sihanoukville
It had been a while since I got to a beach so when Larry made the suggestion, I was pretty keen. Partly because it was one of the few decent roads in Cambodia and the journey would be only four hours. I wasn't disappointed, the beaches were fantastic. Clean white sand, lovely warm waters and sorching tempatures.
I was so determined to make my first plunge that I ran in to the water with my wallet still in my back pocket. It had taken three dips before I realised 'hold on, where's me wallet?'. I had 80 dollars in it (50 belonging to Larry) and my cards. What a pain in the ar*e! It must have been 30 minutes at least before I realised what I did. There followed a comedy of trying to find my wallet in the sea!! I needed googles. Instead I had to rely on the touch of my feet and my limited open-eyed, under-water thing. After a number of attempts, a French couple realised my distress and asked what the problem was. It turned out that whenever they went into the sea, they were ever vigilant for some kind of sea-shell or such like. I wasn't really listening. Then he dived under and came up with my wallet. He had been standing on it. Holy cow!
After that I was careful. The seaside town is named after a former king. It was a huge gun running centre during the Vietnamese war. Now it's turned to toursim. It's still in its infancy as a resort (which is good) and the French provide the bedrock of the businesses catering for tourists. We stayed intially at a place called Victory Hill but the pedophile-business is alive and well there. We left for another beach the next day. It's an acknowledged problem. The government has many posters and bill boards issuing warnings. It still seems to be an open activity. The posters advise a hotline to call if one should note wrong doing but apparently the hotline is staffed by Cambodian speakers only!
My intention had been to stay three days but it ended up being ten days. Maybe it was the 'happy shakes', 'happy pizzas' or maybe it was simply a very chilled out and relaxing time. Also, it was a great experince to be there for the Lunar New Year and get drenched in water by everyone (mainly kids, armed to the teeth with water-bombs and water gun), everywhere I went. My face was dabbed with coloured flour on a couple of occasions and the perpetrators ran off laughing. These are the customs of the Lunar New Year. Eventaully, I bought myself a big water gun for defense and revenge!!
My only regret is shouldering in the door of my room one night as I thought Larry had gone AWOL with the key (happy pizza!) but in fact, he was 5 minutes behind me. I'm not the patient type. Fortunately the hotelier didn't discover. If he had used the door handle it would have come off in his hands and the door was properly wrecked on the hinges. Bad behaviour, I know but better to bash a door than someone's head, I say.
I was so determined to make my first plunge that I ran in to the water with my wallet still in my back pocket. It had taken three dips before I realised 'hold on, where's me wallet?'. I had 80 dollars in it (50 belonging to Larry) and my cards. What a pain in the ar*e! It must have been 30 minutes at least before I realised what I did. There followed a comedy of trying to find my wallet in the sea!! I needed googles. Instead I had to rely on the touch of my feet and my limited open-eyed, under-water thing. After a number of attempts, a French couple realised my distress and asked what the problem was. It turned out that whenever they went into the sea, they were ever vigilant for some kind of sea-shell or such like. I wasn't really listening. Then he dived under and came up with my wallet. He had been standing on it. Holy cow!
After that I was careful. The seaside town is named after a former king. It was a huge gun running centre during the Vietnamese war. Now it's turned to toursim. It's still in its infancy as a resort (which is good) and the French provide the bedrock of the businesses catering for tourists. We stayed intially at a place called Victory Hill but the pedophile-business is alive and well there. We left for another beach the next day. It's an acknowledged problem. The government has many posters and bill boards issuing warnings. It still seems to be an open activity. The posters advise a hotline to call if one should note wrong doing but apparently the hotline is staffed by Cambodian speakers only!
My intention had been to stay three days but it ended up being ten days. Maybe it was the 'happy shakes', 'happy pizzas' or maybe it was simply a very chilled out and relaxing time. Also, it was a great experince to be there for the Lunar New Year and get drenched in water by everyone (mainly kids, armed to the teeth with water-bombs and water gun), everywhere I went. My face was dabbed with coloured flour on a couple of occasions and the perpetrators ran off laughing. These are the customs of the Lunar New Year. Eventaully, I bought myself a big water gun for defense and revenge!!
My only regret is shouldering in the door of my room one night as I thought Larry had gone AWOL with the key (happy pizza!) but in fact, he was 5 minutes behind me. I'm not the patient type. Fortunately the hotelier didn't discover. If he had used the door handle it would have come off in his hands and the door was properly wrecked on the hinges. Bad behaviour, I know but better to bash a door than someone's head, I say.
posted by Ciarán at 9:00 a.m.
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