Beer Bars in Sihanoukville, Cambodia

The Cambodian beach town of Sihanoukville is known for three things. One thing are the beaches. Some are pretty nice. For some reason more people go to the ugly dirty beaches with black water from the city’s sewers running into them. Most of those people are the second thing the town is known for. Backpackers love the place. You see them all over the beach in elephant pants drinking cheap beer. Finally, the city is known as a home to a lot of strange expats. A mix of runaways and weirdos dominate the foreign presence. I prefer to mix with the local chicks who are the third thing the city is known for.

I’ve already told you about the beer bars in Thailand. The beer bars in Cambodia are very similar. But instead of being spread all over the country, they are all concentrated in Sihanoukville. Maybe that’s because so many people travel from Pattaya to the town. Anyway, Phnom Penh has its hostess bars and Sikhanoukville has its beer bars. There are some hostess bars in Sihanoukville, but there aren’t any beer bars in Phnom Penh. Same goes for Siem Reap. I’ll write about that city sometime soon.

There is only one area in Sihanoukville with beer bars and one or two regular bars with no sexy chicks. It is in a open complex near the Two Lions Roundabout. Everyone knows the roundabout and once you’re there you can see the bars shining in the night with their neon signs. The complex is big but a lot of it is empty. If you go in the low season as many as half the stalls are closed or totally wiped out. In the high season, which is getting into swing right now, most bars are open. At the lowest point there are probably ten or eleven bars open. Most have only one or two chicks but a few have way more. It depends on how the bosses are, how many friends they have and what kind of connections they have to other provinces. The last bit is because a lot of the “local girls” aren’t actually local at all. They come from other parts of the country. Even in Phnom Penh most of the bar girls are from the provinces. It’s still a rural country and most of the people still live in the sticks.

Sihanoukville is a pretty run down town. Hence the backpackers. Surprisingly a decent amount of hot chicks work the beer bars there. Don’t ask me why. You’d have to ask them. There are a few dogs around but they are pretty rare. There might not be that many chicks working the beer bars at night but a good percentage of them are good looking. Most of them are cool too. There’s a higher level of English than you find in Thailand. Chicks seem to smile more too, even though Thailand is the place they call the land of smiles. I’ve never seen any super model quality chicks in the beer bars but I’ve been shocked to see some very hot women around on occasion.

Women work beer bars to make money. They play pool with guys, talk to guys, and hang around with guys. They hope the guys will buy them lady drinks since they get a cut of the money. Lady drinks are only $3.50 US in Sihanoukville so it’s not big deal for most foreigners. I guess it would be too much for some of the backpackers and burnt out expats in town though. Their loss I guess. The beer bars have barfines. They are usually ten bucks. Paying that lets a lady leave a bar. After that it is up to her and whoever she is with to decide what to do. Most of the chicks in the beer bars of Sihanoukville are up for having sex with guys for money. In other words they are prostitutes. They only want twenty five dollars for that in most cases though some will ask way more, especially if they think they are with a sucker. I can’t blame them. It’s probably a tough life.

The area around the beer bars isn’t bad and I’ve never had a problem there. I’m sure it’s possible though. Some people seem capable of finding trouble no matter where they go. I’m thankfully better at finding chicks to screw.