Sihanoukville made its name, and then rather lost the run of itself, in a few short years of casino building. Otres is where the coast remembers what it was before. A ten-minute drive south of the cranes and the neon, two long beaches of soft pale sand run down to calm, shallow water, and the pace drops to something close to a standstill.
Otres 1 and Otres 2
The two beaches share a name and a mood but keep slightly different company. Otres 1 is the livelier of the pair, a loose string of beach bars, guesthouses and seafood shacks where the music stays gentle and the hammocks outnumber the sunbeds. Otres 2, a short walk south, is quieter again, the kind of place where the biggest decision of the afternoon is whether to swim before or after lunch. Between them the sand is wide and clean, and the sunsets face the right way.
The long, slow day
There is not a great deal to do here, which is the entire point. You swim, you read, you walk the length of the beach and back, you watch the fishing boats come in. As the light goes, the bars put candles on the tables and someone, somewhere, lights a fire on the sand. Dinner is whatever came off the boat, grilled over coals and eaten with your feet in the sand.
Otres Market and beyond
In season, the little Otres Market gathers a few evenings a week, a cluster of food stalls, music and handmade things that draws travellers up off the beach for an hour or two. Beyond that, Ream National Park and the off-grid islands are an easy hop away, so Otres makes a comfortable base for the wilder corners of this coast.
How to be here
Come for longer than you plan to. Otres rewards the traveller who settles in rather than ticks off, and the days here have a way of folding into one another. Bring cash, a book you have been meaning to finish, and no particular agenda.