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Published: August 9th 2006
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well..the time has almost come for me to say goodbye to PP...the tears haven't come just yet though because i've filled my last week doing loads of wicked bits and bobs..here's the latest..
rented bikes for the weekend and took ourselves off to Kandal Province (with spot-on advice from Myra ‘The Abuser’) on saturday morning for some freewheeling around some beautiful villages that typify Cambodia's rural life (life that is lived by most of the population)...a rickety boat ride across the Mekong soon woke me up at 7:30am with fears that we'd end up on 'just another casualty list' from a 'developing' country where a small passenger ferry sinks to the riverbed. ofcourse we reached dry land just fine and enjoyed a leisurely morning jaunt with arms quickly getting browner and browner and bums getting sorer and sorer (but in a very satisfying way). stopped occasionally to eat pineapple and custard apple and to take in the view of cows being washed with care by their owners in a river much fresher than the Mekong and dark young men messing around in the same water after heaving their fishing nets out on to the bank.
Saturday evening saw my
Gals...
...and katy having a strangely big shorts day farewell party at CDPO almost bring me to tears…but being the hardnut that I am, I managed to fend them off and have a fabulous time with Domi and everyone from the org. an overflowing ice box, alongside a whole cows worth of BBQ skewers and river clams ensured a merry couple of hours…and little thankyous and words of kindness from some of my friends at the org really brought it home that I have met some wonderful people…and it was wicked to be able to repay them with a huge thankyou from yours truly (which got a clap at the end as per usual after Khmer speeches!) and the material gifts of a laptop (thanks to Rob, I owe you 5 if not 10 drinks for that, they were chuffed), lots of framed photos of us all at various network meetings and day trips, and the P De La resistance being a game of Jenga that I had lugged over from the UK…it went down way better than could ever have been expected and my ears are still recovering from the screams that it drew!!
so once domi and I had crawled out of there full to the
brim, we met up with K+H for preparty drinks a cool new bar on the corner near us (our street is so lovely, a nice mix of quiet restaurants, French bars, boomboom music (how I love this place! Always emitting the sexiest sounds)) and then headed once again to the Heart of Darkness for another raving mad night of dancing and watching Kam getting chatted up by a cute MSM (Man who has Sex with Men...politically correct you see).
You’d think we’d lay off with heavy plans for the next day but no, with no time to lose we let Myra whiz us off to nearby Silk Island on motos for a morning of more picturesque countryside and serious silk shopping…most familes on the island make silk fabrics like there’s no tomorrow...but most of them only sell through a middle man (who inevitably creams most of the profits), so despite our wish to overload on silk there were only two opportunities in the whole morning (although the second one was quite overwhelming with 10+ women and their children harranging us with cries of ‘you buy from me not her!!’). during this moment of madness, I turned round to see
a small TV crew filming the event!! I’d like to remind you that we were in the middle of bloody nowhere (makes the Outer Hebrides look only slightly suburban!) and yet these Japanese guys had managed to track us down and film us being torn apart by the fracas for their documentary on handicrafts in Cambodia. Hmm…ok. Anyway…a perfectly relaxed afternoon followed once we returned to the city..Helena and I rode off to hand our bikes back near Capitol and decided to go via Sorya, our new favourite shopping plaza (the only one in PP) for more shopping, if that’s possible, and dinner at the pizza restaurant at the top (enough of being local, we needed a cheese fix!)..then wandered over to the riverfront and enjoyed leisurely drinks at the Frog and Parrot…I hope the girls there are saving my seat at the front for when I return…
Said sad goodbyes to Helena in the morning coz she was meant to be off to Siem Reap for the week only for her to turn up again later and scare the s**t out of me like an apparition…but I was chuffed really! So another ‘last’ dinner, this time on the
lake front, saw us restaurant hopping until we (or should I say I) were satisfied (Mum! You’ve given me a bad habit of being indecisive with eating establishments!). Disgusting conversations about absolutely everything taboo made sure that I’ll remember my times in PP with Domi, Ruth, Helena and Kam being filled with laughter, smiles and sometimes downright nausea.
I Love You All
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