Mom’s Kitchen on the Beach - the pros and cons

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The day before yesterday we ate at Mom’s kitchen on the beach, where we hang out in the day. This was a mistake. The eating part. Say no more..... And the advertised fire show didn‘t materialise. What did materialise was a singing duo, not in the first flush of youth, from Melbourne. When the guy sang on his own Sam said he sounded like a Vic Reeves lounge singer impersonator. It was just vowel sounds. What smelt and looked good was the barbecue station. You choose fish, chicken, other things and they make you a plateful up of various salad items for about 5$. It looked like a good deal. I had the amok vegetable and rice combo. A good deal, but in other respects a BAD idea. Luckily yesterday we weren’t planning to go far. See pics of the bathroom facilities and rooms at Mom’s Kitchen. Rooms are about £8 a night and to be honest, you can shower and get a night’s sleep (re is a dorm room above, open to the elements at the sideS. Not sure how much sleep you’d get there. So if you don’t mind roughing it a bit I think it would be OK there. There is a constant whiff of happy smoke, but nothing too in your face. The staff are friendly, the drinks are cheap and the sunbed cushions are fabric, so not sweaty. What more could you want? The music Is a bit hit and miss, today it was good, yesterday the French guy was in charge. One track was French rap, the next opera, then Dexy’s Midnight Runners, then the theme tune to Banana Split TV programme, all at top volume. We fled before 4pm, ears bleeding......

We were going to the night market in Otres Village last night but are going to go next Saturday instead, when feeling a bit stronger. Apparently there are lots of food stalls, music, stuff to buy, Muay Thai, a few dollars on a tuktuk to get there.

Last night the power went off so we were woken by a terrible cacophony, aka the generator. When we got back today the generator was off, no electricity at all. Showered in a dribble and wondered how we were going to charge all our stuff up before going to Koh Rong tomorrow where we’ll be lucky to get 4 hours of it a day. Now it’s on again so we are packing our small bags for 3 nights and leaving our big ones here. The pickup is from here at 8am or thereabouts, included in the ticket. We’ve seen it go past at 8.30 on other days.

We met an English couple today on a visa run from Thailand. They stay near Pattaya for 4 months of the year. They came here for a look around on a motorbike they hired for 5$ as the tuktuk is that each way, then got stopped by the police and had to pay a 5$ fine. So if the police are still there on the way back they’ll have to pay it again. The reason for the fine? Helmet not done up/ no International license/ no Cambodian license/ a small carrier bag swinging from the handlebars (in a country where people carry fridge freezers and 12 mattresses on scooters)/many more spurious and inventive reasons.

No Internet (probably) until Thursday, unless we can slide into a resort and pimp theirs, maybe even they won’t have any, so no blogging until then, or looking stuff up of any description. Yikes!

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