sihanoukville

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today greg and i rented a motorbike and decided to drive around. the beach area here is clustered with guesthouses and beach-front bars and restaurants. it is not really developed: there are no large high-rise hotels, most things are one story or less, but even so, it is clearly constructed as a tourist area, and we wanted to get out more to where the real cambodians dwell.

given that kids are seeming to just effortlessly pick up english from travellers and from study in school, and given the cheap prices, and the allure of ancient and modern sites of interest (killing fields, prison camps, angkor wat), cambodia definitely seems to have the potential to start its tourism industry booming in the near future. it is really impressive how well these kids speak english. and it isn't in the halting forced way of people who learn from textbooks. they understand slang and jokes, and speak confidently. it is very impressive.

since we enjoyed our bicycle ride in siem reap, along those dirt roads, we decided to find another dirt road to explore. unfortunately, our first dirt road lead to a quarry, another lead to a construction area, and others lead to dead ends. these cambodian dirt roads, like all the others so far, were more like small mountain ranges than roads, with all the bumps and potholes. we even took a nice spill down a steep part of the road. i can't forget the one image frozen in my mind, the moment when greg dove off, and i could see him in front of me, his arms straight out, and i thought, "i can see the bottom of his feet. i think we are going to crash." no one was hurt, not even the bike.

we did find one area that was pretty cool, with small shacks and colorful laundry hung out on lines. we met a bunch of kids who had gathered to fish in a small murky stream.

other than that, more time relaxing on the beach. we plan to go back to phnom penh either tomorrow or the next day to see the killing fields.

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