The Easy Life Again........

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After a few days in Battembang I was happy Id seen all i needed to see but thought that I needed some beach time again so instead of headed to Phnom Phen I decieded to go straight to the beach "resort" of Cambodia Sihanoukville for a few days and to meet up with the guys id met in Siem reap,battembang.As with any travel in Cambodia,it included a hiccup.Battembang to Phnom Penn was 5 hours and no problems,a one hour wait in crazy phnom Phne bus station later I was on the 4 hour trip down the coast.3 hours later I was awoken by screaming and a HUGE "BANG" clearly the bus had crashed.We clambered off to find a french man in a bit of a state but to be hnest lucky to be alive and his 4X4 car in a mess!! somehow the right side of the bus hit his right side despite going the same way,allthough he was saying he was headed for Sihanoukville and pointing to Phnom Phen,he also had no insurance.We now had to stand around and wait for a new bus and the not so helpful Cambodian Police.We sat and watched vans with a hundred pigs hanging off or surely 500 chickens!! Until a new bus came and off to sihanoukville.I jumped in the first uest house to find id arrived at Chinese New Year and in a few days all prices would double for this so called huge event but fr now i rested and did the most important thing.Got Drunk.The beach stretches about 5k Not the best beach in teh world but not teh worst either and nice blue seas,and the most amazing sunsets.On the beach are loads of really basic beach bars,all kind of the same with a couple hotting up at night.The place feels like Thailand would have before teh White invasion.I love it here,3 days might not be enough.Even when theres lots of peope on teh beach its mostly cambodians,an dthey now how to have fun,Strangely though the buys all honld hands,thatll take some getting used to,imagine going the match holding hands with your mates!!
I hooked up with some swedish friends from siem reap and did what I wouldnt know then but would be my first of hundreds of bar crawls along this beach.I also fell in in love the the most beautiful Vietnamese girl youve ever seen who turns out to be and evil ,lying,devil woman but thats another story.We drank got stoned and went to bed.
The day after I bumped into my friends Roberto and Ronnie who id come down to meet.We were all worried about the prices going up so decided to share my room,not knowing i was getting kicked out anyway to make room for some chinese!! We eventually got somewhere.And eventually got to know more and more about Sihanoukville.We played football in the sea with some cambodian lads who loved football "youve been to the Anfield stadium!! Oh my god" and id give anyone a punch who said the supported the mancs,we slowly started to settle into our beach new beach life,i knew already it would be hard to leave.There is ALOT of begging on the beach its hard to get any peace,theres kids selling chips,bracelets,fruit,some tell you stories how they cant go home or that they get beat up if they dont sell,but these kids are clever they know how to bleed the tourists and why not,,,for a few of our many dollars.Slowly weve learnt who the real clever ones are and I dont give anythig to the over aggresive ones.Also there is LOTS of begging from amputees and the like its pretty harsh some of the things you see,People dragging themselves up and down the beach in the hope of a few dollars minus their legs.People holding babies,people holding handicapped relatives.One that really got to me at first was a blind guy who gets led by his little girl who must be 6 years old max.Shes the most beautiful little girl youve ever seen but what type of life is that.Walking in th heat begging with her father all day,I made a habit of calling her over and giving her some money but sometimes youd see her stop and watch the kids play clearly wanting to play ,then carrying on leading her dad down the beach.Theres even oneblind guy who walks with a dog carrying a bucket!! we later found out he drives a moto home!! sly bastard.But youve gotta give it to him.....cant sing for shit though.
Before the real lazieness kicked in we did make it out to Bamboo Island,not to dissimilar to any other island youve been but had a real laid back and undeveloped feel.A little bar in the middle and harldy anyone there.A million miles from the Thai islands,Stupidly we forgot our shoes and the walk to the other beach was one of the most painful experiences of my life,like hot lave.the floor was scorching.We would run for maybe 10 seconds like a lille girl accross a playground to stop and scream in agony.Until eventually getting to the water .thank you buddha! Bumped into the swedish guys and gal again whos actually rented someones house on the island for 10 dollars and eat with them etc.The family actually slep outside hammocks despite there being a storm!! making my freinds feel pretty damn guilty!! A rush across the hot floor towards the boat was greeting by 10 cambodian chilren saying "Hello Mr" and handing you some flowers.Its mad You wave to any children instantly their faces light up and all start to wave back joyously......So that would be my most eventful day for some time.The chinese new year was shite!! Some chinese firing gay fireworks on a beach for an hour wed go out to party and everywhere was dead,double rates for this!! pah We also slowly learnt theres only usually one of 5 bars on the beach full and its best to stay there and that would soon become our only but most important decision the day!!

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