Sihanoukville

---

SO... I'm alive after contracting the T -Virus (Travelers Diarrhea) and bed-ridden for 3 days!!! I Arrived in Sihanoukville on Thursday evening and met up with a few people after being funneled to the GST guesthouse in the resort by the Remok drivers, good rooms for 5$ per night so I was not complaining. The general consensus so far in this part of Asia is that the travelers accommodation is not your typical hostel/dorm room types as you would expect but guest houses and cheap hotels offering private rooms and facilities which is fab.

Friday

The next day was when all the fun began in more ways than one, I spent the morning lazing on the beach and had a great beach BBQ in the evening watching fireworks and chilling out with 25cent beers. What more could you ask for? But SHNV has it! A great way to end the day was to head to some of the more established bars in town. I went back to the guesthouse for a shower and that was when the end of my great day became the beginning of 3 days in agony!!
I immediately grabbed the bottled of water I had been drinking out of all day only to find on closer inspection a tiny burn mark and melted plastic!! It was tap water!! there are some pretty complex ways the Cambodians manage to get around the security seal on the bottled water out here and it looked like I was victim to one of them, I should have been suspicious when the bottle was overly full.

With out going into to all the detail, It was very painful with stomach cramps so intense that they creased me up every time into a tight ball. My room was 25 degrees but I was shivering cold and the dreams I had were out of this world!! My mind kept thinking that this had been done on purpose, it was very freaky!!

I paid a Remok driver to get me some medication and he brought back some great stuff which within 24 hours had me feeling great!! just wish I had done that earlier rather than trying to brave it out.

So back in the room! from my mild epidemic in the travelers world I hit the beach today and yet again had another lazy day this time however rather than the poxy room feeling sorry for myself I swapped that for a sun lounger and Mojito followed by a full day reading my new book conveniently called "The Backpacker"

It's a shame that my health has put me back during my stay but Sihanoukville it is an amazing place and in 5 years time will be completely different at the rate Cambodian tourism is booming, so best to see it now whilst you can before the Amercians open up a naval base here and tourism hits off big time.

Just one more day on the beach tomorrow and then taking the overnight bus out of Cambodia and into Vietnam and Ho Chi Min City.

My time in Cambodia has been great and every tale, rumour and horror story I heard about this country was totally untrue. The Cambodians are honest (not at the boarder), friendly and extremely caring. You meet many poor people but they never curse if you don't pay up unlike in Thailand. But what has to be said that this country has the most amount of smiley people I've ever seen in my life which is hard to contemplate considering what they have.

So see you in Saigon

---