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Published: August 2nd 2008
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Sihanoukville, another place that encourages all night benders and and countless days of beach bumming, in fact it not only encourages it, it demands it! the beaches here are not bad, serendipity being busier than victory beach where u can relax in the sun relatively untroubled by the countless children selling various souvenirs and such (persistent is not a strong enough word here), although the actual beach itself is less impressive than serendipity, it is tranquil. this small town boasts a humble cinema where u can hire out the back room privately ($5 an hour between 5/6 people is pretty reasonable) and choose from the american owners extensive DVD collection. a string of restaurants that double up as guesthouses or vice versa are relatively cheap at $5 a night with own bathroom and TV, all of which are well within walking distance to the beach.
i will also make this blog relatively short and sweet as i now need to write about Saigon/Ho Chi Minh that i have just left and am desperately trying to keep on top of it.
So, 6 or 7 hours bus jouney from Siem Reap i arrived at the bus terminal to be attacked (as usual)
sunset of the trip
i think that about everyone i see tho by a barrage of tuk tuk drivers and also motorbike drivers offering various accomodation. being that the tuk tuk drivers wanted $6 for me and 2 dutch girls i had met on the bus and the moto drivers only wanted $1 it made more sense to jump on the back and see what he had to offer. we were taken to a Guesthouse with reasonable rooms for $4 and after trying to haggle for $3 (i was still in Israely mode) the rooms were taken leaving only ones that smelt badly of damp! luckily just behind them was a guesthouse of the same name with nicer rooms with TV but for $5 (haggling proved to be a pointless exercise) and i checked in.
kate and Jess were somewhere in the area and i had facebooked them for their location so i checked the net for their whereabouts and went off to find them. they were with their friend James that i had met briefly in Phenom Penh and had heard that a bar nearby was throwing a 'full moon party' so we went to check it out. we discovered a relatively empty bar with music quiet enough to talk over,
got a couple of buckets and decided to see what happened. now if my memory serves me correctly and this may not be the case i think this was the night that we decided to head bk to Monkey Republic met up with Sarah and Jon that we had met in Phenom Penh who were with their friends Rich and Ollie and continued on to the beach. there are around 3 bars on the beach that stay open all hours which was a good job coz at 8am we were still going. the girls came across a Cambodian girl that had apparently taken some drugs of some sort and was talking about commiting suicide, Jon caught wind of this and as the girl ran into the sea Jon followed to see if she was ok. however after a minute or so we realised that Jon was calling for help and appeared to be drowning, i ended up stripping down to my boxers running into the sea to see if he was ok, attempted to hold him afloat and swim back to shore but started swallowing a lot of water and pretty much drowning myself. instead i said to him that
he would have to swim but that i would stay close to him and we finally got back to the shore despite the current trying to drag us out. Jon had swallowed a lot of water and was throwing up but we got him back to his hotel room and luckilly he was ok. the next morning (i say morning it was the afternoon/ early evening) we found out that 2 Cambodian children had drowned no more than a couple of hours later and Jons claim that i saved his life suddenly held slightly more weight (i'm still sticking to the fact that u swam back yourself and saved your own life, but i am extrememly grateful fot the ring nonetheless........ and the 'i love China' head band LOL) sorry, private joke, i digress!
the rest of my stay in sihanoukville coninued pretty much in this fashion on most nights (minus the drama) with the days spent either on the beach or in the cinema. Ollies birthday was a particular night to remember for various reasons and of course Ollies Last night before he flew home being another excuse to continue the debauchery, this was another one that lasted until
sunrise on the beach!
Kate and Jess headed off to Siem Reap and me, Sarah, Jon, Rich and Ollie spent a day snorkling to a remote island that played the most herendous music from a loudspeaker constantly. we think it may have been to do with what we gathered was a funeral procession, as we saw what looked like a casket being carried through the village but we couldnt be sure. we also found out why there wasnt many dive shops in Cambodia......... there isnt really much to see........... except urchins!
We had heard that Kampot was supposed to be nice so me, Sarah, Jon and Rich booked a bus and of we went. a couple of hours drive south east and we found a sleepy little town next to a river with so little to do that the local map actually has "evening fruit shake street vendours" as a feature. the only reason to really visit kampot was to visit the 'ghost town' at Bokhor Hill Station (the french once thought that Kampot would be the next big holiday desination and set about building a casino and hotels etc only to abandon the idea, leaving the buildings to deteriorate
creating a supposedly very eerie ghost town) but as it was rainy season the path was closed unless we wanted to pay $50 each which included a bribe for the ranger........... we declined. we spent one rainy night here and caught a tuk tuk to Kep the next day.
so from the land of pepper and not much else (Kampot is famous for its pepper and apparently at one time no respecable French restaurant would be without it) we arrived at an even more remote town next to the sea with a filthy beach who's sand was extracted and transported from sihanoukville some years ago...... and it showed. we spent the day walking to the 'beach' from our hotel (with sea view for $10) accompanied by 2 dogs that didnt leave our side, were attacked on the way by some other street dogs and even chased the tuk tuk as long as their little legs would carry them for on the way back, after our efforts to get them in the tuk tuk with us failed. we ended up at a little place called Elderado by early afternoon, ate, bought a bottle of Vodka and played jenga before heading on
Victory Beach
this is the same beach as in the other photos to a bar close to our hotel. it turned out that the bar was showing a documentary about the secret war in Laos where the U.S dropped 2 tonnes of bombs a day on them in an attemp to dispel the advancing vietnemese looking to convert the neutral buffer zone that was Laos to communism. the reality was that the vietnemese hid in tunnels under Lao villages and despite the consequences the Americans bombed the shit out of them killing (the figure of 3 million sticks in my head) innocent Lao whilst the rest of the world remained oblivious. the director of the documentary was also present and me and rich sat and spoke with him for a while after about this enlightening piece of film, after a couple of Americans were seemingly offended and left.
so the next day after a tuk tuk, a motorbike, 2 numpteys at the border who screwed up my visa from what i can only assume was to avoid filling out a form, a 2 hour bus followd by a 6 hour bus and we were in Ho Chi Minh/Saigon, where we caught another taxi to the centre and finally booked into a hotel
for the start of another adventure!
it is now my plan to curb my excessive consumption of toxins and take time out to immerse myself in Vietnemese culture, although i discovered last night that the local beer costs 15p a pint so time will tell 😊
i plan to write my blog on Saigon pretty soon while it is still fresh so until then MUCH LOVE, spk soon!
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the soul cultivator
Claire Hall
A big well done for saving your mates life, its a very scary ordeal....but what happened to the Local 'suicide' girl was she ok?