textile industry at the end of the day by buying a selection of silk scarves!)
Sihanoukville was built in 1955. That was the year the King decided to build a deep sea port (where we docked). Because Cambodia is a developing country, you can buy land first and build on it later.
Our first stop was at the Statue of Love, built in 2022. The statue height was 21 m tall with another 6 m for the pedestal.
Our second stop was at the God Shiva Statue with his wife Parvati by his side
We then headed to Ream National Park, established in 1993, the year Cambodia got their independence back.
We got to walk to the boat launch area through some beautiful beach scenery.
We boarded a little motor equipped with one captain and seated just the four of us!
We floated down the river amongst the mangroves for about 25 minutes. J saw one kingfisher and one yellow bird. No other wildlife was spotted!
We arrived at a shelter made of palm fronds, where we disembarked. We then walked along a boardwalk for about 15 minutes where the bus picked us up.
On our drive back to the ship, we stopped at a Giant Tree, which was thought to be 2,000 years old. It didn’t look as big as the Sitka Spruce on Vancouver Island – so we didn’t bother to pose for a picture with it!
Once back at the ship, we were delighted to see a couple of little stalls at the ship where they were selling souvenirs. The silk scarves were attractive and well priced!
We played Five Crowns in the Spinnaker Lounge after dinner (Deck 12 Forward) and appreciated the “Jazz Meets Latin with Sun Showband” instrumental music being performed in the background. After our two games, Jessica had a hankering for some ice cream so we went to the buffet on Deck 11. In addition to ice cream, J and Lynn shared a crepe and they all shared some freshly carved roast lamb! Pass! No thanks.
It was a fun evening! We learned that going to pick up tender tickets 20 minutes after they started distributing them, meant we collected tickets for tender number 7 in Ko Samui tomorrow!!
Just three more nights on the ship and our cruise will be done. It has been lovely.
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